The document discusses the relationship between Christianity, particularly Christian fundamentalism, and environmental policy in the United States. It provides historical context on how interpretations of passages from Genesis have been used to support both environmental domination and stewardship. It also outlines the rise of the "Wise Use" movement in opposition to environmental regulations and protections. This movement had ties to industry groups and found common cause with the Christian Right and Republican party to advocate for reduced environmental regulation during the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations. The document examines the complex interplay between religious ideology and politics in shaping American environmental policy.
Presented at the March 26, 2015 SEPS-GC meeting at CCSU. The focus is on the nature-based forms of discrimination that form social discriminations and lead us to issues of unsustainability. This is a modified presentation from my NAME presentation in November 2014.
The Neoliberal Colonization on Nature and Our Deep Ecological Selves
Presented at the National Association of Multicultural Educators Annual Conference in November 2014 in Tucson, AZ.
Reflection on a painted flower on a stone of a house of a camp of Palestinians in the West Bank in analogy with the new goals of the millennium and the new climate agreement
Psychological and Spiritual Impacts of Climate ChangePanu Pihkala
Presentation at the European Christian Environmental Network Assembly in Helsinki, 12.6.2016. It deals with the challenge of eco-anxiety and environment-related depression especially from the point of view of Christian churches.
The Kazakhstan's architecture of this Century is a peculiar phenomenon. The trend of active involvement in the World architectural process for Kazakhstan architecture emerged in the last quarter of the 20th century. Now the Kazakhstan architecture – an integral part of this process.
Many foreign architects involved in the design of objects on the Kazakhstan territory; Kazakhstan's architects work in different countries. This promotes deep interpenetration of creative concepts.
This formed the phenomenon of Kazakh architecture of the 21st century. It is organically connected to the cultural and historical identity of the Region and global processes of creative interpretation of forms, which are characteristic of World architectural process in general.
To illustrate this interesting phenomenon allocated 144 (72 + 72) typical examples of 2000-2015's buildings.
Examples are distributed in chronological order of the construct completion.
Images sources are indicated directly near with illustrations on each page.
Architects and companies listed on the basis of aggregate data from different sources (for some objects from various sources indicate different authors). About some buildings listed authors in the available sources has not yet been found.
The Author expresses his gratitude to Internet resources – https://www.google.com ; https://www.wikipedia.org – which to provide the ability to collect an information.
This Album generated for information purposes of the Educational course "The Modern architecture (21st century)".
The front cover:
The Acqualina Sunny Isles Condos., Sunny Isles, Florida, USA, 2006 (Arch. Robert M.Swedroe – Robert M.Swedroe Architects & Planners) – Photo by K.I.Samoilov, 2014.
The Six-storey house, Europolis complex, Kazakhstan, 2008 (Arch. Konstantin I.Samoilov – BC Europolis) – Photo by K.I.Samoilov, 2015.
Presented at the March 26, 2015 SEPS-GC meeting at CCSU. The focus is on the nature-based forms of discrimination that form social discriminations and lead us to issues of unsustainability. This is a modified presentation from my NAME presentation in November 2014.
The Neoliberal Colonization on Nature and Our Deep Ecological Selves
Presented at the National Association of Multicultural Educators Annual Conference in November 2014 in Tucson, AZ.
Reflection on a painted flower on a stone of a house of a camp of Palestinians in the West Bank in analogy with the new goals of the millennium and the new climate agreement
Psychological and Spiritual Impacts of Climate ChangePanu Pihkala
Presentation at the European Christian Environmental Network Assembly in Helsinki, 12.6.2016. It deals with the challenge of eco-anxiety and environment-related depression especially from the point of view of Christian churches.
The Kazakhstan's architecture of this Century is a peculiar phenomenon. The trend of active involvement in the World architectural process for Kazakhstan architecture emerged in the last quarter of the 20th century. Now the Kazakhstan architecture – an integral part of this process.
Many foreign architects involved in the design of objects on the Kazakhstan territory; Kazakhstan's architects work in different countries. This promotes deep interpenetration of creative concepts.
This formed the phenomenon of Kazakh architecture of the 21st century. It is organically connected to the cultural and historical identity of the Region and global processes of creative interpretation of forms, which are characteristic of World architectural process in general.
To illustrate this interesting phenomenon allocated 144 (72 + 72) typical examples of 2000-2015's buildings.
Examples are distributed in chronological order of the construct completion.
Images sources are indicated directly near with illustrations on each page.
Architects and companies listed on the basis of aggregate data from different sources (for some objects from various sources indicate different authors). About some buildings listed authors in the available sources has not yet been found.
The Author expresses his gratitude to Internet resources – https://www.google.com ; https://www.wikipedia.org – which to provide the ability to collect an information.
This Album generated for information purposes of the Educational course "The Modern architecture (21st century)".
The front cover:
The Acqualina Sunny Isles Condos., Sunny Isles, Florida, USA, 2006 (Arch. Robert M.Swedroe – Robert M.Swedroe Architects & Planners) – Photo by K.I.Samoilov, 2014.
