We have completed the manuscript of the book Faith In A Changing Climate. We are releasing sections of the book in a series of posts at this site. The second part of Chapter 1 is provided below.
Let me take a moment to introduce myself and to outline the journey that has led me to the point where I feel sufficiently audacious to write a book on these difficult issues. (In Chapter 3 I describe my journey in more detail. The picture is of me while working on a North Sea offshore platform. It was snowing lightly at the time.)
I am a chemical engineer. I have worked in the process and energy industries for my entire career. For the latter half of my career I worked in the area of process safety management. This engineering and project management background helps me understand much of the science and technology that lies behind discussions to do with climate change and resource depletion. Furthermore, the process safety management background provides an understanding as to the importance of systems analysis. An engineering education also means that I am comfortable with quantification and with the importance of using and analyzing data to get around, “I think, you think” arguments.
In this book I use data and charts to explain some of the predicaments that we face. There are those who believe that this approach is a mistake. It is patronizingly stated that people won’t understand the charts, so we should not use them. This is not only disrespectful to the reader it also flies against the spirit of the first of this book’s guidelines: Understand Physical Realities.
The background in engineering and project management informs my response to many of the issues that we face. That response can be summarized in the following three questions.
What’s the problem?
What’s the solution?
What’s the cost?
Depending on the answers to these questions, we then decide whether to move forward with a project. (When it comes to climate change the problems are actually predicaments; therefore, there are no solutions per se. Nevertheless this way of thinking can still be applied.)
I have written many books to do with process safety. My latest book — The OSHA Process Safety Standard — describes proposed updates to the OSHA and EPA process safety standards in the United States management (Sutton I. , The OSHA Process Standard: The 30-Year Update, 2023). Although these books are technical, I hope that they demonstrate at least a minimal literary competence.
A second strand to my background is that I have an M.A. in literature from the University of Houston (Clear Lake). I have always enjoyed reading literature and history books. This background helps me relate current conditions and circumstances to what has happened in the past. For example, we can learn much from the actions taken by Augustine of Hippo and other church fathers more than 1,600 years ago.
Finally, I belong to the Episcopalian/Anglican church. My home church is St. James the Less in Ashland, Virginia, United States — about 20 minutes north of Richmond, and two hours south of Washington D.C.
The stories and messages of the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament are relevant to our current times for two reasons. First, we see the Hebrew people developing an understanding of who God was, and how people — both as individuals and as a society — were to relate to Him. Second, the people of that time were often faced with difficult physical challenges, some of which were to do with the climate. We can relate to what they went through, and we may be able to learn from them. A third lesson that we can take from the Hebrew Bible is that the people of those times experienced exile, something we are going through now, as we see in Chapter 6.
I am a ‘Boomer’ — part of the generation that grew up in the years following the Second World War. For those raised in western Europe and North America this was a time of unprecedented privilege for many people. Although few of us realized it at the time, the prosperity of those times was based on the availability of abundant natural resources, particularly oil. We became increasingly aware of environmental problems, but concerns to do with global warming were well into the future. Consequently, we were all members of the Church of Eternal Perpetual Progress. We took it for granted that material prosperity would continue indefinitely — this was our birthright, our mess of pottage. It was what James Howard Kunstler referred to as an Age of Happy Motoring.
This assumption of never-ending material progress probably constitutes the biggest difference between Boomers and later generations. And it is why we need to let young people set the church agenda — it is they who will have to live with the future that we Boomers have created.
During my lifetime the church in the west has lost most of its influence and power. Many reasons for this decline have been proposed, but one reason could be that the church and its message could not compete with the material world view. For example, if we are ill, we first go to a doctor who has access to the latest medical technology; we then put our name on the church prayer list. Religion and the church are not needed in this brave new world.
This period of prosperity is coming to an end. Resources such as oil increasingly hard to find and expensive to develop. The environment, particularly the climate, is steadily deteriorating, and we are systematically destroying the natural world. A new world view is called for. For people of faith this means that new theological thinking also needs to be on the agenda.