Theologian on churches' responsibility for environmental damage

Mark Colvin reported this story on Monday, October 4, 2010 18:32:00

MARK COLVIN: Christianity and all the major religious faiths have devalued and abused the natural world.

That's the message of a new book by the former Catholic priest and broadcaster Paul Collins.

Judgement Day says Christianity has been a major part of the planet's ecological problems but argues that it can also be art of the solution.

I asked Paul Collins to what extent Christianity had been responsible for the many species extinctions of the last few centuries.

Global Warming Reaches Deep Ocean Depths

By Environment 360

24 September, 2010
E360.yale.edu

The warming trend on the planet has reached deep into world oceans over the last two decades, particularly in the waters around Antarctica, according to a new study. While earlier studies have shown that the upper levels of the planet’s oceans are getting warmer, scientists with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say their latest research shows that waters at a depth of 3,300 feet and more have absorbed about 16 percent of the heat accumulating in the upper layers of the ocean.

While the temperature increase is relatively slight — about 0.02 degrees C per decade in the Southern Ocean, and less elsewhere — researchers say it’s still a significant increase given the massive volume of water involved and the high capacity of water to absorb heat. That temperature increase has not only caused ocean water to expand worldwide, increasing sea levels, but has contributed to the melting of some Antarctic ice sheets, according to the paper, published in the Journal of Climate. Sea levels around Antarctica have increased by 3 millimeters annually — about an eighth of an inch — since 1993.