Houghton friends and foes weigh in on global warming

I was very impressed with both participants in Toni Feder’s interview of John Houghton on the subject of global warming. I noted with interest Houghton’s scientific rigor in presenting the attendant policy matters and his appeal to his Christian audience based largely on the “stewardship of Earth” theme. As a Hindu-Christian, I was brought up in the two-millennia-old tradition that it is one’s actions, not claimed beliefs, that manifest one’s faith, the tradition of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, and Desmond Tutu.

In my presentations to American religious audiences for the past 40 years, I have added another dimension to the discussion. The demand is on Christians, and on the followers of many religions, to serve others, especially the poor, and to live an anti-materialist life. That translates into a slogan—“Enoughness (of material goods) and efficiency (of usage of every material and energy)”—as the core social and technological approaches to carbon dioxide control. Increasing energy efficiency in production and use therefore becomes a most important scientific goal for the physics community.