1 Radical environmentalism, at its heart, is false religion.

Biblical care for Creation sees God, people, and nature in proper relationship. By contrast, the core of secular environmentalism mirrors Romans 1:25, which says people “exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature, rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.” It results in worship of a false god.

Even if it’s clothed in “Christian vocabulary,” this unbiblical worldview can lead to:

• Degrading Man—seeing people primarily as polluters and consumers, using up Earth’s resources and poisoning the planet in the process, rather than as producers and stewards, made in the image of God.
• Deifying Nature—portraying nature, in its untouched state, as the ideal. Therefore, it rejects the notion of human improvement and stewardship of nature.
• Disregarding the Poor—No matter how well-intentioned they may be, environmental policies that are not based on sound theology, science, and economics will have their most devastating impact on the people who can afford it the least—the poor, in America and around the world.

2 Radical environmentalism is the face of the anti-human, “Pro-Death” agenda.

Strident environmentalists’ opposition to modern methods of energy production, agriculture, and disease prevention—coupled with policies that strangle economic growth—contributes to the deaths of millions of impoverished people around the world. In many environmental circles, people are the ultimate pollution, and severely reducing their numbers, whether through abortion, euthanasia, or disease and poverty, is a laudable goal.

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.—John 10:10

• Radical environmentalists use bogus or exaggerated “crises”—like catastrophic, man-made global warming—to deny abundant, affordable, reliable energy and other modern blessings to the developing world, thus perpetuating and increasing a deadly toll.
• Right now, 2 to 3 million women and children die annually around the world because they have no electricity and must burn wood or dried dung to cook their food or heat their huts. Ninety percent of the people living in sub-Saharan Africa do not have electricity and so lack light to study and work by, refrigeration to prevent food spoilage, and power to operate equipment that could multiply their productivity. Environmentalists’ opposition to building large power plants and electric grids seeks to keep them that way.
• 1 to 2 million people die annually from malaria, with hundreds of millions made extremely ill from the disease each year. Another 3 to 4 million people annually around the world die because of inadequate sanitation and impure drinking water. Many environmental policies perpetuate both tragedies.

3 A secularist, radical environmentalist Trojan horse targets Christian youth.

Today’s youth consistently rank environment and poverty among their most important issues of concern. Instead of being sold seductive but unbiblical ideas about God, people, and nature, young people could instead be taught Biblical stewardship as a particularly effective platform for the true gospel and for true help to the world’s poor. A genuinely Biblical message on stewardship could have a tremendous impact on the current youth culture both inside and outside the Church.

Indeed, Biblical Earth stewardship could contribute to fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18–20) through

• Evangelism—A way for young people to influence their peers with Biblical thinking on one of their biggest issues of concern.
• Discipleship—Helping to advance Biblical thought and practice on this issue.
• Service—Getting young people involved in outreach programs that link the Dominion Mandate of Genesis 1:28 (“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth and subdue it and have dominion over” it) with the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19 (“Go … and make disciples of all nations …”), taking practical steps to care for the Earth and the poor in developing nations.

4 Radical environmentalism harms people, especially the poor in difficult economic times.

The environmentalist agenda is very expensive. By making energy less affordable and accessible, greenhouse gas and other environmental regulations drive up the costs of basic necessities like food, fuel, and electricity, stifle economic growth, and cost jobs.

Government subsidies of ethanol are linked to fuel and food costs, causing the price of staple foods (like rice, corn, meat, and eggs) to spike over recent years as grain is diverted from feeding people and livestock to our fuel tanks, so that America’s ethanol policy alone has been estimated to cause nearly 200,000 premature deaths every year in the developing world. Proposed caps on emissions and other forms of “renewable energy mandates” cost our nation millions of jobs—and hundreds of billions of dollars per year—and the average American household thousands of dollars annually, harming the poor and fixed-income households the most.

And while Americans, who are wealthy by the world’s standards, would suffer these problems, much poorer people around the world suffer much more to the extent that they are required to restrain greenhouse gas emissions. Deprived of the abundant, affordable, reliable energy indispensable to lifting and keeping whole societies out of poverty, they are trapped in poverty and its attendant high rates of disease and premature death for generations to come—a tragic reversal of the amazing reduction of absolute poverty from half to under one-fifth of the human race since 1990.

5 We must know and carry out God’s commands regarding Earth stewardship and care for the poor.

James 1:27 says “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” That includes being unspotted by the vain philosophies of the world.

We don’t have to choose between taking care of people and taking care of God’s creation. In God’s wise design, both can flourish together when we:

• Worship God alone and uphold His Word. (Joshua 24:23–24)
• View mankind Biblically as the image bearer of God. (Genesis 1:26)
• Recognize that nature needs active human stewardship to thrive. (Genesis 1:28; 2:15)
• Remember the poor and help lift them up out of poverty so they can fulfill their roles as producers and stewards. (1 John 3:17)