How the World's Religions are Responding to Climate Change: Social Scientific Investigations(Routledge Advances in Climate Change Research)

A growing chorus of voices has suggested that the world’s religions may become critical actors as the climate crisis unfolds, particularly in light of international paralysis on the issue. In recent years, many faiths have begun to address climate change and its consequences for human societies, especially the world’s poor. This is the first volume to use social science to examine how religions are helping to address one of the most significant and far-reaching challenges of our time. While there is a growing literature in theology and ethics about climate change and religion, little research has been previously published about the ways in which religious institutions, groups and individuals are responding to the problem of climate change. Seventeen research-driven chapters are written by sociologists, anthropologists, geographers and other social scientists. This book explores what effects religions are having, what barriers they are running into or creating, and what this means for the global struggle to address climate change.

Table of Contents:
1. Social Science, Religions, and Climate Change PART I: THE GLOBAL SOUTH 2. A Retreating Goddess? Conflicting Perceptions of Ecological Change near the Gangotri-Gaumukh Glacier 3. Religion, Indigenous Knowledge and Climate Change in a Mountain Region: a Case Study of Thini Village, Mustang, Nepal 4. Climate Change Projects in the Land of Gross National Happiness: Does Religion Play a Role in Environmental Policy in Bhutan? 5. Pursuing Diplomacy Overseas, Fostering Adaptation at Home: The Church of Bangladesh’s Proactive Responses to Climate Change 6. From Theology to a Praxis of "Eco-Jihad": The Role of Religious Civil Society Organizations in Combating Climate Change in Indonesia 7. Churches building resiliency to climate change in Solomon Islands 8. Prophecies and Climate Change in the Mam Altiplano of Guatemala 9. Religious Perspectives on Climate Change in the West Ivoirian Mountainous Region 10. Climate Change and Indigenous African Religion: A Case Study of the Transitional Ecological Zone of Ghana PART 2: THE GLOBAL NORTH 11. Stepping up to the Plate: Climate Change, Faith Communities and Effective Environmental Advocacy in Canada 12. The U.S. Catholic Response to "Climate Change" 13. "How Many Presbyterians Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb?": Confronting Global Climate Change in the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. 14. Keep Christianity Brown! Climate Denial on the Christian Right in the United States 15. Christian and Muslim Climate Activists Fasting and Praying for the Planet: Emotional Translation of "Dark Green" Activism and Green-Faith Identities 16. "Healing the Land" in the Canadian Arctic: Evangelism, knowledge, and climate change PART 3: THE TRANSNATIONAL CONTEXT 17. An Investigation of Perception of Climate Change Risk, Environmental Values and Development Programming in a Faith-based International Development Organization 18. International Advocacy for Climate Justice 19. How Are the World’s Religions Responding to Climate Change?

About the Author :
Robin Globus Veldman is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Religion at the University of Florida, USA. Andrew Szasz is Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, USA. Randolph Haluza-DeLay is an associate professor of sociology at The King’s University College in Alberta, Canada.

Review :
"This book opens a research agenda that is long overdue". - W. Jenkins, Department of Religious Studies, University of Virginia