Posted by Helen on: 09.18.2006 /
By ‘taking care of the environment’ I mean such things as conserving natural resources and protecting endangered species and endangered habitats.
- Do you consider yourself personally responsible for helping take care of the environment?
- Do you do anything specific to help take care of it?
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17 Responses to "Taking care of the environment"
Comment by: JG
1Apologies for not directly answering the question but I would like to mention the work of the following charity:
http://en.arocha.org/home/
On their “What we do” page it starts:
What we do
Here is a very short video clip, lasting under a minute, introducing A Rocha’s work. It was filmed, edited and scripted by Melissa Ong. The commentary is by Miranda Harris. Link for download (WMV format, 4 MB)
A Rocha’s first centre in Portugal
The first A Rocha project began in Portugal in 1983. A field study centre and bird observatory was established near the Alvor estuary and it has now been visited by thousands of people from many parts of the world.
All over the world Christians are realising that important habitats and their wildlife urgently need protection and so, since 1994, new A Rocha projects have started in other parts of Europe, the Middle East, Africa and North America. The international cross-cultural strength of the Christian community has been making a unique contribution, not least as communities struggle to reconcile the need to protect biodiversity with their hopes for sustainable development.
A Rocha projects have a community emphasis, bringing together people from widely differing backgrounds to work towards common goals.
Comment by: Helen
2JG, I appreciate you sharing about A Rocha.
In the Christian circles I moved in, the environment didn’t seem to be much of a concern – it came a very distant second to ‘moral issues’, if that. So it’s encouraging to me to read about Christians supporting projects to protect the environment.
Comment by: David H
3I recently have run into a couple of people brandishing different variations of dominion theology. It is based on the Genesis verse that says God gave humans dominion over the earth. Both people who spoke to me essentially came from the perspective that since God gave us dominion then they didn’t have to care what they did or what were the results.
As a result of the first conversation I did some research. Like many conservative “Christian” beliefs it takes a tiny thing and turns it into something far more. One tenent of dominion theology is that there is no need for conservation because God will always make sure there is enough for us.
I pointed out to the people I spoke with the God also gave kings dominion over the people of Israel and he was pretty angry with the kings who did not handle that responsibly. I said that under those circumstances dominion may not mean that as a child of God I can do whatever I want.
Comment by: Pam Hogeweide
4i keep my garden in good health.
i teach my kids not to litter and to leave a campsite in better shape then what we found it.
i recycle.
sometimes my family participates in local clean-up projects. one year, on earth day, we were downtown. a huge group of young people were drumming in celebration of earth day. the place was trashed. so my kids and i got a bag and started cleaning up the litter. it was not lost on any of us the paradox of the circumstance.
Comment by: Eliza
5Yes, but I consider each of us (humans, & especially those from high-resource-utilizing countries) responsible for doing this. In part, that stems from a belief that we only have one planet, and we all have to live on it (humans, animals, and plants). We shouldn’t be soiling our nest. Or plowing through the Earth’s resources as if the future condition of the Earth doesn’t matter.
We (especially in US, perhaps) are so unaware of where our resources come from and where our waste goes. (For example, gasoline seems to come from a pump at a gas station, and it seems to just disappear into thin air.) I think this short-sighted view is, in the big picture and in the long run, quite dangerous.
I’m less focused on saving endangered species one by one, because if we don’t stop fouling up the entire earth, we will all be endangered species!
I’m not sure how much it helps, but we make a stab at “doing our part”:
We send a larger volume of “stuff” out in our recycling bin than in our garbage bin.
We compost our plant-based food scraps in a worm bin.
We have a Prius (which does still burn gas, but is more efficient – the gas engine turns off when it’s in idle, or coasting, or going downhill for example). It also has a gauge that tells instantaneously what mpg is, so you can adjust your driving habits to try to reduce gas usage.
We used to bike or bus to work more than we do now – life is just too hectic to rely on those slower methods now. :(
We have alot of trees around our lot, and keep planting more. (Roughly 18 fir trees, several cedars & adding more, various pines, ~35 rhododendrons…it’s a crowded hodgepodge of greenery, up high and down low, but it shades the house – not that big a deal in Seattle ;) – and each tree recycles carbon dioxide into oxygen via its metabolic activity).