The Six-storey house, Europolis complex, Kazakhstan, 2008 (Arch. Konstantin I.Samoilov – BC Europolis) – Photo by K.I.Samoilov, 2015.
"U.S. Neoconservatism, Education and the Critique of Liberalism.'
Neoconservatism is a US phenomenon that at one level represents a historical and ideological reaction to the sixties counter cultural revolution that established new freedoms for Blacks, students, women, gays, and 'cultural minorities'.
The presentation also charts the significance of education as a battleground against multiculturalism and as a basis for a resocialization and neoconservative remoralisation of education.
Humans and the environmentLECTURE 1Environment and P.docxsheronlewthwaite
Humans and the
environment
LECTURE 1
Environment and Policy
Dr Aideen Foley [email protected]
Objective
Explore environmental policy with
an emphasis on the actors and
values that shape it.
Key content
Environmental and social principles
relating to policy-making
Regulatory, market-based and non-
legislative policy tools.
Environmental policy challenges,
successes and failures
Module
overview
1. Humans and the environment
2. Environmental principles
3. Social principles in
environmental policy-making
4. Environmental governance and
participation
5. Fundamentals of sustainability
6. Environmental regulation
7. Environmental issues as market
problems
8. Environment and business
responsibility
9. Climate change policy
10. Climate change ethics
Module
overview
Assessment
2 x 3500 word learning journals.
1 question to consider each week.
Critical thinking is key.
1-5 due by 6pm, November 12th
6-10 due by 6pm, January 14th
Assignment clinics:
Lectures 5 and 10.
Humans and the Environment
How do people ‘value’ the environment?
How do people perceive environmental risk?
Key concepts
▪ Environmental worldviews
▪ Cultural Theory of risk
▪ Political economy of risk
Why does this matter?
If we consider misplaced values and
perceptions as one cause of
environmental problems, we need to
understand theoretical frameworks that
attempt to explain peoples’
relationships with the environment in
order to respond to that.
1. Environmental worldviews
Environmental values, like all psychological and social constructs,
are found ‘within’ human individuals, institutions and societies,
and find expression and representation across all human
activities, relationships, and cultural products.
Reser, J.P. and Bentrupperbäumer, J.M., 2005. What and where are environmental values? Assessing the
impacts of current diversity of use of ‘environmental’and ‘World Heritage’values. Journal of Environmental
Psychology, 25(2), pp.125-146.
Ecocentric
The person is not above or
outside of nature. E.g. Deep
ecology, eco-feminism.
Biocentric
Does not distinguish
between humans and other
life on Earth.
Environmental worldviews
Commonly shared beliefs that give groups of people a sense
of how humans should interact with the environment.
Anthropocentric
Humans should manage
Earth's resources for our
own benefit. E.g. Planetary
management, stewardship,
‘no-problem’.
“…sowing and planting of trees had to
be regarded as a national duty of
every landowner, in order to stop the
destructive over-exploitation of
natural resources…”
John Evelyn (1662), English writer, gardener and diarist
Planetary management
“It is a well-provisioned ship, this on which we
sail through space. If the bread and beef above
decks seem to grow scarce, we but open a
hatch and there is a new supply, of which
before we never dreamed. And very great
command over the services of other ...
JPIC Corner is a monthly social justice E-Newsletter of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. It is sent free of charge to persons who ask to receive it. JPIC stands for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation.
In This Issue:
Coordinator's Note: Care for God's Creation
We Are Making a Difference
Four Ways to Celebrate Earth Day
Do You See God's Beauty?
and more...
Religion: Helping or Hindering Science?Paul H. Carr
Religion: Helping or Hindering Science?
By Paul H. Carr, web page www.MirrorOfNature.org
Institute of Religion in an Age of Science Conference,
Star Island off Portsmouth, NH
Monday, 4 August 2014, 3:30 PM
Is religion fostering or impeding the development of science? We have made progress since 1600, when the church burned Dominican Giordano Bruno at the stake in Rome for religious heresy and believing that the stars were like our sun with planets. In 2010, Dominican Francisco Ayala, a Spanish evolutionary biologist, won the $1.6 million Templeton Prize for affirming life’s spiritual dimension.
Nevertheless biblical literalists, who oppose Darwinian evolution, recently built the $26 million Creation Science Museum in Kentucky. It is located in the part of the United States known as the evangelical epicenter, which has the lowest family income and educational attainment of any region.
Main-line denominations have, on the other hand, fostered education and the development of science by founding colleges and universities. I will share other religious contributions, including the green-evangelical question: What car would Jesus drive?
Science & Religion @ Parliament of World ReligionsPaul H. Carr
Science & Religion Sessions Parliament of World Religions, Nov 1-7, 2018, Toronto, Canada 8000 Parliament Participants
Session Chairs: Paul H. Carr, Mladen Turk Organizers: Maynard Moore (IRAS), Ron Cole-Turner (ISSR)
-Possibility of Inclusion: science and religion. V.V. Raman
-A real God in our scientific universe: Letting it teach us about God. Nancy E. Abrams.
-Climate, carbon, and “Ground of All Being.” Paul H. Carr
-Food scarcity, safety, imbalance, and population challenges. Solomon Katz
-Ordinary faith, ordinary science. Nobel Laureate William Phillips
-Re-invisioning hope. religious naturalism. Carol Wayne White
-Science and ethics of CRSPR gene editing for future generations. Janet Rossant & James Peterson
-The Rabbi’s Brain: Neurotheology & Compassion. Andrew Newberg & Rabbi David Halprin
-The origin of evil & the brain network. William Shoemaker
-The new search for life in our galaxy. Michael Summers.
-Science, religion & global justice. Fraser Watts
-Understanding science through participation. Grace Wolf-Chase
PLENARY SESSION: PEOPLE OF FAITH FOR OUR EARTH
White(10-16-18-----10-25-18)· Historical survey of the origins.docxharold7fisher61282
White(10-16-18-----10-25-18)
· Historical survey of the origins for anthropocentrism and the causes of environmental catastrophes.
· More science and technology will not solve environmental problems because neither science nor technology is the cause. Instead, people and their beliefs cause environmental problems. Thus, changing people’s beliefs (especially those based in medieval Judeo-Christian anthropocentrism) is the solution to environmental problems.
· Industrial revolution marks the change of power from humans and animals to machines. For example, think about agricultural economics when humans (slaves) and animals were the primary source of power. Then the invention of (industrial) machines were invented that made it more efficient than using slaves and animals to produce agricultural goods.
· In terms of revolutionary change, remember when people used to live life guided by their desire to enter Heaven. But now, people live for materialistic goals and mostly no one is guided by Heaven.
· Roots means foundation. White does not want a cursory survey of history, he’s paying special attention to the deepest cause of environmental crises. He argues that the development of western history explains the roots of environmental crises.
· “All forms of life modify their context [or environment]” (56). You cannot live without impacting your environment. And the same is true for everything that exists.
· The industrial revolution impacted the environment, how? Machines polluted more, but also there was a change in population growth and the values of people changed according to the increase in commerce (and affluence), both locally and globally.
· How does religion and the environment intersect?
Notes 10/23/18
White’s thesis: Judeo-Christianity is the foundation of our ecological crisis.
White: victory of Christianity over paganism was the greatest psychic revolution of western civilization (bottom of pg 59.). Study pages 59-60 carefully.
· Paganism means non-Christian. Pagans (polytheist) predate monotheist Christian and Jewish traditions. White focuses on impacts of the victory of Christians over Pagans on the environmental crisis. Pagan animism and mystic religions saw God in everything, so they’re less likely to exploit/abuse/destroy the environment because it was be an act against God. So once you eliminate Pagan animism, then it’s easier for people to dominant the environment since it is not an act against God – there is only one God and he does not reside in everything as Pagans believe. See also pg. 60.
· While we live in a post-Christian era, the substance of Christianity still remains the foundation of our culture – a society built on Judeo-Christianity. E.g., people don’t attend Church regularly but their fundamental worldview (axioms) is still Christian. This is why we’re reading Genesis next.
· By ‘’psychic revolution” White refers to mental outlook, a change in worldview. People believed God was everywhere, but that chan.
Quantitative Methods in Geography Making the Connections between Schools, Uni...Rich Harris
A report into the nature of and attitudes towards quantitative methods teaching in geography, with recommendations for how the benchmark statement might be changed.
White flight, ethnic cliffs and other unhelpful hyperbole?Rich Harris
In an (unguarded?) conversation with a journalist, I talked about a 'cliff-edge' measure of segregation where neighbouring places have very different proportions of their resident population classified as White British in the 2011 Census. The words, rephrased as 'ethnic cliffs' was soon coupled with talk of White Flight from British cities and has appeared in a number of national newspapers and magazines, alongside like 'self-segregation' and 'sundown segregation' (The Sunday Times and the Daily Mail). In this presentation I look at changes to the ethnic composition of census zones in England from 2001 to 2011 and ask whether such phrases are unhelpful hyperbole or simply vivid but accurate descriptors of "Britain's new problem" (Goodhart, 2013 writing in Prospect Magazine).
There has been long and wide-ranging debate in the social science literature about how best to conceptualise and to measure segregation (see, inter alia, Allen and Vignoles, 2007; Johnston and Jones, 2010; Harris, 2011). A popular measure is the dissimilarity index, usually attributed to Duncan and Duncan (1955). This is somewhat ironic because in another paper published in the same year, the same two authors were much more cautious about advocating any one index as preferable to others and were wise to the geographical limitations: "all of the segregation indexes have in common the assumption that segregation can be measured without regard to the spatial patterns of white and nonwhite residence in a city" (p.215). Whilst one response to this shortcoming has been the development of spatial measures of segregation (Wong, 1993; Reardon and O'Sullivan, 2004; Harris, 2012), a number of papers from the 1980s and 90s treated the measurement of segregation as a (spatial) optimisation problem (Jakubs 1981; Morgan 1983; Waldorf 1993). In this paper I revisit that optimisation literature, substituting geographical distances between places with ‘nearest-neighbour distances’ to determine the cost function. Applying this method to the 2011 Census data and to England, I consider claims of “white flight” that have appeared in the media.
