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Book

Why are white evangelicals the most skeptical major religious group in America regarding climate change? Previous scholarship pointed to factors such as conservative politics, anti-science attitudes, aversion to big government, and theology. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork, The Gospel of Climate Skepticism reveals the extent to which climate skepticism and anti-environmentalism are not simply side effects of cognitive and doctrinal influences, but have become embedded in the social world and identity of many conservative evangelicals. Upending an assumption widely held by both scholars and the public—that skepticism is simply a side-effect of evangelicals’ political or theological conservatism—the book shows that between 2006 and 2015, leaders and pundits associated with the Christian Right promoted skepticism widely as the biblical position on climate change. The Gospel of Climate Skepticism offers a compelling portrait of how during a critical period of recent history, political and religious interests intersected to prevent evangelicals from offering a unified voice in support of legislative action to address climate change.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

UC Press, 2019

Journal Articles

Edited volume

2020 Veldman, Robin G., Dara M. Wald, Sarah B. Mills and David A. M. Peterson. "Who are American Evangelical Protestants and why do they matter for US Climate Policy?" WIREs Climate Change 12(2): 1-21.

2020 Veldman, Robin Globus. "Climate Skeptics, Coronavirus Skeptics? Notes on the Response of Politicized Evangelical Elites to the Pandemic." In H. Campbell (Ed.), Religion in Quarantine: The Future of Religion in a Post-Pandemic World (pp. 52-55). Digital Religion Publications. https://doi.org/10.21423/religioninquarantine2020.

2020 Smith, Amy Erica and Robin Globus Veldman. "Evangelical Environmentalists? Evidence from Brazil." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 59(2): 341-359.

2016 Veldman, Robin Globus. “What is the Meaning of Greening? Cultural Analysis of a Southern Baptist Environmental Text.” Journal of Contemporary Religion. 31(2): 199-222.

2015 Veldman, J.W., E. Buisson, G. Durigan, G W. Fernandes, S. Le Stradic, G. Mahy, D. Negrieros, G.E. Overbeck. R.G. Veldman, N.P. Zaloumis, F.E. Putz, W.J. Bond. “Toward an old-growth concept for grasslands, savannas, and woodlands.” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 13(3): 154-162.

2012 Veldman, Robin Globus. “Narrating the Environmental Apocalypse: How Imagining the End Facilitates Moral Reasoning Among Environmental Activists.” Ethics & the Environment. 17(1): 1-23.

2012 Veldman, Robin Globus, Andrew Szasz and Randolph Haluza-DeLay. "Climate Change and Religion: A Review of Existing Research." Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture. 6(3).

2014. Veldman, Robin Globus, Andrew Szasz and Randolph Haluza-Delay, eds. How the World's Religions are Responding to Climate Change: Social Scientific Investigations. (Abingdon, Routledge).