Opinion: Faith is the greatest motivation to prevent climate change

Last month, wildfires from Canada spread hazy skies along the East Coast as far as Washington, D.C., and Alaska experienced unprecedented landslides. This month, record-warm ocean temperatures throughout the Atlantic threaten an active second half of hurricane season. The impact of climate change is unrelenting, which is why we are relentlessly committed to addressing the issue.

Our work is largely motivated by our faith and the morals our faith inspires. And we are deeply concerned about the changes happening and to come.

Scientists forecast Earth warming about 6 degrees Fahrenheit and seas rising about 2.5 feet by 2100. The planet will care for itself, but it will be different. Homes have already been and will continue to be destroyed by hurricanes and wildfires. And many more will become uninsurable, leading to the potential for the greatest loss of wealth since the Great Depression. Millions of people will be displaced as parts of the world become uninhabitable. As the world changes, human life will no longer be stable.

For years, we have advocated for policies to reduce greenhouse gas emission to reduce these risks, but we have not made the necessary progress. Emissions are still increasing. Many still work to keep the rise in average global temperature to only 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius). We respect their work, but that goal is slipping away. Yet many people do not want to discuss an average global temperature increase of 6 degree Fahrenheit, which is understandable — it would feel like defeat.

But we cannot give up. More and more of God’s children around the world need us, as they will be subject to more extreme heat and heat-related illnesses; be increasingly exposed to vector-borne diseases like Lyme disease, malaria and dengue fever; and experience food and water insecurity more often. These are among the causes of forced displacement globally. In 2019, one person was forced to relocate every two seconds . Imagine what that statistic will be in 10, 20, 30 years. The reality is our hope of staving off the worst consequences has faded and may soon disappear.

Although climate change is mostly self-inflicted, people are unprepared for the consequences. According to The Lancet , “climate change is the greatest global health threat facing the world in the 21st century.” Ignoring the nearly 8 billion people who are and will continue to suffer physically and emotionally due to this issue would be one of the most egregious affronts to our faith and morals.

So, we need to mitigate the changes coming or adapt to them or both. Currently, we are not adapting or mitigating adequately. Our failure to do both threatens more and more human life. While we must continue to reduce carbon pollution, we must emphasize preparing for the consequences of our failures. It is simply a moral imperative to defend the lives already threatened by climate change. But adapting will become harder, even more so than stabilizing the environment.

Our faith-filled hope insists we keep working on the first option: Reduce carbon pollution, shed petty self-interest and act in time to avoid the worst. However, we are simply too late to prevent harm to so many of God’s children. So, we must prepare. It would be immoral not to.

Alex Flint is the executive director of the Alliance for Market Solutions and a member of the of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Rev. Mitchell C. Hescox is the president emeritus of the Evangelical Environmental Network.