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.
