'Hope In A Dark Time'

A guest lecturer spoke about the positive effects of using religion and religious leaders to combat climate change and promote the environmental movement worldwide in the Konover Auditorium at the Dodd Center Thursday night, as part of the Edwin Way Teale lecture series.

The talk, titled "Hope in a Dark Time: The Promise of Religious Environmentalism," was given by Roger Gottlieb, who worked at UConn from 1974 to 1977 as a visiting assistant professor, and who currently teaches philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Gottlieb began his lecture by telling the audience that in regards to the current state of the environment, "if you're not depressed, then you haven't been paying attention."

However Gottlieb quickly said that there is "hope in this dark time" and that hope is religious environmentalism, which is rooted in many religious beliefs that the planet was given to humans by a higher power, and that we have a moral and religious duty to protect it.

While roots of religious environmentalism have always existed, many religions have not acknowledged the need for conservation until recently, Gottlieb said. During the Industrial Revolution, for example, many Christian leaders worried about the fair distribution of products created by new technology but did not question how the technology was affecting the environment.

Now, however, many religious leaders are calling for environmental conservation. The Vatican, for example, has recently declared environmental destruction a sin, according to UConn geography professor Anji Seth, who introduced Gottlieb.

"Religions which had been in some ways a significant part of the problem have in some ways turned themselves to be part of the solution," Gottlieb said.

Religion can be a powerful tool for protecting the environment because it can bring people together and rally support for a cause, Gottlieb said, citing the religious roots of the American civil rights movement as an example.

"If you look historically you will see many times where a religious movement has been essential to fundamental change," Gottlieb said. "It can only help if there are religious voices for this one"

Another way in which religion can be used to protect the environment is through the authority of religious leaders, Gottlieb said. One example of this can be found in Tanzania, where dynamite is used by local fishermen. This method of fishing involves throwing the dynamite into the water and gathering the dead fish that float to the water's surface after the explosion. While this is a quick and efficient way of fishing, it is also harmful to the environment because it kills too many fish and damages coral reefs, according to Gottlieb.

Although many environmentalists and politicians told the Tanzanian fishermen to stop this practice of fishing, their instructions were ignored. Then a religious environmental organization spoke to the local Islamic leader, who consulted the Koran and decided that harming the environment was un-Islamic, according to Gottlieb. After the Islamic leader spoke with the local fishermen, the practice of fishing with dynamite declined by 95 percent.

"The power of the religious mentality and its fundamental connection to the population at large gives it a certain kind of strength," Gottlieb said.

Martha Divver, an 8th-semester ecology and evolutionary biology major, enjoyed Gottlieb's lecture and said that she is "motivated to read his books now."

"I thought it was interesting how he tied together the church-and-state with religious environmentalism," Divver said. "You can't avoid religion in politics."

Gottlieb has written or edited 14 books and more than 80 articles on the topics of environmentalism, political philosophy and disability. His lecture was the fifth of six in the 2007 - 2008 Edwin Way Teale Lecture series, which examines environmental issues.

Contact Kate King at Katherine.King@UConn.edu.