Originally posted by @rwingett
Degradation of the habitat may not be a spiritual issue at the present time, but it desperately needs to become one. It is clear that environmentalism, as it currently exists, lacks the motivational force necessary to overcome the inertia of global capitalism in its ongoing despoliation of the planet. Environmentalism needs to reframe its battles as spirit ...[text shortened]... pale in comparison. Continuing with business-as-usual is going to have disastrous consequences.
I agree with you that the issue is both urgent and enormous, and that business as usual is a recipe for disaster. Indeed, the avalanche may already be starting to slip (global warming, etc.), though some people don't yet see it coming. That still does not make it a matter of religion, whether a new one or an established one.
Personally, I think the root of the problem is not capitalism per se, although unregulated capitalism tends to magnify certain weaknesses in the social system.
It is a law of nature that any species which over-populates its habitat is doomed. We humans reproduce as if we were immune to natural law. "Be fruitful and multiply" was a sensible sexual ethic for the Hebrews returning to their 'promised land' after a long period of exile; it is no longer an appropriate sexual ethic. There are too many people on the planet now; too many people are a burden the ecosystem cannot and will not sustain for long. If h.saps is to survive another few centuries, the population must be got under control; by which I mean, not that the rate of increase must be slowed, but that the
absolute number must be reduced to an ecologically sustainable level and stabilized there.
There are four methods of dealing with the issue:
1. Implement world-wide contraception policies.
2. Culling (after all, we shoot deer to prevent them from starving en masse).
3. Wait for war, famine, and disease to reduce the human population to an ecologically sustainable level (which may be zero, as far as other species are concerned).
4. Pray that God will rapture the just and get rid of the unjust for us.
Personally, I favor option 1, but I can imagine some future Stalin- or Mao-type feeling compelled to try option 2 in order to try to avert option 3. Option 4 is so ineffectual that, practically speaking, it defaults to option 3.