The global average temperature is about 1° Fahrenheit higher than it was a century ago. This one degree has caused a lot of fuss, including one of my least favorite vice presidents, Al Gore, winning a share of the Nobel Peace Prize.
The fuss isn’t all bad. I may disagree with the way that Al Gore wants to turn around our pollution problems, but I am glad for the new awareness that has been born from all the hoopla he has created. Unfortunately, many Christians are unable to get past the politics to see the need to take responsibility in caring for creation.
I have lost count of the number of conversations where I thought the topic was our responsibility to care for creation, but within a couple of minutes, we are talking about politics and global warming. Is it possible to have good dialogue with a Christian about the environment without changing the subject to how bad Al Gore and the Democrats are? I don’t want to talk about how to clean up Al Gore, I want to talk about how to clean up our environment. I want to talk about the small steps that I can take to contribute to a larger community of effort. That discussion has nothing to do with politics.
When it comes to the politics of this discussion, I recognize that there are a lot of dollars at stake in the federal government. There is a lot to debate when it comes to the government’s role in keeping clean the air, water, and land of the brave. However, I think it would benefit us to separate the two issues, so that personal responsibility doesn’t get lost in a debate over where to draw political lines.
Curious Heretic 
I have a question to pose… this, in sincere curiosity and a humble quest for balanced biblical scholarship… I need help to see some examples of “biblical conservationists” (my own quote) and then perhaps I will have an easier time seeing this topic as a necessary facet of my own personal Christian theology. Not that everything I involve myself in has to find its roots there, but when I lack motivation for something, I seem to trace it back to my understanding of God’s word (He did, after all, create things). What I mean is that I lack either the knowledge or scholarship necessary in order to see where this fits into my theology and therefore have omitted it. Perhaps carelessly so or maybe by willful, albeit somehow unconscious omission, but it is absent nonetheless. Now, I’m all for being a good steward of what I’ve been entrusted and I certainly do count myself to be one of humanity’s lackluster cast and crew on this intrepidly revolving sphere, far-flung into outer space, but I appear to lack the Biblical precedent on how to conduct myself where the environment as a whole is concerned. Maybe it’s not knowledge but wisdom I seek? Facts and data may be superfluous on the subject, but maybe – just maybe – if I had a higher (gulp), even spiritual objective here, then I would be more apt to put it into its proper context of things like duty, honor, obligation, and even heritage or inheritance. So. Can someone please help this way-faring, torch-bearing, adolescent earth-treader to find higher ground? I thank you.
Ok… So, I offer this in an attempt to self-reply to my previous comment, a mini-conversation (not to be confused with conservation), http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21656644/