Perhaps You'd Like A Basic Field Guide To Popular Eco-Speak Around You?
For The Many Bewildered Boomers That Some Of The Others Enjoy Mocking..Well, Here Ya Go!
And not only do they feel responsible for saving the Earth, but for getting you involved in that primary effort as well.
Personally, I remember terms like please don't litter. Do drive your car but don't pollute by dumping the old oil out onto the dirt when you change it.
But today we often hear words like: renewable. Environmental footprint. Responsible tourism. sustainable. Religious diversity also helps the environment (like when you travel, Gobs of idols!), Are you eco-friendly? How much so? Hilf uns!
WHAT.. THE SACRED TEXTS (Core Doctrine)?
Sustainability — The alpha and omega of green religion. Everything must be sustainable. Your coffee. Your sneakers. Your feelings.
Carbon Footprint — How guilty you should feel for existing. Driving to church? That's a sin. Flying to a mission trip? Unforgivable.
Net Zero — The environmental rapture. The goal toward which all green believers strive.
Carbon Neutral — Like net zero but with more tote bags.
Carbon Offset — Buying your way out of eco-guilt. Basically environmental indulgences. Martin Luther would have thoughts.
Decarbonize — Remove all carbon. Including, apparently, the carbon-based life forms who eat cheeseburgers.
WHAT.. THE SACRAMENTS (Food & Diet)?
Plant-Based — The new term for food that tastes like mulch but costs $18 at a restaurant with Edison bulbs.
Kale — The dietary equivalent of spiritual suffering. Somebody somewhere decided this was food. They were wrong. Kale is from hell. It tastes like a lawn mower's regret.
Superfood — Any food that tastes terrible and costs triple. The worse it tastes, the more super it apparently is.
Oat Milk — Water that briefly met an oat. Now $7 at Starbucks.
Almond Milk — Water that briefly met an almond. Requires 15 gallons of California water per almond. Somehow still eco-friendly. Nobody examines this.
Regenerative Agriculture — Farming, but with a TED Talk.
Whole Foods — A grocery store where you can spend $300 and leave mildly hungry.
Flexitarian — A vegetarian who occasionally cracks and eats a burger, then repents via Instagram.
Reducetarian — Like a flexitarian but with a longer word and deeper guilt.
Farm-to-Table — Your food traveled less than your Uber Eats driver. You pay extra for the privilege.
Locally Sourced — Made within 50 miles. Unless "locally" needs redefining, in which case 500 miles is fine.
Organic — Costs 40% more. Occasionally has a bug in it. This is considered a feature.
Non-GMO — The label exists primarily to charge you more money.
Heirloom — Old. We used to just call it old. Now it's artisanal old.
Kombucha — Fermented tea that smells like a middle school locker room. People drink it voluntarily. Daily.
Spirulina — Pond algae in your smoothie. You are paying for pond algae.
Tempeh — Fermented soybean cake. The word itself sounds like a dental procedure.
Jackfruit — A large tropical fruit dressed up as pulled pork. Nobody is fooled. Nobody.
Beyond Meat / Impossible Burger — Highly processed lab food marketed as natural. The irony goes unexamined.
WHAT.. THE CLERGY (Who Speaks For The Movement)?
Eco-Warrior — Someone who will argue with you on Twitter for three hours about your paper cup.
Climate Activist — Flies first class to climate conferences to discuss your airline emissions.
Sustainability Consultant — Gets paid to tell corporations to use smaller straws.
Conscious Consumer — Has opinions about your grocery bag that you did not ask for.
Ethical Influencer — Posts about the environment from a $4,000 camera on a $600 phone made in a factory overseas.
WHAT.. THE VESTMENTS (What They Wear)?
Ethically Sourced — Someone, somewhere, was paid fairly. Allegedly.
Fair Trade — See above, but with better branding.
Upcycled Fashion — Ripped jeans that used to be something else. Now they cost more.
Vintage — Used clothing rebranded as aspirational.
Slow Fashion — Buy less, pay more, feel righteous. Simple math.
B Corp Certified — The company filled out a questionnaire. They are now morally superior.
WHAT.. THE TRANSPORTATION LITURGY?
Prius — The original virtue signal on four wheels. Drives 55 in the left lane. Covered in bumper stickers.
Tesla — The Prius for people who also want to feel wealthy. Charged by a coal plant. Details.
EV — Electric Vehicle. The grid powering it is your problem to figure out.
Carbon-Neutral Flight — You paid $12 extra to plant a tree somewhere. The plane still flew.
