Faithfulness, Even in Small Things, Matters
As evangelicals seeking to be faithful disciples of Jesus we know that our choices, no matter how small they may seem, are important in God’s sight. Reflecting on our personal lifestyle and making the best choices we can to protect the integrity of God’s gift of creation may seem insignificant, even silly in light of how big ecological problems like climate change are. But making such choices, and struggling with the ups and downs of those choices, is what being a faithful Christian means. Regardless of the size of the ecological impact your personal lifestyle choice makes, your faithfulness does make a difference in your relationship with God.
“These actions are really
important because we
need to get emissions
per capita down to 2
tonnes per year by 2050
and for some of these
actions we don’t have easy technological fixes.”
Seth Wynes: Environmental
Research Letters, 2017
Millions of FaithFull People Can Have an Impact
It is also true that if millions of evangelicals did make lifestyle choices commensurate with the call to care for God’s creation the collective impact of those decisions would make a positive difference! The impact would not only benefit the creation’s ecosystems and ourselves, but even more importantly our neighbors who struggle with poverty and who suffer the most from the affects of climate change and pollution.
The world is already experiencing climate change. It is impacting ecological systems and adversely affecting peoples lives. As the world’s temperature increases the scientific consensus is the safest range of increase is around 1.5°C, but as the temperature increases beyond that range the negative impacts of climate change will be magnified significantly. Thus, it is imperative to minimize climate change as much as possible with a target of around 1.5°C increase. By creating a global evangelical community committed to Living the Change lifestyles we can help ensure a 1.5°C future.
Make a Personal Commitment in a High Impact Area
Living the Change invites you to make a pledge to live more sustainably and make a personal lifestyle commitment in at least one of three high-impact areas: transportation, energy, and diet. Each of these three areas represents an opportunity to save more than 0.8 tonnes of CO2 per capita per year. The corresponding data was compiled by Wynes and Nicholas as part of their study in the 2017 Environmental Research Letters, which compared all actions of one individual on a life cycle basis, under current average conditions in developed countries.
THE 3 PRIORITIES OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING
Eco-Friendly TRANSPORTATION
What: Using a more sustainable method of transport. Moving towards a car-free life, and avoiding transport by airplane as much as possible.
Why: A car-free lifestyle can save up to 2.4 tonnes of
greenhouse gas emissions a
year, while each roundtrip
transatlantic flight avoided
saves an additional 1.6
tonnes.
ENERGY
Transition
What: Most of the energy we
use in our buildings for heating, lighting, appliances, hot water, and cooking comes from burning fossil fuels (coal, gas, or oil). We burn them either directly or indirectly through the use of electricity. Instead, one can switch to green energy tariffs, create one’s own renewable energy sources, and phase out energy from fossil fuels.
Why: Reducing ENERGY use
and transitioning to clean
renewable energy sources
can save up to 1.6 tonnes of
CO per year per person.
Plant-Based DIET
What: Transitioning from a
meat- and dairy-based diet to
a plant-based diet, as well as
reducing food waste.
Why: Eating a plant-based
diet saves 0.8 tonnes of CO
emissions per year. This
represents 4 times more
greenhouse gas emissions
per year than recycling. It is
an ethical approach to eating
with an added bonus of
improving health and
wellbeing!
Personal Choices to Reduce Your Contribution to Climate Change
This graph was developed by GreenFaith and is adapted from Wynes and Nicholas, 2017, Environmental Research Letters.
