It is anything but surprising that the California Wildfires have been met with a bevy of Climate Cassandras chiming in about how the fires offer indisputable proof that man-made climate change is real. They then will call for us all to do “something” because it represents an existential crisis. Others will try to reason with them, acknowledging that because man lives in the world, it is reasonable to expect that the environment will be changed by him. But their failure to acknowledge the impending doom ultimately will earn them the branding of climate denier. There is no reasoning with them because ultimately we are dealing with a subtle form of paganism.
Seeing environmentalism as a secular religion certainly helps explain its proclivity to serve as a metanarrative. Not only does it cause natural disasters like the wildfires in California, but it also causes migrant crises, racism, and even the rise of ISIS. When coupled with the aptly named Politician’s Fallacy it becomes a instrument for seizing power and limiting the freedom of those under their thumb.
A Real Religion
It might be easy to dismiss it all as a power grab, but it seems there are many who are true believers, even those in power. We cannot dismiss the fact that man has a natural religious impulse and must worship something. Environmentalism serves to feed this religious impulse. The reason why this realization is important is because they do not need convincing that their interpretation of the facts is wrong, but conversion from what is ultimately a false religion.
The foundational belief is that creation is not inherently good, but in a process of becoming so. Nature itself (or Gaia) is God and must be worshipped in its purest form. Creation was self-guided towards a future utopia; a day when Nature walks in the pseudo-Garden of Eden and all creation becomes one with Nature. Everything was on the right track until at some point in history (usually the Industrial Revolution), man committed the sin of taking creation off its course. Now we must atone for that sin by “doing something” to take it back to the pre-1800 state and get it back on track. Otherwise we will face an Apocalypse some time in the near future.
The Climate Cassandras are its prophets of doom who feign certainty using weasel words (like “may”) to warn us of the impending doom just beyond the horizon. Climatologists are its priests, transubstantiating their models into reality. Its enemies are not only the nay-sayers but the numinous, invisible ghosts like UV radiation and CO2.
In his excellent book, Apocalypse Never, Michael Shellenberger points out something similar regarding the religious nature of environmentalism:
Environmentalism today is the dominant secular religion of the educated, upper-middle-class elite in most developed and many developing nations. It provides a new story about our collective and individual purpose. It designates good guys and bad guys, heroes and villains. And it does so in the language of science, which provides it with legitimacy. On the one hand, environmentalism and its sister religion, vegetarianism, appear to be a radical break from the Judeo-Christian religious tradition. For starters, environmentalists themselves do not tend to be believers, or strong believers, in Judeo-Christianity. In particular, environmentalists reject the view that humans have, or should have, dominion, or control, over Earth. On the other hand, apocalyptic environmentalism is a kind of new Judeo-Christian religion, one that has replaced God with nature. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, human problems stem from our failure to adjust ourselves to God. In the apocalyptic environmental tradition, human problems stem from our failure to adjust ourselves to nature. In some Judeo-Christian traditions, priests play the role of interpreting God’s will or laws, including discerning right from wrong. In the apocalyptic environmentalist tradition, scientists play that role.
The Path to Conversion
Properly understanding that we are dealing with religious conviction rather than an interpretation of facts, we can work towards conversion. The path has been laid out for this rather clearly in Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Caritas in Veritate in what could be described as a Metaphysics of Gift:
The environment is God’s gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations and towards humanity as a whole. When nature, including the human being, is viewed as the result of mere chance or evolutionary determinism, our sense of responsibility wanes. In nature, the believer recognizes the wonderful result of God’s creative activity, which we may use responsibly to satisfy our legitimate needs, material or otherwise, while respecting the intrinsic balance of creation. If this vision is lost, we end up either considering nature an untouchable taboo or, on the contrary, abusing it. Neither attitude is consonant with the Christian vision of nature as the fruit of God’s creation.
Notice how he first puts the blame for environmental abuse at the feet of an evolutionary worldview in which creation is a mere accident. The Environmentalist already rejects this, seeing in it a meaning and purpose. If they can begin to see it not as a god, but as a gift, then it is natural for them to wonder at the nature of the Giver.
The use of the word wonder is particularly appropriate. Modern philosophy begins with doubt whereas for the Greeks and Aquinas it begins with wonder. Modern man only wonders at how a thing works, while the Catholic ought to wonder why it exists like it does. In fact, why does anything exist instead of nothing? Why am I the kind of creature that can appreciate a beautiful sunset or wonder about the size of the universe? Beauty can save the world. This is the path to conversion for the Environmentalist. By fostering a spirit of wonder, it predisposes the person towards gratitude and the recognition that everything is a gift.