Motion Charts, White Flight and Ethnic Cliffs?Rich Harris
The aim of this presentation is to investigate claims of decreased segregation yet also of ‘white flight’ from English cities during the period from 2001 to 2011. It does so supplementing a traditional measure of segregation, the dissimilarity index,
with measures comparing differences between adjoining small areas. Together these measures provide insight not only into the amount of segregation but also its spatial configuration within local authorities, including the degree to which different ethnic groups are clustered together of dispersed across the authorities. An analysis of change is then undertaken, asking whether the neighbouring small areas with greatest differences in their ethnic compositions in 2001 become more or less dissimilar by 2011, and whether those changes are caused by more population mixing or by the withdrawal of the White British population from those areas. Motion charts also are presented to warning against over-simplification and ‘one-size-fits-all’ explanations, stressing the individual trajectories of different local authorities.
Commentary: Ethno-demographic change in English local authorities, 1991-2011Rich Harris
A commentary on a graphic submitted to the journal Environment and Planning A as one of its featured graphics. That graphic aims to capture various dimensions of population change within English local authorities from 1991 to 2011: the proportional increase in the Asian population, the decrease in the White British population, generally decreasing Asian - White British segregation within authorities on average but with that average concealing some increases in spatial heterogeneity: increased differences between some neighbouring small areas (and also increased differences between local authorities). To see the graph, please visit http://www.social-statistics.org/?p=1064
Sermon given at the 10.30am service, Christ Church Downend, Sunday February 10th, 2013. The Bible reading is Luke 9: 28-36. More sermons and talks at http://www.social-statistics.org/?cat=22
Geographies of ethnicity by school in LondonRich Harris
Maps of the prevalence of various ethnic groups in London’s secondary schools according to their proportion of new entrants to the schools in September 2008.
A comment with new analysis on an Financial Times article talking about the possibility of White Flight from London revealed by the 2011 UK Census results.
Sleepwalking towards Johannesburg? Local
measures of ethnic segregation between
London’s secondary schools 2003 – 2008/9. Presented at the PLASC Users Group conference, March 6th, 2012
Using geographical micro-data to measure segregation at the scale of competin...Rich Harris
Segregation is a spatial outcome of spatial processes that needs to be measured spatially and at a scale meaningful to the study. This is the axiom from which local indices of segregation are developed and applied to the patterns of admission observed for cohorts of pupils entering London's state-funded secondary (high) schools in each of the years from 2003 to 2008. The indices - local indices of difference, isolation and of concentration – are used to measure social segregation not between arbitrary areas or regions but specifically for schools that overlap in regard to their admission spaces. This is made possible by the use of detailed and geographically referenced governmental micro-data that allow the pupil flows from elementary to high schools to be modeled and therefore "competing" schools to be identified. Using eligibility for free school meals as a measure of social segregation, sizable differences in the proportions of FSM eligible pupils recruited by apparently competing schools are found, with selective schools especially and also faith schools under-recruiting such pupils. Whilst there is some evidence that social segregation has decreased over the period, the trend is considered to be an artifact of using free school meals as a measure of disadvantage. As such the problem shifts from at what scale to measure between-school segregation to what actually is an appropriate measure to use.
Who benefits from grammar schools? A case study of Buckinghamshire, EnglandRich Harris
This is a DRAFT paper and should not be quoted from without the permission of the author. A revised version (but producing substantively similar results) is due for publication in the Oxford Review of Education in April 2013.
The Art Pastor's Guide to Sabbath | Steve ThomasonSteve Thomason
What is the purpose of the Sabbath Law in the Torah. It is interesting to compare how the context of the law shifts from Exodus to Deuteronomy. Who gets to rest, and why?
The Indian economy is classified into different sectors to simplify the analysis and understanding of economic activities. For Class 10, it's essential to grasp the sectors of the Indian economy, understand their characteristics, and recognize their importance. This guide will provide detailed notes on the Sectors of the Indian Economy Class 10, using specific long-tail keywords to enhance comprehension.
For more information, visit-www.vavaclasses.com
This is a presentation by Dada Robert in a Your Skill Boost masterclass organised by the Excellence Foundation for South Sudan (EFSS) on Saturday, the 25th and Sunday, the 26th of May 2024.
He discussed the concept of quality improvement, emphasizing its applicability to various aspects of life, including personal, project, and program improvements. He defined quality as doing the right thing at the right time in the right way to achieve the best possible results and discussed the concept of the "gap" between what we know and what we do, and how this gap represents the areas we need to improve. He explained the scientific approach to quality improvement, which involves systematic performance analysis, testing and learning, and implementing change ideas. He also highlighted the importance of client focus and a team approach to quality improvement.
Unit 8 - Information and Communication Technology (Paper I).pdfThiyagu K
This slides describes the basic concepts of ICT, basics of Email, Emerging Technology and Digital Initiatives in Education. This presentations aligns with the UGC Paper I syllabus.
