Environmental Quotes

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.” ~Henry David Thoreau

“The sun, the moon and the stars would have disappeared long ago... had they happened to be within the reach of predatory human hands.” ~Havelock Ellis, The Dance of Life, 1923

“There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed.” ~Mohandas K. Gandhi

“There's so much pollution in the air now that if it weren't for our lungs there'd be no place to put it all.” ~Robert Orben

“Modern technology Owes ecology An apology.” ~Alan M. Eddison

Our Planet Losing Too Many Species - UN

A major UN report produced every four years has found that humanity is falling short in its commitment to stop the loss of many species and areas key to earth’s survival.

The latest report of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity found that amphibians are most at risk, that coral reefs are deteriorating most rapidly and that nearly a quarter of all plant species are threatened with extinction.

The 1993 treaty among 193 nations says the world is falling short of its goal to achieve by this year "a significant reduction in the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national levels".

Among the few slivers of hope cited in the report are measures to control the spread of so-called alien invasive species. As a result, at least 31 bird species have been saved in the past century, says News24.com.

Any Ecological Crisis is also a Spiritual Crisis!

Through a careful reading of the creation stories we learn that the particular relationship between God, humanity and the earth itself is extremely important. In fact, Scripture teaches that how we care for the earth and all that is upon it is a fundamental aspect of what it means to be human.

As Dr. Ellen Davis reminds us:
“The Bible can enable us to grasp the depth dimensions of the ecological crisis because the ecological crisis is essentially not a technological crisis, but a theological one. It is a massive disordering in our relationship with God, the Creator of heaven and earth.”

Any ecological crisis is in fact, a spiritual crisis!

In the commissioning account spelled out in the early chapters of Genesis, where God tells humanity to care for the earth, there are two key words which enforce this idea. The first is the Hebrew word ‘avad’ which means to work but also ‘to work for someone else.’ In the context of ancient societies it denotes a servant’s service to a master. In other words, God has asked us to serve him by caring for the earth.
The second word is the word ‘shamar’ which means ‘to protect, attend to and watch over.’ This means we have been given power, but power like that of a parent watching over children – it is a power that is meant to be used to protect and care for.

‘Shamar’ is a very attentive word, in that is describes how we should carefully observe and assess not just the state of our nation (our politics and economics), but also the state of our soil, the state of our water, the state of our planet, and wherever we see abuse we are meant to heal and nurture.

Dr Debra Roberts, who is Deputy Head of Environmental Management in Durban reminds us that we have not been very caring or watchful at all when she says:
“The current Sixth Extinction is a patently human-caused event. There is little doubt that humans are the direct cause of ecosystem stress and species destruction in the modern world through activities such as transformation of the landscape, human-induced climate change, overexploitation of species, pollution and the introduction of alien species.”

What do you think about all this? Do you think our planet is under threat and needs greater care, or do you think all this environmental stuff is just liberal tree-hugging gone wild? Go to the Crux feedback section and let us know!

Questions and Answers

Sometimes, in fact most times, our faith in God stirs more questions than answers. We pick up the Bible and questions begin to flow with regards to context, meaning and language. For a long time I battled with the many questions that seemed to well up in me every time I read the Bible or went to church or small group. Why did I have so many questions and seemingly so few answers? But now I embrace these questions, I recognize that faith in God is complex. It involves delving into a book written in a totally different time and holding subtleties and complexities that can only be discovered through study. It involves interacting with others around the most intimate part of your being, your faith.

When you’re passionate about your faith and Jesus then uncomfortable truths, in congruencies and differences are taken to heart. But maybe we overcomplicate our faith? Maybe we should yes, seek answers to burning faith questions with passion and fervor; I think God would want our love for Him to be expressed in this way. But these questions should need not lead to excessive discomfort and guilt… So maybe we should become more comfortable with our millions of questions, some of which may take a lifetime to be answered, and instead focus on the important things. Does God love us? Yes. Do we love God? Yes. Then it is OKAY and will always be OKAY.

Recently, there have been a lot of questions thrown at the major international climate change body, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which compiles and peer reviews climate change science for publication and issues statements with regards to the findings. These questions and media scares simply indicate one fact; the world is uncomfortable with an imperfect science. It’s complicated; it throws up more questions than answers and it calls for significant changes in the way we live our lives. But let’s be certain, two questions can be answered. Is the climate changing? Yes. Do we have enough knowledge and ability to do something now? Yes.

Once again I ask you to: (1) Research climate change for yourself. (2) Talk about climate change with whoever you can. (3) Lead greener lives.
Awareness and understanding, leads to action.

May the questions then, those of our faith and those of understanding our Earth, never scare or intimidate us, but keep us humbly seeking God and seeking the truth in all things, because seeking understanding is surely the ZEST OF LIFE!

