Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A Threefold Approach of Ecology, Economy, and Theology to Face Climate Change with Respect and Kindness

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Religion and Sustainability: Interreligious Resources, Interdisciplinary Responses

Part of the book series: Sustainable Development Goals Series ((SDGS))

  • 323 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter describes an Integrated Assessment Model (IAM) that includes the Dynamic Integrated Climate Economy (DICE) model developed by William Nordhaus in order to analyze the influence of different emission policies and calculate the social cost of carbon. The predictions may serve as a base for politicians, economists, and religious leaders to make long-term decisions based on sound environmental-economic reasons.

I also address climate change from a Christian perspective by elaborating on the works of historical figures such as Thomas Aquinas to current figures such as Reinhold Niebuhr, Pope Francis, Sallie McFague, Paul Santmire, Larry Rasmussen, and Cynthia Moe-Lobeda. I will show that the consequences of global warming as well as the mitigation of climate change produce disproportionate impacts. In order to face global warming, structural greed behind the environmental-economic mechanisms need to be addressed by values such as respect for life and kindness towards others on a global level.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Anthoff, David, and Emmerling, Johannes. 2016. Inequality and the Social Cost of Carbon. Nota Di Lavoro. Mitigation, Innovation and Transformation Pathways Series Editor: Massimo Tavoni, 54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berry, R.J., ed. 2006. Environmental Stewardship: Critical Perspectives, Past and Present. London: T & T Clark.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, William P. 1999. The Ethos of the Cosmos: The Genesis of Moral Imagination in the Bible. Grand Rapids, Mich: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daly, Herman E., John B. Cobb, and Clifford W. Cobb. 1994. For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future. 2nd ed. Boston: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Devall, Bill, and George Sessions. 1985. Deep Ecology. Salt Lake City, Utah: G.M. Smith.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeWitt, Calvin B., Richard A. Baer, Thomas Sieger Derr, and Vernon J. Ehlers. 1998. Caring for Creation: Responsible Stewardship of God’s Handiwork. Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dinar, Ariel, and Robert O. Mendelsohn, eds. 2011. Handbook on Climate Change and Agriculture. Elgar Original Reference. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dryzek, John S., Richard B. Norgaard, and David Schlosberg, eds. 2011. The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • EPA Fact Sheet 2016. Social Cost of Carbon, December 2016.

    Google Scholar 

  • Francis, Pope. 2015. Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home. Frederick: Our Sunday Visitor.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gardner, Gary, Tom Prugh, Michael Renner, Katie Auth, and Lisa Mastny. 2015. State of the World 2015: Confronting Hidden Threats to Sustainability. Washington, DC: Island Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hallman, David G., ed. 1994. Ecotheology: Voices from South and North. Geneva, Switzerland: WCC Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halter, Hans, and Wilfried Lochbühler. 1999. Texte Zur Theologie. Moraltheologie. Vol. 1, Ökologische Theologie Und Ethik. Graz: Verlag Styria.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henning, Gerhard. 1966. Cajetan und Luther - Ein historischer Beitrag zur Begegnung von Thomismus und Reformation. Stuttgart: Calwer Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hodson, Martin J., and Margot Hodson. 2017. Grove Ethics. Vol. E184, An Introduction to Environmental Ethics. Cambridge: Grove Books Limited.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hope, Chris. 2006. The marginal impact of CO2 from PAGE2002: An integrated assessment model incorporating the IPCC's five reasons for concern. Integrated Assessment. 6, 19-56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Houghton, J.T., ed. 2001. Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Interagency Working Group on Social Cost of Carbon. 2013. Technical Support Document: Technical Update of the Social Cost of Carbon for Regulatory Impact Analysis. Under Executive Order 12866, United States Government, May 2013, Revised November 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • Intergovernmental Panel on Climate. 2014. Climate Change 2013 - The Physical Science Basis: Working Group I Contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaya, Yōichi, and Keiichi Yokobori, eds. 1997. Environment, Energy, and Economy: Strategies for Sustainability. Tokyo: United Nations University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lester, Richard K. and Finan, Ashley. 2009. Quantifying the Impact of Proposed Carbon Emission Reductions on the U.S. Energy Infrastructure, Energy Innovation Working Paper Series. MIT-IPC-Energy Innovation Working Paper 09-006, October 21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marten, Alex L. 2011. Transient Temperatures Response Modeling in IAMs: The Effects of Over Simplification on the SCC. Economics The Open Access E-Journal 5 (2011–18) October 20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mastrandrea, Michael D. 2009. Calculating the Benefits of Climate Policy: Examining the Assumptions of Integrated Assessment Models. In Pew Center for Climate Change Report, Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mendelsohn, R., A. Dinar, and A. Sanghi. 2001. The Effect of Development on the Climate Sensitivity of Agriculture. In Environment and Development Economics, 6 (1), 85–101. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCosker, Philip, and Denys Turner, eds. 2016. The Cambridge Companion to the Summa Theologiae. Cambridge Companions to Religion. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McFague, Sallie. 2008. A New Climate for Theology: God, the World, and Global Warming. Minneapolis, Minn: Fortress Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2013. Blessed Are the Consumers: Climate Change and the Practice of Restraint. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moe-Lobeda, Cynthia D. 2013. Resisting Structural Evil: Love as Ecological-Economic Vocation. Fortress Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Moltmann, Jürgen. 2010. Ethik der Hoffnung. 1. Aufl. Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verl.-Haus.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nakićenović, Nebojša. 2000. Special Report On Emissions Scenarios: A Special Report of Working Group Iii of the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Niebuhr, Reinhold. 2001. Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics. Library of Theological Ethics. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nordhaus, William D. 2008. A Question of Balance: Weighing the Options On Global Warming Policies. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2011. Estimates of the Social Cost of Carbon: Background and Results from the RICE-2011 Model, Working Paper 17540, National Bureau of Economic Research, October.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2013. The Climate Casino: Risk, Uncertainty, and Economics for a Warming World. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nordhaus, William D. and Joseph Boyer. 2000. Warming the World: Economic Models of Global Warming.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nordhaus, William and Sztorc, Paul. 2013. “DICE 2013R: Introduction and User’s Manual.” Second edition.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pachauri, R.K., and Leo Mayer, eds. 2015. Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Geneva, Switzerland: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