2. Preamble
―You simply can‘t talk honestly about the environment today
without criticizing the president. George W. Bush will go
down as the worst environmental president in our nation‘s
history. In a ferocious three-year attack, his administration
has launched over 300 major rollbacks of environmental
laws, rollbacks that are weakening our country‘s air, water,
public lands, and wildlife.‖
– Crimes Against Nature (Kennedy Jr., 2004)
3. Preamble
Genesis 1: 28
– Dominion over nature
Eschatology: beliefs of the end times
– Christ‘s return
George Bush and the New Christian Right
– e.g. The Christian Coalition of America
Has fundamentalist Christian belief shaped American
environmental policy?
4. ―Divine Destruction‖?
―At the suggestion that an extreme religious
ideology may be involved in the creation of
American environmental policy, most people –
even environmental activists – invariably fall into
an uncomfortable silence.‖
– Divine Destruction (Hendricks, 2005)
5. ―Divine Destruction‖?
―It now became clear, however, that American
environmental policy was also being greatly
influenced, even shaped, by certain Christian
Fundamentalists.‖
7. My objectives
Similar to those stated by Esther Kaplan (2004)
– ―This book [lecture] does not take up the role of Christianity
in people‘s everyday lives, nor does it seek to promote or
malign any particular faith. Instead it asks what impact the
Christian right, as a dogma-driven political movement, had
had in dictating American [environmental] policy.‖
From, With God on Their Side:
George W. Bush and the Christian Right
8. Faith, religion and politics matter!
―What people do about their ecology depends on what
they think about themselves in relation to things around
them. Human ecology is deeply conditioned by beliefs
about our nature and destiny – that is, by religion.‖
―Since the roots of our trouble are so largely religious, the
remedy must all be essentially religious, whether we call
it that or not.‖
– The Historic Roots of our Ecologic Crisis (White, 1967)
9. Faith, religion and politics matter!
―The neglect of our natural environment and its
degradation is not just bad policy; it is bad theology […]
Our private religion has fostered an individualism that
has not only diminished our social conscience for the
poor but also separated us from the earth itself.‖
– Seven Ways to Change the World (Wallis, 2008)
11. Outline
I. Grand narratives
a. The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis
b. Reinventing Eden
II. Situating the debate
a. Climate change scepticism and the Christian Right
b. The Wise Use movement
III. Making Links
• Wise Use, GOP and the Christian Right
IV. Faith and belief or… ?
a. The ecotheology of James Watt
b. Other motivations
V. Other perspectives
13. The Historical Roots of our Ecologic Crisis
Classic and oft-cited paper
– Lynn White Jr. (1967)
– Science, 155 (3767), pp. 1203–7
A churchman worried by the impact of a particular
(presumed dominant) Christian theology in causing the
ecological crisis of the 1960s
– ―The issue is whether a democratized world can survive its
own implications. Presumably we cannot unless we rethink
our axioms.‖
14. The argument
That modern science is an extrapolation of natural theology.
That (in the Creation story) Christian theology establishes a
dualism of ―man and nature‖ and ―that it is God‘s will that man
exploit nature for his proper ends.‖
That science and technology have joined ―to give mankind
powers which, to judge by many of the ecologic effects are out
of control.‖
―Christianity bears a huge burden of guilt.‖
15. Some caveats
―When one speaks in such sweeping terms, a note of
caution is in order. Christianity is a complex faith, and its
consequences differ in differing contexts.‖
White himself suggests looking to St. Francis of Assisi for
an alternative Christian view.
16. More caveats
Our Treatment of the Environment in Ideal and Actuality
– Yi-Fu Tuan (1970)
– American Scientist, 58 (3), pp. 244–9.
Although there may be truth in the generalization that
―the European sees nature as subordinate to man‖ it
―cannot be pressed too far‖.
17. Because…
―A culture‘s publicized ethos about its environment
seldom covers more than a fraction of the total range of
its attitudes and practices pertaining to the environment.
In the play of forces that govern the world, esthetic and
religious ideals rarely have a major role.‖
18. Tuan argues that
There were vast transformations of nature in ―the pagan
world‖
– The Romans, for example
Western intellectual contrasts with Chinese culture and
Taoist and Buddhist traditions are ―over generous‖
– Periods of deforestation, for example
There are conflicts between an ideal of nature or
environment and of practice: ―ideals and necessities are
frequently opposed.‖
19. Nevertheless…
Narrative is powerful, story-telling holds our imaginations
and shapes our experiences.
The Creation story is enduring.
– And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful,
and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and
have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds
of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth
upon the earth.
Genesis 1: 28
21. Reinventing Eden
Carolyn Merchant (2003)
– Professor of Environmental History, Philosophy and Ethics
ad the University of California, Berkeley.