Bike Commuter — Will tell you unprompted. Every time.
Walkable City — A city where people don't drive. Also called "anywhere in Europe that costs twice as much to live in."
Micro-Mobility — A scooter you didn't park correctly and someone tripped over.
WHAT.. THE SANCTUARY (Home & Living)?
Eco-Friendly — Marginally less harmful. The bar is not high.
Green Building — Has a plant somewhere on the roof. Certified by someone.
LEED Certified — The building got points for having a bike rack nobody uses.
Passive House — An extremely well-insulated house with its own ideology.
Off-Grid — No electricity. They will blog about it extensively from their phone.
Tiny House — 200 square feet of minimalism. Shown on HGTV to people in 2,400 square feet who will never do this.
Composting — Keeping your trash in a second, smellier trash container inside your kitchen. For the Earth.
Zero Waste — A lifestyle where you produce no trash. This person is exhausting at dinner parties.
Low-Impact Living — Living with intense awareness of every purchase. No one has ever achieved this and remained pleasant.
Minimalism — Owning less stuff but talking about it constantly. Books have been written. Many books. About owning fewer things.
Capsule Wardrobe — 30 items of clothing, all beige, all expensive, all discussed at length on YouTube.
WAHT.. THE REVERENT PILGRIMAGE?
Responsible Tourism — Tourism with a brochure about turtles.
Eco-Tourism — Fly 9 hours to see a rainforest. The irony is structural.
Sustainable Travel — Traveling but feeling appropriately conflicted about it.
Voluntourism — Vacation plus one afternoon digging a hole somewhere. Instagram required.
Leave No Trace — The one genuinely good idea on this entire list. Kurt's grandfather called it "don't litter."
WHAT.. THE SACRAMENTAL OBJECTS?
Reusable Tote Bag — You have 47 of them. So does everyone. Cotton tote bags require 20,000 uses to break even environmentally. Do the math.
Stanley Cup / Hydro Flask — A $45 water bottle that is a personality.
Metal Straw — Saves the turtles. Has stabbed at least three people.
Bamboo Toothbrush — Bristles are still plastic. Nobody mentions this.
Beeswax Wrap — Replaces plastic wrap. Costs four times as much. Smells like a candle shop.
Menstrual Cup — Appeared on this list because sustainability knows no limits.
Solar Panels — Good idea. Also a neighborhood flex.
Smart Thermostat — Your house now has opinions and will share them via app.
WHAT.. THE VOCABULARY (Their General Liturgical Terms)?
Greenwashing — When a corporation pretends to care. Which is most of the time.
Biodegradable — Will eventually break down. In 400 years. Still counts.
Circular Economy — Everything gets reused. In theory. In practice, it goes to a landfill in a different country.
Renewable Energy — Solar and wind. Real and good. Also currently requires fossil fuels to build and maintain. Still net positive. The nuance gets omitted.
Single-Use Plastic — The Great Satan of green theology. More demonized than actual demons.
Microplastics — Plastic so small it's in your bloodstream. This one is actually not funny.
Biodiversity — Lots of different species. Genuinely important. Also used to mean anything vaguely nature-adjacent.
Ecosystem Services — What nature does for free that economists now put a dollar value on.
Rewilding — Letting land go back to wild. Good for animals. Confusing to HOA boards.
Degrowth — The economy should shrink on purpose. The economists who propose this still want to be paid.
ESG — Environmental, Social, Governance. Corporate buzzword bingo. Your retirement fund now has feelings.
Scope 1, 2, and 3 Emissions — How corporations count their carbon guilt. Scope 3 is where they hide the most.
Nature-Based Solutions — Plant a tree. But make it a 47-slide PowerPoint first.
Planetary Boundaries — Nine limits the Earth has. We have crossed several. This part is not a joke.
Regenerative — Better than sustainable. Restores instead of just maintains. Actually a good concept buried under the jargon.
Intersectionality — When environmentalism meets every other social cause simultaneously in one very long panel discussion.
Environmental Justice — The observation that poor communities get the pollution. Legitimate point, frequently hijacked.
Biophilic Design — Put plants in your office. Charge $400 per square foot extra for it.
Anthropocene — The geological era named after humans because we broke things at a geological scale.
Greener Pastures — Wait, that one was always ours. Psalm 23 was sustainable before it was trending.
What is biblical stewardship?
