For God’s Sake, Do Something!

This paper aims to reveal the common ground shared by the world’s major religions in their approaches to environmental issues in general, and climate change in particular. It begins with an analysis of the three major Abrahamic religions of Christianity, Islam and Judaism, and then examines Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and indigenous cosmologies. For each religion, the paper considers the evidence for an environmental ethic within its beliefs and teachings, and highlights statements from religious leaders and organisations that explicitly address climate change. The conclusion draws together the underlying themes and principles that unite the world’s major religions in their thinking about climate change and the planet’s ecological future. Despite some differences between religions (some are more anthropocentric while others are more biocentric), there is general agreement on four key points: human-induced climate change is real and needs to be tackled now; the problem of climate change has partly resulted from human greed and a culture of over-consumption; by damaging the environment humans have sinned or acted immorally in the eyes of God or the cosmic order; and religious believers have a religious responsibility to take action. Thus while we live in a world in which it is far more common to speak of religious conflict than religious harmony, the common ground between religions on climate change provides unexpected potential for religious cooperation and mutual understanding. However, the lack of practical action to date on climate change by many religions makes it difficult to endorse the claim that God is Green.