A criticism of Lynn White's solution to the ecological crisis

Lynn White’s ideas are interesting in that to me it also appears that Christian ideas have permeated through our society, however to blame Christianity as root of the ecological crisis and to say that “the remedy must also be essentially religious” seems hard to believe possible. Even if we were able to alter the world’s values to be more ecological through some sort of new view of what the religion means would it not just be a way to manipulate the religion as a means to an end? I am not convinced that such manipulation is a worthwhile way to save the planet; if humanity fails to grasp the value of nature and that the harmful effects we have on nature affect us than do we truly deserve such a planet? I feel that the true root cause of the ecological crisis has much more to deal with human nature (competitiveness, which Lynn White points to unknowingly when he says “Despite Darwin, we are not, in our hearts, part of the natural process”). I also believe that ignorance plays a role in the crisis, though sometimes I have a difficult time believe this because it seems so obvious that the amount of material wealth we are collecting not only in our own belongings but in our infrastructure is having a harmful effect on the planet; however I do believe that even if we lose such ignorance it is hard to figure out anything to do that will have a large effect because we feel largely trapped within our societal context. Another problem is simply the huge number of human beings on the planet, which cannot be fixed through a reinterpretation of scripture. I do not agree with White’s statement that a reinterpretation of religious values will be able to fix these problems. White wrote the article in 1967, while the Vatican may be “going green” it seems there has been little religious progress on the issue of environmentalism and personally I believe that the answers to the ecological crisis will not come from religion but perhaps it will come through such things as a loss of ignorance about what effects we have on the planet and an actual willingness as an individual to take steps to help the planet even though it might mean sacrifice while others are still abusing resources.