―Narratives form our reality. We become their vessels.‖
22. Recovery of Eden narratives
Merchant identifies two. Here we concentrate on the first:
―[This] Recovery of Eden story is the mainstream
narrative of Western culture. It is perhaps the most
important mythology humans have developed to make
sense of their relationship to their earth.‖
23. A first Recovery of Eden narrative
Take a Christian theology of
– Eden (paradise), the Fall (Adam and Eve), salvation
(Christ), paradise (Heaven)
– and Genesis 1: 28
And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful,
and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the
heavens, and over every living thing that moveth upon the
earth. (emphasis added)
24. A first Recovery of Eden narrative
Linking with
– New World explorations, the Scientific Revolution and
European Enlightenment
Becomes
– a narrative of redemption, of recreation, of taming nature, of
a new Eden on Earth
– A moral and ethical imperative to do so
Manifest Destiny
25. A first Recovery of Eden narrative
―This story has propelled countless efforts by humans to
recover Eden by turning wilderness into garden, ―female‖
nature into civilised society, and indigenous folkways into
modern culture. Science, technology, and capitalism have
provided the tools, male agency the power and impetus.
Today‘s incarnations of Eden are the suburbs, the mall, the
clone, and the World Wide Web.‖
27. The stewardship ethic of Genesis 2
Merchant recognises the stewardship ethic of Genesis 2: 15
– And Jehovah God took the man, and put him into the garden of
Eden to dress it and to keep it.
And without this,
– ―Dominion theology simply doesn‘t grasp the vision and purpose
of the Genesis story and, in fact, contradicts it. It is a false
theology used for the malicious interests of environmental
destruction in the name of so-called progress.‖
Wallis (2008)
28. The stewardship ethic of Genesis 2
Unfortunately, Genesis 2 has tended to be subsumed by
Genesis 1.
And the meaning of ―stewardship‖ is easily contested (/
subverted) …
29. Acton media
– www.effectivestewardship.com
Effective Stewardship DVD Published by the Action
Institute
– ―for the study of religion and
liberty‖
– www.acton.org
Online trailer
– http://www.effectivestewardshi
p.com/stewardship-of-the-
environment
What are the themes and
ideologies underlying this
presentation?
30. II SITUATING THE DEBATE
(a) Climate change scepticism and the Christian Right
32. ―Wise Use‖ and the Christian Coalition
―[Pat] Robertson helped make anti-environmentalism
acceptable within the ranks of the fundamentalist clergy and
the mainstream of the Republican Party. Beginning in 1991,
Robertson and the Christian Coalition‘s then executive
director Ralph Reed, now an official with the Bush
campaign, put their media and organisational clout at the
disposal of the Wise Use agenda.‖
– Crimes Against Nature (Kennedy Jr., 2004)
34. What is ―Wise Use‖?
A response to the ―wilderness‖ mentality within
environmentalism and the ancient forest campaigns of the
1990s
The idea that ―people are nature‘s managers, charged with
the responsibility of using the resource wisely‖(Proctor,
1995)
A reaction to those who ―equate productive work in nature
with destruction‖ and ―the demonization of modern
machines and the sentimentalization of archaic forms of
labor‖ (White, 1995)
35. What is ―Wise Use‖?
A ―complex new social movement centred on the uses of rural
environments – and the strongest anti-environmental backlash in
the twentieth-century USA.‖
―A vehicle and arena of political-economic struggle with particular
class orientations … it functions mainly to defend privileged elite
and corporate access to resources, and may also be a wedge in a
larger neoliberal project.‖
―Part of a larger, conscious program of economic liberalism
designed to roll back much of the twentieth century‘s social
protection legislation.‖
– McCarthy (1998)
36. What is ―Wise Use‖?
A grassroots movement?
An industrial campaign?
37. What is ―Wise Use‖?
Another (or older) way of viewing nature
– ―If the Wise Use perspective – that there‘s too much
wilderness protection and environmental hysteria and not
enough logging, pesticide spraying, and mini-mall construction
– seems a bit strange […] it might help to remember that the
idea that the earth‘s resources are limited and must be
managed in a sustainable way, is a new and still-fragile
construct within our culture. In contrast, appeals to property
rights and the promise of unlimited frontiers hold a deep and
aiding place in our nation‘s social history going back more
than half a millennium‖ (Helvarg, 2004)
39. A Broad History of Wise Use
The phrase is attributed to Gifford Pinochet who became
chief forester of the nation under (Teddy) Roosevelt‘s
Presidency.
Pinochet believed in the ―wise use‖ of resources to be
utilised to meet people‘s needs but was also a
conservationist believing government control of forests
was required to stop the destructive practices of big
logging companies.
40. A Broad History of Wise Use
Counter to Pinochet the Wise Use movement campaigns
on:
– Resource production on federal lands
– Property rights
―takings‖
– Environmental (de)regulations
41. A Broad History of Wise Use
Emerges during the Reagan Presidency
Reagan endorsed the ―Sagebush Rebellion‖
– Legislation for state takeovers of federal land, supported by
the Cattleman‘s Association, Farm Bureau Federation, oil, coal
and gas industries, NRA.
Influence of rightwing, conservative thinktanks
– e.g. Heritage Foundation (set up by Joseph Coors)
– Note uneasy tension between protectionism and free market
privatisation
Role of direct-mail fundraises (e.g. Alan Gottlieb)
42. A Broad History of Wise Use
Gathers momentum during the George Bush Sr.
