Abstract

This chapter investigates the varying stances of the great religions on climate change, their historical backgrounds, and reasons for the diversity to be found among their recent statements. It responds to criticisms of the stewardship interpretation of Christianity and considers the contrasting view that the roots of contemporary ecological problems including that of climate change lie in religious acquiescence in early modern economic individualism. The degree of lasting impact of these stances is held to depend on the attitudes of the different religions to structural change and reform.