Just as 17th century mathematician Pascal considered risks faced in a potential afterlife if he doubted the existence of God and discovered he was wrong (“Pascal’s Wager”), one can consider the risk of denying climate change and discovering its reality too late.
You believe in human-caused climate change, and climate change exists, so you take actions to mitigate greenhouse gases by reducing your carbon footprint and improving renewable energy sources to provide for long-term availability.
You believe in human-caused climate change, and there is no climate change, so you take those same steps and unwittingly improve the environment and create new jobs for a new future.
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In addition, religious leaders of most faiths acknowledge climate change and the necessity to act now for the sake of social justice. This year, Pope Francis will issue an encyclical to urge 1.2 billion Catholics to take action on climate change. As Jim Wallis of Sojourners stated, “Climate change is about people, not just science and politics — it is an intergenerational ethics issue.”
We have nothing to lose and everything to gain by acting on climate change now.