HEY, EVERYONE NEEDS THE GRACE OF JESUS, NO MATTER THE GENERATION THEY ARE FROM
There is indeed sound stewardship of creation. Please pick up after yourself with the pollution you leave behind. That's considerate. Genesis 2:15 assigns to believers that we are to tend and keep the garden on earth. Not get hyper-focused and obsessed with Earth. That is a real mandate, though. Wisely show real care for the people and what God has made for people to enjoy. This is not optional for any serious believer.
But the movement around it has become a replacement religion for millions who have no other transcendence. Same human need for meaning, purity, confession, and community. Different altar.
The Christian response is never to mock all of it wholesale, but to challenge the minds and hearts of valued people to live in the will of God. Challenge their thinking regarding proper priorities and steward His creation faithfully without worshiping any of it, and to zealously, tactfully point people to Jesus the Creator whose name is still above every sustainability framework ever written about.
But, Kurt, isn't Kale from haaaell? Tell me what God has to say. Okay...
1 Peter 4:10 (vvs from ESV)
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:
Genesis 1:28
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Genesis 2:15
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
2 Corinthians 9:6-7
The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
Colossians 3:23
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,
Luke 16:11
If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?
Proverbs 16:3
Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.
Titus 1:7
For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain,
Malachi 3:10
Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.
1 Corinthians 4:2
Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.
Luke 14:28
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?
John 3:27
John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven."
Luke 12:42-46
And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful."
1 Timothy 6:17-19
As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
Proverbs 13:22
A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the sinner's wealth is laid up for the righteous.
1 Timothy 6:7-8
For we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.
Proverbs 21:20
Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours it.
Psalm 24:1
A Psalm of David. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,
Proverbs 3:9
Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce;
Deuteronomy 8:18
You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
Of course, some eco-concerns are valid about legitimate stewardship.
Dumping waste in rivers, poisoning soil, strip-mining without care — these are genuinely poor stewardship of what God owns. Do not let the false religion around environmentalism cause you to dismiss legitimate responsibility.
But the green movement's core theological claims directly contradict Scripture at multiple points. Here is where the collision happens.
WHAT'S THE FOUNDATIONAL TRUTH THEY LOVE TO HIJACK?
Psalm 24:1 — "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it."
The eco-movement borrows the sense of this verse but strips out the Owner. They treat the earth as sacred without acknowledging the One who made it sacred. That is not stewardship. That is theft of a concept followed by worship of the creation instead of the Creator.
Romans 1:25 — Paul identifies this exact error: exchanging "the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator."
Modern environmentalism as a religion is Romans 1:25 with a reusable tote bag.
WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT EARTH'S FUTURE (See Contexts)
This is where Scripture most directly contradicts the eco-gospel. The green movement's entire premise is: humanity must save the planet or it dies. Scripture says something categorically different.
2 Peter 3:10-13 "The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare... That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells."
God has already announced the earth's end and planned its replacement. He is not wringing His hands over carbon levels. The planet's ultimate fate is not in Elon Musk's hands or a Paris Agreement document. God holds that exclusively.
Revelation 21:1 — "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away."
The old earth is not being rescued. It is being replaced. By God. On His timeline.
Isaiah 65:17 — "See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind."
This does not mean trash the place. It means do not build your eschatology around saving something God has already scheduled for demolition and replacement with something far better.
Sup with real climate cycles?
Genesis 8:22 is the most direct answer in all of Scripture:
Genesis 8:22 — "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease."
God Himself established the cyclical nature of seasons, temperatures, and natural rhythms immediately after the flood as a covenant promise. Cold and heat cycling is not a crisis. It is God's design feature, promised to continue as long as the earth exists.
Ecclesiastes 1:5-7 — Solomon observed natural cycles with striking scientific accuracy:
"The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again."
The water cycle. Wind patterns. Solar cycles. Solomon saw cyclical natural systems and concluded they were part of the established order, not a catastrophe requiring political intervention.
Job 38-39 — God's answer to Job is essentially a masterclass in meteorology and cosmology. God asks Job directly: "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Have you entered the storehouses of the snow? Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades? Do you bring forth the constellations in their seasons?"
God is saying plainly: I run the climate. You do not. I set the boundaries of the seas. I control the rain. I direct the lightning. The arrogance of any movement that believes human policy can override or rescue what God governs is directly addressed in these chapters.
Psalm 104:5-9 — God "set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved. You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment... You set a boundary they cannot cross; never again will they cover the earth."
God established physical limits on what nature can do. He set the boundaries.
WHERE IS THE COMMAND TO SAVE THE PLANET?