There are wind farms being set up in Eastern Washington – we like to go look at them. We tried a small solar panel on our roof, but we just don’t get enough sun exposure here in Seattle to make that work (rainy 9 months of the year; see also tree list above!). We have a tankless water heater, so we only heat hot water when we need it (instead of heating 80 gallons of water & having it sit around, adding energy to keep it warm, so we can pull a little off when needed).
As I said, it’s just our little part…but hopefully these will add up over time & over the planet.
I’d like to see a real effort at public service announcements encouraging people to conserve, reduce use, recycle, etc. Really seems to me this has to come from the government to have much impact.
Comment by: Marty
6The truth is that I am more talk than action on this subject. I can think of a few token things that my wife and I do – but nothing compared to what Eliza is doing. But I have an excuse – I am retired and Eliza is only a doctor, etc :-)
Santa Barbara is the home of Earth Day (brought about by an oil spill off of our coast) and we have a big earth day event with lots of inspiring booths that I go to each year. I feel inspired – but not moved to action.
My minister does a much better job at ecology than I do. He has his own composting and even gave a Children’s message demonstrating composting – worms and all.
End confessional – I’ll try to do better.
Comment by: John Smulo
7I’m encouraged to see everyone’s response. We mostly do what Pam does above. But we’re always trying to think of practical extra things to do. Following Eliza’s lead, I hope to get a Prius when we replace our current car.
One thing that I’d add that I think even this post and comments are contributing to, is that I’ve written something and talked out loud about this.
I don’t want to be more talk than walk–just the opposite. But I think that Christians have tended to either not talk about this subject at all, or taken a “its all going to burn one day anyhow” attitude. So I think that publicly speaking about this is something important to support our practically living these things out.
Comment by: Helen
8John wrote:
That’s been my experience in the Christian circles I’ve moved in. But I haven’t moved in many, on the other hand.
Thanks for your comments, John.
Comment by: Helen
9Thanks everyone who has shared what they are doing to help take care of the environment.
I recycle; that’s about it. So, no, I didn’t post this blog entry as an excuse to say how well I am doing at taking care of the environment…
Comment by: Rachel
10I agree, Helen. The Evangelical Climate Initiative is one thing I’m excited about that has gotten a lot of press attention. One of the groups involved in the ECI is the Evangelical Environmental Network – we receive their “Creation Care” quarterly magazine.
Comment by: Eliza
11I really don’t feel that we’re doing that much, even though the list I gave looked long. Mostly, it just seems like such a huge task to make any noticeable headway, in the big picture. Pretty discouraging, imo. (One thing I like is that the things we’re doing are almost all incorporated into our daily routine without extra effort – for example, we just turn on the tap and out comes hot water, no different than if we had a hot water tank, no mess or fuss – once we made the initial effort to put the lower-energy device in.)
Anyone here see Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth?
Finally, one frown that actually has a smiley silver lining:
…the silver lining is, now my husband and I carpool in together a few days each week – seems silly, but it’s sometimes the best 20 minutes we get together to talk (and it saves on gas)! :)
Comment by: Helen
12Thanks Rachel.
Eliza, it is overwhelming but if everyone who could do something does even a little bit, surely that has to add up to a significant difference…
Comment by: Julie Marie
13we recycle (our community makes it very easy, with curbside pickup) and watch our energy comsumption. we (read he;)) keeps our cars running efficiently. but something that struck me this weekend, although it is not a strictly “save the environment” thing to do – is ENJOY mother nature. Teach our children to ENJOY and value the beauty of the earth. We humans protect what we value. My family went on a nice bicycle ride through the woods last weekend, and as my son zoomed over the old wooden bridges that cross the streams, I was filled with such appreciation and happiness that we could share this beauty together.
Comment by: Helen
14An online friend of mine sent me a link to the Great Southern Humanist Society website a few days ago, which I think he’s quite involved in. The front page of it had this photo of him and his family participating in a GSHS beach clean-up.
Comment by: Helen
15Julie Marie, I love the idea of teaching our children to enjoy and value the beauty of the earth! Yes, surely that will encourage them to care about protecting it when they grow up.
Comment by: Julie Marie
16just a wry update on enjoying nature and teaching our children: yesterday my husband and I both discovered we were covered with bug bites. Chiggers. We were hoping Cody didn’t go through the same patch – but this morning – he was scratching too. :(
Comment by: JG
17Relevant article this week at:
http://www.baptisttimes.co.uk/openline.htm
Page will get updated after one week so have pasted article in below.
Hope for the planet? It’s all in the Bible by Dave Bookless
I’m very grateful to Michael Docker’s Open Line (“Why do we Christians want to save the planet?’ November 9) for opening up a debate on the Bible and the future of the earth. Others have responded through letters, but what about his central charge: the Bible teaches and evangelicals believe, that this world “is passing away’ and will be replaced by a new one?
For years, I assumed the same, and let me say clearly, that if saving the earth means abandoning the Bible, or ignoring evangelism, I’m not interested. However, the reasons I now have hope for God’s world are ones that Mr Docker may be interested in:
The Bible holds together two great themes in tension, regarding the end times. On the one hand, Jesus’ return will be accompanied by destructive judgment (Matthew 25, 2 Peter 3). On the other, a future hope which is tangible and earthy is envisaged (Isaiah 65, Revelation 20-22). On this, all evangelicals would agree. The big question is about renewal or replacement. Does the “new’ world have continuity with the “old’ one, or not?
Here are five key biblical pointers. My chapter “A new heaven and a new earth’ in Caring for Creation (Ed. S. Tillett, BRF 2005) gives more detail.
- Noah and the Flood Noah’s ark is used in 2 Peter 3:5-7 to illustrate God’s judgment in “destroying’ the world of that time. Yet, the earth was not destroyed completely. After drastic cleansing, the earth remained.
Moreover, God’s new covenant in Genesis 9 included the whole non-human creation. Why did God keep the earth, save all those animals, and make a covenant with them, if he planned to destroy it all in the future?
- The Kingdom of God Michael Docker rightly praises the evangelical recovery of Jesus’ teaching on the Kingdom … yet fails to carry this through.
In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray for God’s Kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven’. This is about the “earthing’ of heaven — bringing Jesus’ kingdom values down to earth. Whenever the Bible says “earth’ it means it; the soil itself, the land we walk on are to reflect God’s Kingdom values.
- The model of Jesus’ resurrection Our risen Lord has a physical body that is the first-fruits of the new creation, and guess what? It is not a new body. It is the same body transformed — bearing the marks of the nails and spear.
There is both change (Jesus can walk through locked doors), and continuity (he can cook and eat fish with his friends). So it will be with the new creation: cleansing and renewal, rather than destruction and re-creation from nothing.
- Creation’s Groaning Paul’s picture in Romans 8 of the whole creation as a pregnant woman about to give birth used to trouble me. It spoke of agonising labour pains, yet also of creation “liberated from its bondage to decay’. This makes no sense if there is no future hope for this earth. Now I see it as an image that fits wonderfully well if God’s purposes are to restore and renew this sin-damaged world.
- New or renewed? In New Testament Greek there are two words for “new’ — neos, meaning decisively new, and kainos which is about transforming renewal. A brand new car is neos, but a restored second-hand one is kainos.
When the Bible talks about new creation, new heavens, new earth it uses kainos. When Jesus returns, God will not throw away this world and start again from scratch. Rather God will take this spoiled, sin-wrecked world and refine, remake … recycle it. This involves drastic judgment if all sin is to be wiped away, but importantly it also involves continuity.
Today, an increasing number of evangelicals, Baptist and other, are realising that the future of the earth is an urgent missional task. Past Presidents of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, including John Biggs and Graham Ashworth, and respected national figures such as Sir John Houghton (a Baptist preacher and leading global authority on Climate Change) are leaders in the Christian environmental movement.
In 2002, the Baptist Union’s Vision Statement on the Environment declared: “We believe that God, through Christ, wills to redeem the whole of creation from its bondage to decay’.
In A Rocha, many key staff and supporters are committed Baptists, and we are in conversation with BMS World Mission about working together more closely.
For Christians, saving the earth is all about the Gospel — God’s good news. The good news begins with creation and centres on Jesus, who can restore both sin-damaged people and a broken world into new creations in Christ. In a time of environmental despair, we need to live this out.
There is hope in Christ, both for people and also for the planet.
The Revd Dave Bookless is national director of A Rocha UK
http://www.arocha.org