A religious slant on climate change

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Mike Gold thinks about climate change all the time. In his new book, “God in Crisis,” the Riverdale resident describes feeling guilty about driving 90 minutes to visit his in-laws because of his car’s carbon emissions. He deposits the plastic bags his family accumulates in a recycling bin at a CVS each week.

“Most people are not really thinking about climate change,” Mr. Gold said. Instead, he continued, they are out buying new handbags or sneakers or thinking about sports. “My feeling is that people need to wake up and that’s why I wrote the book.”

In “God in Crisis,” Mr. Gold, who is a second-career teacher after spending almost 20 years in public relations, takes a unique approach to discussing climate change. He explained that especially in the mainstream media, many people — including politicians — use religion as a justification to ignore climate change and refuse to take action on behalf of the environment.

He said most people point to this scripture, from Genesis 1:28: “And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”

“It doesn’t mean we should destroy the planet,” Mr. Gold said. “I take the position that Earth is God’s house and we’re here as part. You cannot worship God and take part in the destruction of his creation.”

Mr. Gold, who is Jewish, pored over both the Old and New Testaments for passages that support environmental activism.

“It’s pretty clear to me, or at least it feels clear, that we have stewardship of the Earth now and we need to manage it in a way that preserves it for everyone,” he said.

He pointed to many passages from the Bible to support his claim, including Genesis 6:19, when God instructs Noah build an ark:

“And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you,” it reads.

“Clearly, the Bible reveres the earth and we’re destroying it very casually,” Mr. Gold said. “That’s what’s really bothering me.”

Mike Gold, God in Crisis, climate change, religion, Isabel Angell
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