How the World's Religions are Responding to Climate Change: Social Scientific Investigations

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.

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.