Why should Christians and the church care about the environment?
This is the script for a presentation I made at the Creation Care Summit sponsored by Nazarenes for Creation Care in April 2022. It outlines why it is important for Christians to care about the earth and other species – because what we do to them ultimately affects human beings.
Let’s think about this from the start: the earth is not ours to do with as we please. The earth belongs to God and not to us. We are Earth’s caretakers. God did not give us 5 Earth’s worth of resources to support life; he only gave us one. There is no Planet B – we have to take care of the one we’ve got.
I often hear that humans are special because we were made in God’s image, and that somehow that puts us at some level above the rest of the created order. But are we the pinnacle of creation? It is true that we were made in God’s image and in that sense we serve a special place in creation because no other species bears his image.
- At the same time, he made us just like the animals – we have similar DNA, similar anatomical structures, similar embryonic development, similar biochemistry, and the same basic needs.
- Because of this, we are interconnected with all other living things on this planet. We breathe the same air, we drink the same water, we share materials and energy. And when our life is over, we return all that we have borrowed back to the earth so it can be reused again. All life is in this together – we need each other.
- Each part of creation has a specific purpose, or niche, or role to play in service to the whole community; this purpose must be fulfilled to make the whole system work. If anyone or anything stands in the way of another’s purpose then the system does not function properly.
Let me give you an example of how humans can interfere with the purpose of another species and in so doing, alter the entire ecosystem. Humans use fish for a variety of purposes, including food. When humans on the West Coast overexploited the fish populations, the orca population had to find a new source of food and began to eat sea otters, which they normally would not eat. Sea otters play a vital role in the kelp forest ecosystem by keeping the sea urchin populations in check. When otter populations were reduced by orca predation, the sea urchin populations exploded and destroyed the kelp forest which was home to many other species. Our actions make a difference to natural systems. In this case, we did “just one little thing” and the ecosystem collapsed.
The otter story tells us that our interactions with creation often result in a loss of biodiversity, which includes existing species, the genetic variations within those species, and biological communities where species live and interact. The primary ways that humans affect biodiversity are by reducing the amount of available habitat, introducing invasive species, harvesting or extracting too many resources, pollution, and climate change. All of these are influenced by the growth of human populations and by the consumption of those populations.
These five primary drivers of biodiversity loss can lead to the extinction of species – species that God loves and considers good – species that God commanded to be fruitful and multiply. Today, many species can no longer be fruitful and are at risk of extinction, including my beloved amphibians – 41% are at risk.
The way we exercise our dominion matters …
Exploitation of resources occurs because of overconsumption – the desire or demand of humans to fulfill their needs and wants. Consider how we get the products we consume – like this cell phone here. The resources have to be extracted from the earth, transported to a manufacturing site, packaged, transported again to the point of sale, purchased and used by a person, and then discarded or reused. Each step along the way results in habitat loss, resource loss, and pollution plus contribute to climate change.
God gave us one earth from which to get the resources that we need. In ecology, we understand that populations can only grow so far on the available resources. The carrying capacity is the maximum amount of resources required to sustain a population over a long period of time. If everyone used the same amount of resources used by people in the United States, we would need five Earth’s to stay under the carrying capacity. The plain truth is, we consume too much!!!
Not only are we consuming resources, but generally those resources go through a one-way trip. Our society is big on single-use items. For those items we take the resources, make them into a product which we use once or for a short period, and then dispose of it, which causes pollution that affects others. This is known as a linear economy. Instead, we should be making products that can be easily recycled, reused, or remade into some other useful product. This is called a circular economy, and this model conserves natural resources because we reuse the ones we have already extracted. This is the way materials recycling happens in nature … so why can’t we do it?
When the demand for products is high, resources are removed at an unsustainable level, and this leads to overexploitation – the removal of too many fish, too many trees, too many minerals, and too many fossil fuels.
