Gidon Bromberg of Friends of the Earth Middle East says the Jordan River, holy to half of humanity, has become a mixture of sewage water and agricultural runoff unsafe for the pilgrims who come to be baptized in it.

"The issue here is not BP's behavior, it's not the Obama administration's behavior. It's our behavior. That is where the deepest change has to happen."

"It is much easier for God to get through our defenses when we're in a wilderness," says John Lionberger. He leads kayak and canoe trips that he says "get to the transcendent through the physical."

It's good to use bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs to inculcate environmental values, says Rabbi Lawrence Troster, a religious environmental leader: "Protecting the Earth is a mitzvah, and I mean that in the sense of a commandment. We are required to take care of creation. It’s not a choice."

Science and religion are sometimes at odds over the environment, but one prominent biologist is pleading for both to work together in order to protect the earth's biodiversity -- the many species of plants and animals that scientists say are at risk. E.O. Wilson is the author of a recent book, THE CREATION. He spoke with Bob Abernethy.