God, Creation and Climate Change: A Catholic Response to the Environmental Crisis, Richard W. Miller, Editor

This small book consists of six essays plus a panel discussion on the present crisis of global warming and climate change. They address various aspects of the problem, and include an urgent call to action. The editor points out that although scientists throughout the world have been speaking out about this urgent world crisis for many years, solutions to the problem are slow in coming.

In the first essay, Miller quotes NASA's James Hasen, the world's most famous climatist, as saying that there is a tremendous gap between the findings of world scientists and the belief of the general public. For example, 97% of climate specialists agree that human activity is a major cause of global warming and the dramatic climate changes evident throughout the world --but only 58% of the public believes this. A main reason for this unbelief is that some aspects of global warming are not immediately evident. No one can experience personally the vast period of time that proves its existence…although recent climate changes all around the world clearly show the results of this phenomenon. Many examples abound showing the vast gap between scientific findings and the belief of the general public.

Miller gives hundreds of proofs of world temperature changes and he predicts frightening results that are already beginning.

Judgment Day, by Paul Collins; The Struggle for Life on Earth.

Paul Collins is the author of eleven books on religion, the environment and history. He lives in Canberra, Australia. This book is a powerful warning of the perils of global warming and a mobilization of the Christian conscience to change our thinking, our ways of acting, and so to save our planet.

Anonymous remarks: "The recent Gulf oil spill is just the latest depredation against the planet. From every direction come signs of global change and other forms of ecological disaster that threatens the future of all living beings. In this sobering assessment of our condition, Paul Collins examines the nature of this crisis and how we got here--including a review of the mental habits of thought, including religious worldviews, that have contributed to our dilemma and continue to inhibit effective action."

"As Collins shows, if religious ideas have contributed to the problem, there are also powerful resources within the Christian tradition that can help us--both in scripture and in the work of prophetic "geolo-gians" like Thomas Berry and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Drawing on these resources, Collins lays out the elements of a theology aimed at saving the earth and ourselves."

My additions: Besides the frightening reality of global warming, drastic climate upheavals and changes throughout the world and the equally frightening fact regarding the continually increasing pollution of the earth's atmosphere, land, water and all other resources, and the many thousands of species that are rapidly disappearing from the earth--factors of the present earth crisis that are addressed by most ecologists and environmentalists, Collins includes a chapter on world population, showing that the majority of countries are fast approaching (or exceeding) populations much greater than their carrying capacity--and the populations of most of these countries are steadily increasing. This factor of over-population alone is nearly impossible to solve in a morally acceptable manner.

Read Judgment Day, and see how enormous are the challenges to keeping our earth healthy and alive.