You asked directly: where does Scripture command saints or sinners to save the planet or manage climate change?
The honest answer: nowhere. That command does not exist in Scripture.
What Scripture does say about human responsibility toward creation:
Genesis 2:15 — "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it."
Work it and take care of it. That is the mandate. Tend what is entrusted to you. Do not waste or destroy recklessly. This is stewardship language, not salvation language. You are a caretaker, not a savior.
Numbers 35:33-34 — God commanded Israel not to pollute the land. Basic pollution avoidance was a real command. Do not dump your oil in the dirt, Kurt. That part was always right.
Proverbs 12:10 — "A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal." Responsible care of creation reflects righteous character.
That is the full scope of the creation mandate. Tend it. Do not abuse it. But you are not its savior. Christ is the Savior. Of people.
THE FALSE GOSPEL EXPOSED
The popular eco-religion makes several theological claims that Scripture directly refutes:
Claim: Humanity is destroying the planet and must save it.
Scripture: God owns it, governs it, and has already determined its end. Human stewardship matters. Human salvation of the planet is not a biblical category.
Claim: The earth is sacred and must be preserved at all costs.
Scripture: The earth is the Lord's property, not an object of worship. It will be destroyed and replaced by God on purpose.
Claim: Human activity is the primary threat to Earth's future.
Scripture: God set boundaries the seas cannot cross. Job 38. God controls climate, weather, and natural systems. Human humility is required here.
Claim: If we act now we can fix the planet.
Scripture: 2 Peter 3 says the current earth ends in fire by divine decree. No political agreement changes that trajectory.
Claim: Veganism and plant-based eating is more ethical and enlightened.
Scripture: Genesis 9:3 — "Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything." God gave the steak. Eat it.
1 Timothy 4:1-5 — Paul directly addresses dietary restriction as false teaching: "They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving... For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving."
The Holy Spirit specifically warned people about some food restrictions in general terms as a marker of false teaching. Go check it out. That is not a coincidence. If a believer is free to eat pig, go for it. It's cleaner these days than before.
THE MAIN THING.. IS TO KEEP THE MAIN THINGS THE MAIN THINGS - YEP PRIORITIES IN ORDER! WISELY WALK IN LOVE!
Matthew 24:35 — "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away."
The earth is temporary. The Word is eternal. Prioritize accordingly.
Matthew 6:19-20 — "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth... but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven."
Many people in the popular green movement store up treasures on earth literally, Gavin, and philosophically. Scripture redirects that energy entirely.
2 Corinthians 5:20 — You are an ambassador for Christ. Your mission is reconciling people to God, not reconciling carbon levels to pre-industrial baselines.
Romans 8:19-22 — Creation itself groans, waiting not for a climate agreement, but for the revealing of the sons of God. Creation's redemption is tied to humanity's redemption in Christ, not to human political policy.
The earth's restoration comes through the gospel and ultimately through Christ's second coming -- His return here. Not through a nice Prius and a Kale diet.
IS THERE AN HONEST BOTTOM LINE?
Choose to repent and believe in the Jesus of the Bible -- opt to become a real Christian by faith. Live in right standing with the God who created it all. All that's green around us, too. He still loves the green folk, those super into that. Choose to be a good steward of what God entrusted to you, for those after you to enjoy. Do not waste--don't waste your time with lesser things. Do not pollute carelessly DUH! Care for animals--be smart. Don't worship them or your children. Put the Lord first--take time to know Him well. Tend the garden. These are legitimate biblical responsibilities.
But reject outright all the false eco-gospel that...
Treats the earth like it is to be worshipped or as the object of salvation
If they worship the creation over Creator, don't be like them
Assigns humanity the role of planetary savior
Builds an entire alternative religion around consumption guilt and dietary restriction
Dismisses God's sovereign governance of climate and seasons
Do you own a Prius or Volt? Good, I hope it saves you some money. The earth does belong to God and there will soon be a new heaven and a new earth. He runs it and will run it. God has a plan for it and for you. He told us the plan regarding this earth. It ends with fire, a new creation, and righteousness dwelling permanently.
That is a far better outcome than anything on the Paris Agreement agenda.
Preach Christ's gospel by your attitudes, deeds and with words too.. not in some pushy preachy sort of way. Tend the garden--deal with all your responsibilities. Eat the steak if you like. Prove all things like a Berean. Listen to His words over mine. I want to agree with Him always, but trust the Owner (read the Bible) far more than any mere moral like me.
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