Presidency
– Bush is more savvy to a growing environmental
consciousness in the American public
Reauthorized the Clean Air Act
– Not especially popular with the Right
Had run against Reagan in 1980
– Economic downturn
43. A Broad History of Wise Use
National Wilderness Conference (Las Vegas, June, 1988)
Multiple Use Strategy Conference (Reno, August, 1988)
– Follow-up publication, The Wise Use Agenda
drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; log Alaska's
Tongass National Forest; gut the Endangered Species Act;
open public lands to motorised recreation; privatise national
parks, for people "with expertise in people-moving such as
Walt Disney.―
Representative of the NRA, Farm Bureau, Mountain States
Legal Foundation, Exxon, DuPont, and of mining and timber
associations present.
44. A Broad History of Wise Use
Initially peaks c. 1995
– Attack on Oklahoma City Murrah Federal Building by militia
associates Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols
Calls into question the more extreme language of Wise Use
and connections to the militia movements
Movement‘s industry funders back away
– Federal government shutdown of 1995
Clinton Vs Congress
anti-environmental riders on the Budget bill
45. A Broad History of Wise Use
Appears to re-emerge, politically institutionalised, with
the George Bush Jr. Presidency
―While traditional wise-use paranoia still proves effective,
its rhetoric is softening […] Now that they occupy the
seat of power, the wise-use movement no longer needs
its blowhards and bullies as it quietly and effectively
implements its radical agenda‖ (Halvarg, 2004)
47. Wise Use, GOP and the Christian Right
―There are increasingly close ties between those who
subscribe to the ideas of Wise Use and members of
fundamentalist Christian churches and organizations.‖
– Divine Destruction (Hendricks, 2005)
―The most important vector for hammering the Wise Use
agenda into the Republican Party‘s platform was the
Christian right‖
– Crimes Against Nature (Kennedy Jr., 2004)
Evidence?
48. Influential networks?
American Freedom Coalition
– Affiliated to the Unification Church
Founded by Sun Myung Moon, also owns The Washington
Times
Invited to attend and sponsor the Reno conference and
acknowledged in book.
Kennedy cites Ron Arnold as head of the Washington State
Chapter of the AFC although Halvarg quotes Arnold‘s denial of
any links
Links to (some) of the Christian Right
– Although Moon‘s religious view are heretical!
49. Influential networks?
Federalist Society
– Its purpose (http://www.fed-soc.org/aboutus/)
Law schools and the legal profession are currently strongly
dominated by a form of orthodox liberal ideology which
advocates a centralized and uniform society. While some
members of the academic community have dissented from
these views, by and large they are taught simultaneously with
(and indeed as if they were) the law.
50. Influential networks?
Federalist Society
The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies is a
group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the
current state of the legal order. It is founded on the principles
that the state exists to preserve freedom, that the separation
of governmental powers is central to our Constitution, and that
it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say
what the law is, not what it should be. The Society seeks both
to promote an awareness of these principles and to further
their application through its activities.
51. Influential networks?
Federalist Society
This entails reordering priorities within the legal system to
place a premium on individual liberty, traditional values, and
the rule of law. It also requires restoring the recognition of the
importance of these norms among lawyers, judges, law
students and professors. In working to achieve these goals,
the Society has created a conservative and libertarian
intellectual network that extends to all levels of the legal
community.
52. Influential networks?
Federalist Society
– Members include
John D. Ashcroft
– United States Attorney General (2001 – 5)
Gale A. Norton
– United States Secretary of the Interior (2001 – 6)
» ―a veteran of the Wise Use movement‖
Spencer Abraham
– Founder of the Federalist Society and Secretary of Energy
(2001 – 5)
http://mediatransparency.org./story.php?storyID=20
53. Influential networks?
Christian Coalition
– ―When the Wise Use allies hooked up with Pat Robertson‘s
Christian Coalition, they hit a home run. Robertson‘s
special contribution to right-wing theology was to substitute
environmentalists for communists as the new threat to
democracy and to Christianity.‖
Kennedy Jr. (2005)
54. Influential networks?
The Moral Majority
– Co-founded by Rev. Jerry Falwell and Tim LaHaye
LaHaye is the writer of the Left Behind series of books
which are about Revelation, the ―end times‖ and ―the
rapture‖.
– A big funder was Joseph Coors
Who also founded the Heritage Foundation
– which was involved in the ―Sagebush rebellion‖
And the Mountain States Legal Foundation
– to challenge environmental laws
55. However…
Wise Use is an amorphous term; could link most people
to it?
It is one thing to demonstrate (or allege) intersecting
networks and quite another to asset that environmental
pollution is the US is actually driven by a dominion
theology and an apocalyptic Christianity.
56. IV FAITH AND BELIEF OR…?
(a) The Ecotheology of James Watt
57. James Watt
Links are often made between James Watt, dominion theology,
―end times‖ eschatology and undisciplined resource
exploitation.
– President of the Mountain States Legal Foundation
– Secretary of the Department of the Interior under Reagan
(1981 – 3)
Resigned after saying in a speech, ―"I have a black, a woman,
two Jews and a cripple. And we have talent.―
In 1995 was indicted on 25 felony counts of perjury, unlawful
concealment and obstruction of justice.
