Environmentalism as faith
It’s not the connection I would make, but the analysis of what counts as “religious faith” (i.e., at least organized religion) is not uncommon.
Faith is belief without verifiable evidence. This unquestioned adherence to the theory of Global Warming bears all the markings of what traditionally would be recognized as a religion. Complete with sin (the emitting of carbon dioxide), scriptures (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment reports), commandments (drive a Prius, use Compact Florescent Light bulbs, do not eat meat etc.), indulgences (carbon offsets), proselytism, prophets (Al Gore), priests (scientists), prophecy and apocalypse (floods, hurricanes, dead polar bears), infidels (Warming skeptics), and salvation (the halting of carbon emitting industrial progress) the religion of Global Warming fits the mold.
Climate change and a crisis of faith
[Worshipers at a shrine in Muranga pray facing Mt. Kenya during a ceremony to ask for rain. They also sacrificed a goat. The 17,057-foot mountain has lost 92% of its glacier cover over the last 100 years. Edmund Sanders / Los Angeles Times]
It’s easy to see why religious people would have any number of responses to the problem of climate change. Some have taken climate change as an opportunity to practice what they see as a God-given stewardship over the earth. Some, on the other hand, think that the earth is God’s gift to humanity and that it is our to use. Although I wouldn’t go so far as to say these folks think it’s OK to abuse the earth, perhaps people in this group wouldn’t call certain environmental practices as form of abuse.