As environmentalism becomes an increasingly popular cause, a religious route to reduction is gaining steam
By Day Greenberg Posted 03.05.2008 at 11:32 am 2 Comments

Holy Bulb:
Boston’s doing it. D.C.’s doing it. The entire Church of England’s doing it. Christians around the world are giving up something besides chocolate and potato chips this year for Lent. They’re giving up their carbon footprint.

As public fervor for environmentalism grows, religious heads are increasingly taking a green stance on how their flock should tend to what the Bible terms a “gift from God.” Trading dryers for clotheslines, cars for bikes and exotic fare for a meal of locally grown food, Christians are taking advantage of this time of sacrifice to give up something that could yield a greater reward than a trimmer waistline.

The website Tearfund.org is running a campaign to let Christians know why they should add the environment to their list of important causes. For one, it aligns with a goal to help the impoverished, as climate change and natural disasters have a greater effect on poorer populations.

Still, no matter the denomination or time of year, it's a bandwagon worth hitching onto.

Want to learn more about the environment, solar energy, sustainability, and more? Subscribe to Popular Science today, for less than $1 per issue!

2 Comments

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dog who wants s...
03/13/08 at 7:49 pm

this is only a comment about a psuedo safe product. I recenlty learned that these energy saving light bulbs contains mercury, if handled wihtout caution and they break the mercury will be released and mercury is dangerous. Please consider using traditional light bulbs or energy saving light bulbs that do not contain mercury. Unfortunately, the packaging for these light bulbs doe not reveal that the bulbs contain any mercury or how to dispose of them safely.

Link to this comment
Dlanor14
03/18/08 at 7:57 pm

Yeah i heard that they would have to be deposited in toxic waste dumps. But nobody does that. They just go right into the trash. In the long run using traditional bulbs is the way to go if you are concerned about the environment.


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