– Hired Gale Norton as a lawyer for the MSLF
58. James Watt
Anti-environmentalist and pro-business
– "If the troubles from environmentalists cannot be solved in
the jury box or at the ballot box, perhaps the cartridge box
should be used‖ (speech to Green River Cattlemen's
Association, 1991)
59. James Watt
―Watt was a proponent of ―dominion theology‖, an authoritarian
Christian heresy that advocates man‘s duty to ―subdue‖ nature.
His deep faith in laissez-faire capitalism and apocalyptic
Christianity led Secretary Watt to set about dismantling his
department and distributing its assets … During a House oversight
hearing, Mr. Watt cited the approaching Apocalypse in an answer
to a Congressman‘s question about the need to leave some of our
scenic resources for future generations … ―I do not know how
many future generations we can count on before the Lord
returns.‖
– Kennedy Jr. (2004)
60. However
Was it an Apocalyptic statement or merely a fact?
Bratton (1983) notes that although Watt was part of an
emerging ―Christian politic‖ and made a number of statements
relating his Christian beliefs to environmental management,
there is little evidence of a consistent ―ecotheology‖ driving his
decision making
– ―Although some journalists have interpreted Watt‘s religious
view as formative in his environmental policies, a close look at
the secretary‘s statements provide good evidence that his
economic and political views also greatly influence his
ecotheology.‖
61. Similarly, today
―As to whether dominionists are using a different
interpretation of Revelations to justify the purposeful
interpretation of environmentally harmful policies, he said ‗I
don‘t see a focused agenda from them to destroy the Earth
for Christ‘s return. They might be interpreting the Bible and
using the dominion message to justify their actions that are
based on greed. It‘s really all about free market capitalism
and greed.‖
– Hendricks (2005) quoting Peter Illyn
63. Money and power?
―Big Business has more of an influence than the Bible.‖
– Hendricks (2005) quoting Bruce Barron
―What puts Bush/Cheney in a whole new league … is
their open sale of our whole government to corporate
interests, which now run the US for themselves.‖
– Cruel and Unusual (Miller, 2004)
64. Economics?
―A key truism about the anti-enviro movement: at its core it
is not about differing conservation philosophies or ecological
worldviews, religion, or politics, but about basic economic
interests.‖
Helvarg (2004)
65. Economics?
―The reality is that the majority of Americans are seeing their
real wages decline and job security evaporate as the
economy of the United States in integrated into a new global
economy, dominated by transnational corporations. Rural
America is particularly hard hit by farm debt and
consolidation and liquidation of natural resource industries.‖
– Helvarg (2004)
66. A personal opinion
I would generally take the view that American
environmental policy, like the Wise Use movement is,
– ―a site of political-economic contradictions and struggle,
both between classes and between capitalists‖ (McCarthy,
1998)
Cannot entirely dismiss the influence of
Reconstructionism and theocratic efforts to erode the
separation of church and state.
– Miller (2004), Kaplan (2005), Skaggs et al. (2004)
67. Libertarian
―The Holy Trinity‖ politics and
‘traditional
(sic) values’
ENVIRON-
MENTAL
POLICY
Christian Extractive
Right industries
69. Other Perspectives
―The point is whether the biblical narrative itself has
required such Christians to act negligently or badly,
where they have so acted, or whether the biblical
narrative itself presents a quite different vision of the
world from the one pursued by these badly-behaved
Christians, a vision sometimes misunderstood and
misconstrued by its readers.‖
– Provan (2008)
70. Other Perspectives
Kearns, for example, identifies three main
―ecotheological ethics‖
– Christian Stewardship ethic
– Eco-justice ethic
– Christian spirituality ethic
71. Read the statement at
http://christiansandclimate.org/l
earn/call-to-action/
– Claim 1: Human-Induced
Climate Change is Real
– Claim 2: The Consequences of
Climate Change: An Climate Change Will Be
Evangelical Call to Action Significant, and Will Hit the
Poor the Hardest
– Claim 3: Christian Moral
Convictions Demand Our
Response to the Climate
Change Problem
– Claim 4: The need to act now
is urgent. Governments,
businesses, churches, and
individuals all have a role to
play in addressing climate
change—starting now.
72. A project of The Alliance
for Climate Protection,
founded by Al Gore.
wecansolveit.org It has the support of Pat
Robertson (cf. Christian
Coalition)
– Watch the short
YouTube video at
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=NhmpsUMdTH
8
79. Neoconservatism and Nature
The Bush regime has had a poor environmental record.
There are overlapping interests between the Christian
Right and a neoconservative political agenda.
Their environmental policies may be influenced by a
―dominion‖ reading of Genesis 1, though thereare other
more compelling explanations for their actions.
80. Neoconservatism and Nature
Whilst theologies of the environment are still contested
(see, for example, www.we-get-it.org or The Action
Institute), the increasingly dominant narrative is based on
the partnership ethic of Genesis 1 and 2 and linked to
social justice.