Gary Gardner: the challenges of contradiction.

• Author: Gardner, Gary
• Position: World Watch First-Person

I clambered aboard the Ocean Monarch, a Greek passenger ship that would be my home for a week on the Baltic Sea last June, I told myself that the dissonance gnawing at me could be the gateway to some deeper truth. Environmentalists and cruise ships aren't supposed to cross paths, given the vessels' reputation as unscrupulous maritime polluters that serve primarily a global elite.

This was the first of two such trips I would make last summer, and the mix of discomfort and excitement I felt was the first of several moments of internal disquiet that would define my shipboard experiences--and, at the same time, alert me to unexpected insights.

I was aboard as part of a symposium sponsored by Religion, Science and the Environment, an organization whose very name evokes tension, given the long history of uneasiness--and sometimes open hostility--between science and religion. Founded by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual head of the world's 250 million Orthodox Christians, the organization explores common ground between religion and environmentalism. For this trip, it had assembled an unlikely mix of principals: the Patriarch, of course, along with Orthodox priests and archbishops, Catholic cardinals, Lutheran bishops, and an imam,but also environmental luminaries such as Teddy Goldsmith, Christine von Weisacker, Carl Jakob von Uexkull, and Vandana Shiva. Roman collars, iconic neckwear, and cassocks mixed tentatively, it seemed to me, with Indian saris, suits, jeans and sandals.

My interest was in exploring what the two groups might have in common. I was particularly keen to learn about religious perspectives on consumption, since I was doing research for a consumption-focused edition of our annual publication State of the World. The prospect of discussing simpler living while sailing off on a cruise only added to my discomfort, despite the relatively austere nature of the trip--no skeet shooting, cabarets, or midnight buffets; even the pool was emptied of water.

In our discussions of consumption, the environmentalists' concerns centered around the role of economic growth in building a sustainable society. Serge Latouche of the University of Paris argued that economic growth and sustainable...