"Rule and subdue."  Rarely have three words stirred so much controversy.  "Rule and subdue," Genesis records God saying to Adam, "be fruitful and multiply upon the earth." So, many believers in the Bible (mostly Christians) have thought throughout history, we are free to use the planet in whatever way we want.
     Look again.  The notion of rule in the Bible is embedded in the idea of stewardship, that the ruler is to care, benevolently, for that which he or she rules, to ensure that the land over which he or she is sovereign lives on beyond him or her.  In other words, to protect the tremendous resources humanity has been given.  It is not a mandate to blithely plunder for personal or national gain, to summarily ignore the long term consequences of one's actions.
     Yes, I am familiar with the economic and political arguments:  remaining in the Paris Climate Accord will damage the U.S. economy and will undercut American sovereignty in the world.  Really?  Is America the only nation of note?  Is America the only country deserving to be itself?  Does the world revolve around the United States?  Hardly.
     God's purpose and vision, we should realize, are far larger--and profoundly wiser--than our self-centered short term and immediate gain.
     "The earth is the Lord's," Psalm 24 notes, "and all that is in it."  We are not our own, and neither is the planet.
     Open, all eyes of faith, open wide to the heart of God.