Climate change skeptics

Today, I’d like to deal with a topic of recent contention and debate, the claims of climate skeptics, who attempt to discredit the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), who have proven that climate change is happening and is human-induced. Let me begin by saying that skeptics who base their criticism on sound science and inference should be supported and that a scientific theory should never snowball to a point where no criticism can be leveled against it. But let us be realistic about what has occurred to date. That is, that the views of a few scientists who have found a couple of small errors in a 2500 page report, have been picked up by a few journalists and distorted. I recommend a website for those that are interested in these claims: http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2010/02/ipcc-errors-facts-and-spin/

For me, there is clearly no debate when we contemplate the following questions: Is the climate changing? Are people around the world suffering due to these climatic changes? Do we have the science to predict to an acceptable level of accuracy what the future has in store for us? Is the evidence solid enough to prove that humans have induced climate change? Do we know of ways to curb the effects and impacts? The answer to all these questions is a resounding YES! Those that live closest to the land would find denial atrocious. The evidence is there, the science supports it, it is not perfect, and it never will be. We are trying to predict what the weather will do 10, 50, 100 years into the future, when we battle to predict what will happen this afternoon. Conservative predictions from the IPCC on how the climate will change have been exceeded. How much longer will we continue to stall real action and who will be held accountable one day for these delays?
__________
Meggan Lewis is a climate change consultant working in the greater Durban area.

Assessing Copenhagen

In December 2009, thousands of people from around the world met to discuss climate change at the largest climate change conference of all time, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Copenhagen screamed climate change from the thousands of bicyclers on the streets, to billboards, to a Christmas tree that was powered by commuters jumping on bikes, to stands and parades. As many as 30 000 people attended the Copenhagen climate change conference (known as COP15).

What was my experience of the conference? Positives: climate change advocacy and education. Negatives: A weak, non-legally binding accord as a result, Africa and other less developed countries side-lined again and thousands of flights that could have been avoided.

As I contemplate the conference and its successes and failures, I ask the question as to why as humans we cannot seem to come together over a phenomenon that is causing and will continue to cause death, disease and ecological destruction? Why politicians and individuals alike respond well only to catastrophe and not to an issue that is long-term, incremental and global? Maybe some parallels can be drawn with how we approach our faith.

Faith is believing in the unseen, for most climate change cannot be seen directly. Our relationship with God needs to be worked upon constantly; it cannot be instantly formed, fixed or developed, climatic changes need to constantly be assessed and adapting to these changes takes time and effort. Maybe the strongest parallel lies in the fact that faith in Jesus calls us to a RADICAL life, a life that is often directly opposite to the world’s ways. It is radical to love beyond boundaries, to show compassion to the world says are ‘nobodies’, to forgive those that constantly wrong us, to seek after wisdom, humility and kindness and not wealth, power and money.

Climate change too is calling for a radical paradigm shift, a change in the way we perceive wealth and success. Climate change says- simplify your life, consume and buy less, a smaller car and house is better, walking and cycling is good for you, and producing your own food is admirable.

I would never attempt to reduce our faith to climate change; I simply seek to indicate the parallels. In essence our faith is far larger than climate change and encapsulates it in every sense, but maybe it would be helpful to reflect today on ways in which we can learn to focus more on the issues of life that are less imminent and instantly gratifying, but often so much more important.

Watching and Listening

A couple of weeks back, we discussed that part of our creation mandate (in the first few chapters of Genesis) is to watch over and care for creation (remember the significance of the Hebrew word ‘avad’). This week we will be doing a little of that ‘watching’ by listening to some experts and viewing some important environmental statistics.

In 1993, Harvard biologist E.O Wilson did some ‘watching’ and estimated that the earth is currently losing somewhere along the lines of 30 000 species per year, which works out to 3 species an hour! This obviously threatens the very fabric of the delicate and intricate relational interconnectedness of God’s creation to such a degree that many scientists are describing this age as “the world’s 6th great extinction.”

Dr Debra Roberts, who is Deputy Head of the Environmental Management Department in Durban, says:
“The current Sixth Extinction is a patently human-caused event. There is little doubt that humans are the direct cause of ecosystem stress and species destruction in the modern world through activities such as transformation of the landscape, human-induced climate change, overexploitation of species, pollution and the introduction of alien species.”

I know that stats can sometimes be a little dreary to hear, but I think these are important and actually quite scary. For example, did you know that? …

• Less than 1% of the world’s fresh water is readily accessible for direct human use. Melting polar ice caps and glaciers mean that less and less is becoming available every year. Although we don’t use all our present fresh water supply, we can’t really take much more because of the strain it will put on the rest of creation. Increasing meat eaters and the devastating effect of bio-fuels is putting further huge strain on water supplies.

• Freshwater fish populations are in precipitous decline. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, fish stocks in lakes and rivers have fallen roughly 30% since 1970. This is a bigger population fall than that suffered by animals in jungles, temperate forests, savannahs and any other large ecosystem.

• 3.575 million people die each year from water-related disease.

• At any given time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from a water-related disease.

• Every 15 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease.

• The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.

Yet, this crisis just may get worse, because many experts believe as good water supplies diminish future world wars could centre on the control of water. In fact, already:

• U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has repeatedly identified water shortage as a major underlying cause of the conflict in Darfur, western Sudan, which began with a rebellion against the central government seven years ago. Water is also a major issue between Israel and its Arab neighbours.

Although hearing such statistics can give us something of a sensory overload, I do think they help to educate and motivate us all into making a difference. What do you think about all this? Why don’t you fill out a Crux feedback form and get back to us – we might even feature your opinion in next week’s article.