04.22.09
On Earth Day
This morning is a bit cooler here in Los Angeles than the past couple of days. At least the forecast so far is that we’ll hit the 80s, which in my book is a respectable temperature. This morning I can still feel the nice coolness from the night, so hopefully today’s weather will be much more pleasant. So, I’m gonna attempt to pound out a post before it starts to warm up, by which time I likely won’t feel like writing again, heheh. What’s on my mind today? Well, eh, it’s Earth Day today. . .
For some odd reason I find that Christians tend to be opposed to things like “Earth Day.” I kinda laugh because it reminds me of the reaction of a child when his mom says to “clean up his room.” There’s that rebellious nature to resist to clean up one’s room when told. As far as reasons I’ve heard from some Christians as to why Earth Day and global warming and such are bunk, here’s an example explanation that I found on the Hip and Thigh Blogspot:
“. . . Earth Day represents one of the major cultural worldviews Christians have to engage these days during their daily lives. In fact, some have to confront it at their own churches. In my opinion, environmentalism is one of the most diabolical worldviews we have to engage, because the true ruination of environmentalism is felt in poor, third world countries where environmental advocates who have a romantic fixation with “peasant life” insist these poor countries not develop their infrastructure like electricity and water because it will “destroy the pristine environment.” So instead of building a much needed hydro-electric dam, or even a nuclear reactor to bring third world countries into the first world, they are left to toil in the dark, dependent upon worthless solar panels and burning cow manure for fuel.”
The full post can be viewed here.That post also linked to another article which further tries to use the Bible to support this view. Here’s further explanation according the John MacArthur why it’s okay exploit our natural resources, which seems to be summed up like this:
“This earth was never ever intended to be a permanent planet–it is not eternal. We do not have to worry about it being around tens of thousands, or millions, of years from now because God is going to create a new heaven and a new earth. Understanding those things is important to holding in balance our freedom to use, and responsibility to maintain, the earth.”
The full article can be viewed here.
My brief response to that is that just because things are temporary doesn’t mean that it’s okay to destroy it. Our bodies are temporary, but we are still not to destroy it or mutilate it. On the contrary we are to treat it well as we are even told that our bodies are the temple of God.
While I certainly agree that there are likely unsavory agenda’s out there exploiting people through the guise of environmentalism and that some environmentalist go overboard with preserving nature by putting people second in importance to the earth, I do think some Christians also tend to go overboard on the opposite spectrum with their disregard for the earth to the detriment of our health.
Anyone who has read my blog regularly will likely figure that I am concerned about health issues and believe that too much industrialization has harmed our health both Christians and non-Christians alike. I think what we are experiencing is one of God’s principles of reaping what we sow. An example of this is shown in a recent article that came out entitled AP IMPACT: Tons of Released Drugs Taint U.S. Water.
“U.S. manufacturers, including major drugmakers, have legally released at least 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals into waterways that often provide drinking water — contamination the federal government has consistently overlooked, according to an Associated Press investigation.
Hundreds of active pharmaceutical ingredients are used in a variety of manufacturing, including drugmaking: For example, lithium is used to make ceramics and treat bipolar disorder; nitroglycerin is a heart drug and also used in explosives; copper shows up in everything from pipes to contraceptives.”
What does this tell us? Essentially, we are wallowing in our own filth. The annoying thing about it is that we are not only wallowing in our own filth, we are wallowing in everyone else’s filth, too. No matter how hard I/we try to keep myself clean, we still are constantly exposed either wittingly or unwittingly to industrial pollutants to the detriment of my health and my loved ones. The above article states that last year over 51 million Americans were exposed to water tainted with pharmaceuticals. For those who don’t mind pill-popping, I suppose that’s no big deal, but I personally am not happy about the prospect of suffering from some horrid disease as the article further explains that:
“Researchers have found that even extremely diluted concentrations of drugs harm fish, frogs and other aquatic species. Also, researchers report that human cells fail to grow normally in the laboratory when exposed to trace concentrations of certain drugs. Some scientists say they are increasingly concerned that the consumption of combinations of many drugs, even in small amounts, could harm humans over decades.”
How many times have I heard people claim that they live healthful lives yet they come down with serious diseases? Strangely many people just think it’s the luck of the draw that they got cancer or some other life-threatening disease kind of like how life evolved completely by chance. Personally, I think it’s the nature of reaping and sowing that God has warned us about.
The filth doesn’t stop in our drinking water or even the air. Consider the foods we eat, both plants and animals. Not only do we have to seek out organic and bio-dynamic foods to ensure that we are eating as cleanly as possible, but even the animals in the wild are suffering. As we eat those animals we also ingest the pollution that they were subjected to. I know there are many examples of this, but one example that shows how detrimental our pollutants have become is the rates of cancers and other health issues now facing the beluga whales. Evidently, the pollution in the St. Lawrence River has reached a level that has negatively impacted the well-being of the beluga whales among other water life. It was once believed that animals in the wild tended to be relatively healthy. However we are seeing a change as Xenia Shih explains in her article Beluga Whales Under Threat.
“Cancer in the St. Lawrence belugas accounts for 40 percent of all cancers reported in cetaceans
; sadly, the St. Lawrence belugas suffer from the highest rate of cancer of any wild mammal species — comparable to the rate among human adults, in which cancer causes about 25 percent of deaths in the United States.”
Apparently the rate of these cancers in the beluga have increased and the likely cause attributed to their increased cancer rates is this:
“So what causes cancer in St. Lawrence belugas?
“The likely culprit is industrial pollution
So are we immune to the detrimental effects of pollution that the animals and the rest of our environment are suffering from? I think not. Just as our wildlife suffers from our industrial wastes, so do we. As our cancer rates continue to increase as well as many other new diseases on the rise, we continue to ignore God’s law of reaping what we sow. Instead of cleaning up our mess, we act like defiant children, we make more mess in the form or more drugs to “treat” our new diseases and increasingly resistant and virulent forms of older diseases. Then the excess of those drugs and by products go back into our water and earth, and we continue to wallow in more and more filth.
Now I realize that there are natural toxins, and for that I think God has provided our earth with natural ways to clean itself. We see this in the way that plants can neutralize certain toxins through it’s root systems. We see harmful substances break down with time and the acts of decomposition. Even our own bodies produce toxins that it must clear naturally and that is why we have certain organs such as our kidneys and livers and lungs, etc. It’s a system that God put in place and gave to us knowing that there will be some harmful substances. So I don’t completely blame man for all the pollution in the world. Some toxins are unavoidable. Not every pollutant or change in environment is due to man’s recklessness. While there may or may not be any significant global warming, I do think the changes taking place on our earth is due to “both” man and the natural course of the earth’s own system. Certainly we can’t change the direction that the earth is taking on it’s own (i.e. the laws of thermodynamics tells us that things are generally in a state of decline), but we can be a bit more responsible with how we manage our earth’s resources. Lest anyone think that the Bible has nothing to say about destroying the earth, consider Revelation 11:18:
“And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.”
“Destroy them which destroy the earth?” Hmmm. Who are these people who destroy the earth? How are we destroying the earth? And these people are to be destroyed? Just as God will destroy those who corrupt the body through their wickedness, Revelation seems to indicate that God will destroy those who destroy the earth. The Bible tells us there is a time and season for everything. I would venture to say there is also a time to care for the earth, which God has given to us even if it is temporary. Personally, I think Earth “DAY” is not enough. It’s like how people only go to church on Sundays. We should care for the earth “every day,” just as we should observe God’s word every day. We wallow in our industrial pollution as a result of greed and the love of money. How can we as Christians ignore the result of this corruption?
Marlakins
