Climate Crusaders
ONE WOULD BE HARD-PRESSED to find a better motivator for climate action than the oil refinery in Torrance, California. The sprawling complex of towers and tanks spans 750 acres in Los Angeles County. The Torrance Refinery can process 155,000 barrels of crude oil per day and 1.8 billion gallons of gas per year — enough to supply a tenth of California’s demand, it claims — along with diesel fuel, jet fuel, liquefied petroleum gases, coke (used in the production of steel), and sulfur (which is needed for sulfuric acid, a key ingredient for fertilizers, lead-acid batteries, matches, explosives, cement, and glass). Like a smoldering black heart, the refinery pumps these products into the world via pipelines, railways, barges, ships, and trucks, all while spewing pollutants on the residents below.
One of those residents is William Morris, who went to school in the shadow of the refinery, and, along with both his parents and sister, worshipped at the evangelical Baptist churches here. On a warm Thursday this fall, I met with Morris at a coffee shop not far from the refinery, curious to learn how people of faith, especially in evangelical congregations, might offer solutions to the climate crisis.
From a certain perspective, after all, it would appear the climate fight has an evangelical problem. White evangelicals made up more than 20 percent of the electorate in 2022, according to the exit polls. Only one in three of these voters believes climate change is being caused by human activity, and more than 80 percent voted for Trump in 2020. Meanwhile, right-wing Christian nationalists have captured headlines, bringing strict religious thought into local, state, and national politics. But Morris and other evangelicals like him offer a counternarrative. He’s one of the leaders of Young Evangelicals for Climate Action (YECA), a small group of climate activists fighting an uphill battle to convince members of their faith that the Gospel can be green. With the US presidential election just one year away, in a country with the potential to make or break our future climate, YECA could be one of the most important activist groups on Earth.
Journal Associate Editor Brian Calvert’s cover feature in our Winter 2024 print issue highlights the challenges facing the young evangelicals fighting for climate action from within the church, which is better known for right-leaning politics and climate denialism.
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