    Google Scholar 

  • Passel, Steven Van. 2012. A Ricardian Analysis of the Impact of Climate Change on European Agriculture, CIP—Climate Impacts and Policy Division, Research Papers Issue RP0164, December.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters, Ted. 2000. God—The World’s Future: Systematic Theology for a New Era. 2nd ed. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rasmussen, Larry L. 2015. Earth-Honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rolston, Holmes, III. 2011. A New Environmental Ethics. London, UK: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salvo, Maria De, Diego Begalli, and Giovanni Signorello. 2013. Measuring the Effect of Climate Change on Agriculture: A Literature Review of Analytical Models. Journal of Development and Agricultural Economics 5 (12): 499–509.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Santmire, H. Paul. 1985. The Travail of Nature: The Ambiguous Ecological Promise of Christian Theology. Theology and the Sciences. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas. 1990. A Summa of the Summa: The Essential Philosophical Passages of St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica. San Francisco: Ignatius Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tol, Richard S. 2002. Estimates of the Damage Costs of Climate Change. Part 1: Benchmark Estimates. Environmental and Resource Economics 21, 47–73, https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014500930521.

  • Tol, Richard S. 2005. The marginal damage costs of carbon dioxide emissions: an assessment of the uncertainties. Energy Policy, 33(16), 2064-2074.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tol, Richard S. 2014. Climate Economics: Economic Analysis of Climate, Climate Change and Climate Policy. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Passel, S., E. Massetti, and R. Mendelsohn. 2016. A Ricardian Analysis of the Impact of Climate Change on European Agriculture. Springer Science + Business Media Dordrecht 2016, 16 February 2016/Published online: 5 March 2016. Environmental and Resource Economics 67: 725–760. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-016-0001-y.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • World Commission on Environment and Development. 1987. Our Common Future. Oxford Paperbacks. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Myoung-Ho Sin

Authors
  1. Myoung-Ho Sin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Myoung-Ho Sin .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Dharma Studies, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Rita D. Sherma

  2. The University of Melbourne, San Anselmo, CA, USA

    Purushottama Bilimoria

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Sin, MH. (2022). A Threefold Approach of Ecology, Economy, and Theology to Face Climate Change with Respect and Kindness. In: Sherma, R.D., Bilimoria, P. (eds) Religion and Sustainability: Interreligious Resources, Interdisciplinary Responses. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79301-2_9

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation