By Vijay Jayaraj

Who among us is not distracted? Our phones and screens keep us occupied with news from every corner of the earth. Distractions make us chase after what looks impressive but brings no fruit. The Book of Proverbs warn us against this: “The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps” (Proverbs 14:15, ESV).

I learned this the hard way. As a young graduate fascinated by environmental issues, I was convinced that climate change was the defining crisis of our century. Like many, I believed I was dedicating myself to the most urgent problem facing mankind. Years later, I realized I had been consumed by hype.

False Prophets of Climate Catastrophe

The neo-environmentalism of the 1960s and 70s branded human population growth as the ultimate crisis. Five decades later, our world is healthier, wealthier, and better fed than ever before. Many of these environmental movements pit Christians against the foundational doctrines of our faith. God’s first command to humanity was to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over… every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28).

Besides, environmental movements also have a troubling track record of false alarms. In the 1970s, prominent scientists and media outlets warned of an impending ice age. But it never materialized. Similarly, the ozone depletion crisis of the 1980s and 1990s generated massive concern about ultraviolet radiation destroying life on Earth. The pattern repeats itself: environmental movements consistently overstate risks, generate fear, then move to the next crisis when their predictions fail to materialize.

Contrary to this doom mongering, human civilization has achieved remarkable progress over the past century. Global life expectancy increased from approximately 46 years in 1950 to 73 years in 2023, coinciding with the period when fossil fuel use expanded dramatically. From 1970 to 2008, the percentage of people with access to safe drinking water nearly doubled globally. Extreme poverty declined dramatically from 38 percent of the global population in 1990 to 8.5 percent in 2024. The U.S. and Europe reduced smog, cleaned rivers, and expanded protected lands, all while consuming coal, oil, and gas.

Biblical Stewardship Hijacked by Secular Crisis Narrative

For generations, the Church has largely considered science a subject to be taught in schools, effectively outsourcing a core component of discipleship to secular authorities. The result is that millennials like me grew up with a very thin understanding of God’s magnificent design for the earth, the purpose of its resources, and our mandate to interact with it.

Into this vacuum steps the state education system, which sets the tone for what counts as “science.” In almost every country, this means repeating the mantra that human emissions of carbon dioxide are destroying the planet. Many churches, thinking this sounds scientific and morally responsible, embrace it uncritically.

Why does this matter for Christians? Because our faith calls us to discern between real stewardship and empty speculation. God has not called us to waste our short lives chasing after predictions that may or may not happen. “The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way, but the folly of fools is deceiving” (Proverbs 14:8, ESV).

The earth is in God’s hands, not in the balance of carbon dioxide molecules. Recent findings from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency make it clear that there is no endangerment to public health from CO2. To the contrary, the modest increase in atmospheric CO2 has contributed to a measurable “global greening,” boosting plant growth and significantly aiding agricultural food production worldwide.

The tragedy is that even Christian environmentalists often overlook the parts of Scripture that declare God’s sovereignty over the natural order. The Bible repeatedly speaks of the stability of God’s creation: “He established the earth upon its foundations, so that it should never be moved” (Psalm 104:5, ESV). “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22, ESV). Climate is not man’s toy. It is God’s domain.

Environmental Religion Chokes Human Progress

All this transpired when the modern climate movement evolved into a quasi-religious ideology that demands faith-based acceptance of computer model predictions while ignoring observable reality. This skewed focus on a speculative future comes at a staggering, present-day cost.

For countries still striving to achieve the basic environmental standards that the United States secured over the past five decades, this diversion of precious capital is a disaster. It delays progress on clean water, sanitation, and industrial pollution.

Worse, it pressures them to substitute time-tested, affordable energy systems with expensive and unreliable “green” technology that is wholly inadequate for lifting nations out of poverty. My city in India is a perfect example of this folly: pursuing a “net-zero” fantasy while failing at the basic municipal duties of maintaining roads, clearing garbage, and ensuring a stable power grid.

The situation is unimaginably more dire in Africa. Across the continent, an effective embargo on funding for fossil fuel projects, all in the name of climate action, is beginning to strangle large-scale energy development. Even in the wealthy United States, the chase has been costly. A recent federal audit revealed that American taxpayers are on the hook for more than $2.2 billion to cover losses from the government’s failed energy loan guarantee programs. These programs aggressively promoted green energy companies based on the same premise of a world collapsing under a climate crisis.

What then can Christians do? First, we must recover a biblical theology of creation. Our stewardship is not optional. It is part of discipleship. Second, we must separate the real from the imagined. Believers must not waste their short lives chasing speculative crises. Ephesians 5:15–16 urges us, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.”

You do not steward the sun, whose cycles have a profound impact on our climate. You do not steward the planet’s volcanoes or its cloud cover, two other major drivers of the climate system that lie far beyond human control. Instead, we steward the resources and the local systems that God has given us.

The church must choose its battles wisely. Christians called to environmental stewardship should focus on tangible problems with achievable solutions rather than chasing phantom crises that may never materialize. This approach honors both biblical principles and scientific evidence while producing measurable improvements in human welfare and environmental health.

Vijay Jayaraj (M.S., Environmental Sciences; Post-Grad Diploma, Energy Management; B.S., Engineering) lives in India and is Research Associate for Developing Countries with the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation.