Looking to religion rather than science

The thoughts of Phil Torres, writing in “Morality, Foresight, and Human Flourishing: An Introduction to Existential Risks”, need to be thought about by those of us concerned about the impacts of climate change:

“Further complicating the situation, environmental degradation could positively reinforce the eschatological beliefs of religious people around the world. This is because many world religions prophesy natural disasters (as well as wars, disease, famines, and so on) to be harbingers of the apocalypse. Consequently, as the effects of climate change become more pronounced, a sizable portion of the 8 billion religious people projected to exist by 2050 may look to religion, rather than science, to make sense of the global crises around them.214 Indeed, such crises could even increase the number of religious adherents. This has happened many times before: e.g., the third-century Plague of Cyprian may have catalyzed the early rise of Christianity, since members of the young religion chose to “martyr” themselves rather than perish from the disease, making Christianity appear to be worth dying for.