Tackling climate change through prayer
The recently released United Nations report on climate change is one of both warning and hope. Each of us can let God inspire in us the love, peace of mind, and wisdom that help us play our part in caring for the planet.
This week, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report that conveyed an urgent need to address climate change. Another key takeaway of the report is one of hope: that dire outcomes aren’t inevitable. (For more about the IPCC’s report, check out “Climate report: Hope is not lost, but ‘we need to move faster,’” CSMonitor.com, Aug. 10, 2021.)
We’ve compiled some pieces from The Christian Science Publishing Society’s archives that highlight the value of prayer in tackling climate issues. Within each one you’ll find ideas to inspire your own prayers and actions to improve our environment and nurture hope and healing in the world around us.
“Expanding your footprint in a helpful way” explores how expressing our God-given goodness enables each of us to contribute to the improvement of our environment.
“The whole world in His hands” is a short (5-minute) podcast on how we can face fears of climate change with spiritual poise and a greater expectancy of finding solutions.
In “Caring spiritually for our human environment,” a man shares how a spiritual perspective of nature brought hope for sustainable solutions to environmental issues – and also freed him from recurring pain and breathing difficulties associated with smog in his city.
The author of “Lazarus and the biosphere” explores the relevance of lessons from Jesus’ healing ministry to contemporary environmental problems.
In “Climate change, politics, and prayer,” a former federal policy advisor shares inspiration that played a key role in her work on bipartisan climate change legislation.
“When we have the willingness to cast out of our own thinking sin, fear, even worldly mortal opinions, condemnations, and prophecies,” an engineering professor writes in “A divinely scientific solution to climate change,” “then our consciousness – now reflecting the divine Mind – can bring real change through our prayers, empowered as they are by our reflected love for humanity and our earth.”
The author of “How can we pray for our environment?” considers how an understanding of God’s care for His universe helps us become more open to solutions to environmental issues.