Earth Day: Why We Care
It is cool to be green. Sadly, there is nothing more to it for those who have abandoned plans to replace a gas thirsty vehicle for a hybrid one. The Toyota Prius went from having people on a waiting list for months, to the unprecedented practice of offering rebates to bump sales. Apparently, it was cool to preserve natural resources and reduce carbon emissions, when the gas prices were hovering four dollars per gallon. Now, at less than two, who cares? I tell you who does care: God. He has always cared about it, and so should His people.
We care for our planet because God cared about it first. After creation, God took the time to appreciate and enjoy it. He saw everything he had made and said “it is very good” (Genesis 1:31). Words such as preservation, conservation, recycling, and sustainability, came straight from His vocabulary. God values his creation. Conversely, creation reveals God’s qualities and speaks of his perfect character (Romans 1:20 and Psalm 19).
As disciples of the living God, we should also be passionate about this planet because God has entrusted creation to us (Genesis 2:15). God has commanded us to serve and preserve. We are stewards of every natural resource. We have no other option but to take the lead and be examples.
I really appreciated the joined statement by Pope John Paul II and Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople on this matter. It is called the “Declaration on the Environment.” It was released on June 10, 2002 under the title “We Are Still Betraying the Mandate God has Given Us.” The mandate we are ignoring is “to collaborate with God in watching over creation in holiness and wisdom.” These two leaders of the church also wrote “A solution at the economic and technological level can be found only if we undergo, in the most radical way, an inner change of heart, which can lead to a change in lifestyle and of unsustainable patterns of consumption and production.” We know this change of heart is result of faith in Christ and holy living. The full article is found at http://conservation.catholic.org/declaration.htm.
I wonder how the Earth would look like if we would take God’s mandate seriously. I hope our children and grandchildren can find that out.
William Silva
On Earth’s Day 2009
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I commented on this on Facebook, but I couldn't really get my full point across. I am not arguing that as Christians we shouldn't care about the Earth-of course we should, he tells us to "farm" the land. Isn't that what coal mining and oil refineries are doing? But Earth day is not about God at all. It's a way for tree-hugging hippie liberals to push their agenda and that agenda includes the things I mentioned like taxing farmers 87.50 per beef cattle and $175 per dairy cow as well as $20 per pig because they put out too much methane. What do you think will happen to our food supply of beef and pork if that happens? Some farmers will be forced to close down and the ones that don't will pass that cost on to us. What about the people who can barely afford those things now? How will they afford an increase in beef and pork costs? But environmentalists don't care about that.
ReplyDeleteThe environmentalists want to enforce cap and trade which will raise the cost of many things including electricity. Barack Obama said himself on January 17th 2008:
“Under my plan of a cap and trade system electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Businesses would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that cost onto consumers.”
The EPA is talking about taxing people for driving too far to work or sitting in traffic. My girlfriend and I drive to Lenexa for work. That would be considered far enough to be taxed. So I guess I should take a job at K-mart so I am not putting out too much CO2 on my way to work, but my current job is the only job that will let me be off every day the kids are off school and go to all of their functions at school etc. But the environmentalists don't care about that.
The smart grid will eventually let the government monitor how much energy we are using so that eventually THEY can decide how much energy we gt to use and at what time of the day-otherwise you pay a higher fee (or tax). people could die! But the EPA and the environmentalists that celebrate Earth day don't care about that.
now, supposedly fat people are killing the environment. I mean really Will-where does it end?
Th fact is-i don't believe in man-made global warming and I can produce a stack of papers 6 inches thick to support my stand. At this point an abandonment of the theory of man-made global warming would cost Al Gore and most other politicians their job and respect and with the money flowing in like milk and honey from taxes and future fees-it's really hard for them to open their eyes and accept the truth.
John Christy, state climatologist for Alabama, winner of a NASA climate related award, recipient of the AMS Special Award "for developing a global, precise record of earth's temperature from operational polar-orbiting satellites, fundamentally advancing our ability to monitor climate." and college professor -was an author on the original IPCC document on Global warming (the one for the U.N.) and he does not believe in man-made global warming. and neither do thousands of other scientists.
The ice caps are now gaining ice and polar bears are at an all time high. People like Al Gore are flat out lying and now they are trying to say that the cooling we are now experiencing on the Earth is a direct result of global warming issues. Are you kidding me? How about looking at history and temperatures? How about trusting that God let's the Earth heat and cool to adjust itself?
SO sorry if Earth day is a sensitive subject for me, but to me it's a day for liars and tree-huggers and the environmentalist "religion" to get together and celebrate an Earth they are working so hard to preserve while supporting issues like abortion because they are worried that overpopulation will kill the Earth. They don't care that people will have to pay up to 100% more for their electricity, more for their food, more for their clothing and basic needs. They do not care about people!
If things don't turn around soon Revelation 6:6 will actually come true in this country much sooner than we expected.
Government Policy
ReplyDeleteWe will have to fight to have a positive influence on environmental policies, and offer better suggestions and alternatives to the instances you mentioned. I think the major solutions will come from new technologies. For instance, Carbon Emissions would stop being an issue if we could substitute oil for another source of fuel or install a device on every car exhaust to complete capture or destroy toxic gases. Taxes, could be used as an incentive tool, but it should be a very small part of the solution. Trees, for instance, if we could come up with a cheaper and biodegradable material, we would have no reason to cut trees for lumber thus preserving forests for biodiversity and so on.
Global Warming
Whether true or false, I think we have to focus on the purpose: make possible for the increasing Earth's population to have access to its resources at reasonable price. We are going to need food, clothes, oil, coal, water, for several more billions of people. If the demand increases at higher rate than the supply, we are in trouble. The challenge is to do all that without further damaging the planet. People and Earth are not a matter of either/or, we need both unless we plan to move to a different planet. Regardless Global Warming, we feel the effects of pollution when we go to Beijing, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, New York and other dense metropolitan areas. With 12 billion people on the Planet, their cars, etc, we need everybody's contribution to the solution.