One or 3…of the key reasons I get concerned about environmental issues…My 3 kids!
Global Warming,
(Taken from page 95 and 96 of Living The Good Life)
Global warming is caused by an increase in greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. The main greenhouse gases are water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, as well as some manufactured gases such as CFC’s and some of their replacements.
Australian households generate almost one fifth of Australia’s greenhouse gases – about 15 tonnes per household per year – throughout everyday activities such as transport, household energy use and the decay of household waste landfills.
…the worlds wild lands are being cleared at a rate of 1.6 acres per second at the same time as were emitting 708 tonnes of CO2, with 2.8 more people added to the world every second (taking into account births and deaths) to help us increase the rate – things cannot go on as they are indefinitely.
IUCN estimate that over 5500 species of animals birds, fish, reptiles and invertebrates are being threatened by extinction, along with 6700 species of plants. And they are dying out at rate between 50-150 species per day.
- More than 50% of the worlds wetlands have been drained
- Since 1950 some 3billion hectares of forest cover – nearly half of the world’s total – have been lost. Each year a further 16 million hectares of forest are destroyed. (**This week’s Bulletin, shows America actually had a growth in their forest this year! Someone is acting!)
- Between 50-80% of mangrove forest have been destroyed.
- One fourth of the planets tops soil has been lost.
The list goes on!
My Thoughts –
And God put man in charge of the care and nurture of this planet!! He actually said for us to “Rule over it” (Gen 1). And like so much of our leadership, it becomes “Lording over” rather than responsible “Ruling”. Responsible Rule, to me, has words like “Care” and “Nurture”, “Steward” and “Responsible” – But it would seem that we have left this care go amiss for a long long time. It would seem to me also that the ones who claim to know the creator through the revelation of His son Jesus, appear to be some of the last ones on the planet to driving a serious call to environmental sustainability and responsibility. In fact I would say that the church could call for an international day of confession and repentance for the manner in which we have cared for the planet God gave us to have responsibility for…just some random theology thrown in today!
No Guarantees 