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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
understandable and useful, January 20, 2010
This review is from: A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions (Hardcover)
The faith in the "faith-based decisions" of the title is narrowly cast as the religion of American Christians who favor a literal interpretation of the Bible. Hayhoe and Farley stake out their territory early -- "We don't worship the earth. We worship the Creator of the universe." However, they also proclaim that they "believe in common sense," and that's where they make a valuable contribution toward bringing current climate science into the average person's living room. Instead of arguing about whether the earth is only a few thousand years old or billions, they look at the scientific evidence for global warming and counter some popular misconceptions about what the studies actually show and where areas of uncertainty remain. The book's largish print, punchy sentences, and full color charts keep the technical information accessible and help readers understand that disagreement among scientists about the details - such as why northern ice caps are melting faster than expected -- doesn't mean there is gross disagreement about the general arc of climate trends. And for the reader who remains unconvinced of the reality of global warming, they suggest a medical analogy: If your doctor said you had symptoms of early signs of a serious illness, wouldn't you want to do what you could to prevent the full onset of that illness?
Much environmental advocacy stops there and says, in effect, humans made the mess, so we are obligated to clean it up. That's not a very inspiring or motivating message. Hayhoe and Farley take a different tactic, one that could be emulated by any faith community using the language of its own holy teachings. They base their call for action not on the guilty conscience of the materialistic West, but on the need for compassion. Hayhoe's research on the possible effects of global warming paints a dismal picture of the potential suffering that billions of the world's poorest could face. The obligation on Christians, they argue, is to stop being ignorant or indifferent about climate change and to act, even if it's in just some small way: "Doing something, anything, about climate change is a step in the direction of caring for people." The book offers a very lean menu of suggested actions - use less heat and electricity, swap out incandescent bulbs for fluorescents, take your own shopping bags to the store, replace worn-out appliances and cars with more efficient models. The reader who has become motivated to act may be disappointed that more ideas aren't offered, but additional resources for environmentally smart living are listed in the back of the book.
For the final contrarian holdouts, the book concludes with reasons why efforts to slow the effects of climate change do not have to be expensive, anti-development, destructive to the economy, or dependent on technology that hasn't been invented yet. True global warming skeptics probably would never make it to those final pages, but the arguments may be helpful to readers seeking a way to justify to their friends why they've started lightening their footprint on the earth.
I give extra points for the discussion questions in the back that make this a potential small group study aid. Also, to keep the flow of the text clean, the authors avoided footnotes and endnotes, but readers who want to know more will find all their sources listed at the end of the book, including dozens of current scientific articles.
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9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Recommended, October 27, 2009
This review is from: A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions (Hardcover)
I am a scientist who had the pleasure of reviewing this book as it went to press. Written by a climate scientist and an evangelical pastor, "A Climate for Change" clearly explains the science and the urgency of global warming in a way that I hope will resonate with Christian readers.
The book makes it clear that global warming is a scientific reality, not something driven by a political agenda. Furthermore, the authors drive home the point that doing something about global warming is "a step in the direction of caring for people". Quite simply, fighting global warming is the right thing to do.
I hope this well written, visually appealing and morally powerful book reaches a wide audience.
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8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good background; aimed at the non-scientist; clear and easy to follow, November 5, 2009
This review is from: A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions (Hardcover)
This is a good resource for information about what we can know about global warming and it's likely causes, presented in simple, straightforward terms, and interspersed with a solid biblical basis for why we should educate ourselves and why we should care. Basic historical, ecological, and geological data are presented and compared by a qualified scientist and evangelical pastor; the current state of consensus is presented; and predictions of 10 or 20 years ago are compared to actual changes and to updated predictions of the past few years.
If you really want to respond to this issue as a Christian (and you MUST), this book gives you the information you need to help choose a Christian response. Also a good resource for discussing these issues with family members and those Christians you know who still don't buy the idea that humans might actually be destroying the incredible gift God gave us to live on.
Highly recommended.
Two criticisms: 1) they seem to spend more time than is necessary in hammering home the main points, sometimes referencing backup data more again. As an engineer and scientist, this may just be my impatience to get to the conclusions/recommendations once I'm on board with the facts and statistics, so someone less knowledgable of the background info provided may not find it repetitive. 2) I really wanted to get to the 'how do we respond' bit, but this part turned out to be a bit weak. Yes, it lists a lot of things an individual or family can do, but not much sound theological reasons for any of them, and a bit of a "if you do anything, it's better than nothing" kind of recommendation. Still, the info is there for anyone who really wants to use it.
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