A good example of overexploitation is overfishing. Overfishing occurs when we remove so many fish from a population that it can not naturally replenish itself, which is unsustainable. About 30% of all commercially fished species are overfished. Adding to the problem is by-catch, the other unwanted species that are trapped or caught in fishing nets, most of which are thrown overboard and die. This is not good for the populations of these fish nor the health of our ocean ecosystems.
Overexploitation often leads to a loss of habitat. A habitat is a place where an organism finds everything it needs for survival. When resources are overexploited, the result is a loss of habitat for these species, the fragmentation of their habitat into smaller places with bigger spaces, and the degradation of the quality of their habitat. Common examples of this are deforestation, the conversion of marginally arable land into deserts, and the conversion of land into human developments and agriculture with their significant reductions in the number of species present.
Another way that habitat is lost for native species is when humans accidentally or intentionally introduce exotic invasive species in places outside of their native range. (Ornamental plants in yards). These species are able to outcompete the native species and invade their habitats, forcing the native species out. This results in a significant loss of biodiversity. Invasive species have affected more than 100 million acres of habitat in the US, and costs the US more than $120 billion each year.
Habitat degradation is often caused by various forms of pollution that affect air, water, and soil.
Pollution is a direct threat to many species, particularly in the ocean. Oil pollution from spills can often coat sea birds, turtles, and marine mammals until they succumb to the toxic substances found in the petroleum. Other species are affected by persistent marine debris, much of which is plastic. For example, there are 7 species of sea turtle in the ocean, and all of them are threatened with extinction. When we use plastic grocery bags they often end up in the ocean, where they look like the jellyfish that sea turtles eat. They try to ingest the bag, and choke to death – the loss of another life for these species that need all the individuals they can get. Similarly, sea birds often ingest pieces of plastic thinking they are food, and then perish because their bellies are full of plastic that has no nutritional value.
Where does all of this plastic come from? The vast majority of plastic waste in our oceans comes from garbage that has washed in off the land, from rivers and beaches. One place this trash accumulates is the Pacific Ocean where there is an area roughly the size of Texas covered with plastic several feet deep. This represents about 80,000 tons of garbage, and 99% of it is plastic. A lot of this plastic comes from discarded fishing gear, but also includes bottles, bags, and other plastic items.
If we can get that plastic out of the ocean, there are ways it can be recycled into useful products. One of our students, Jose Ruiz from Spain, started his own company called Joago to do something about this problem. The company uses recycled ocean plastic waste along with other recycled materials and solar power to produce luxury watches and eyewear.
Pollution directly relates to the second Commandment, to love your neighbor as you love yourself, or to treat others the way you want to be treated. The pollution we create affects other people’s health, and can cause respiratory and cardiac illness, cancer, skin irritation, and nerve damage to name a few. An estimated 6 million children in the US are especially vulnerable to air pollution. Over 8.3 million people die worldwide from pollution-related causes each year.
Another problem with pollution is that it is not evenly distributed with regard to human populations. In the US, you are more likely to live near a polluted site if you are a person of color. This constitutes environmental injustice and racism. Communities battling environmental injustice often have less financial resources to battle polluters, and their voices are often not heard when they raise concerns over toxins in their community. But, everyone has a right to a clean and healthy environment, including fair treatment and participating in decisions that affect their environment and quality of life.
One example of environmental injustice is the ongoing issues surrounding the Flint Water Crisis. In 2014, the city administration changed the water source from Detroit’s system to the Flint River without notification or a hearing. Subsequently, improper treatment and testing of the Flint River water led to discoloration of water in the taps, and leaching of lead from the pipes, causing a series of major health issues for Flint residents, primarily people of color, including skin rashes, hair loss, and itchy skin … as well as blood lead levels 2-3x higher than they should have been, particularly in children. High blood levels of lead in children lead to developmental deficiencies. The people of Flint were chronically ignored, overlooked, and discounted by government officials for 18 months, all the while being told that their drinking water was safe.
I will segue to our last topic, climate change, because it is also an environmental justice concern. Here in Boston and the surrounding areas, climate change will hit hard in communities like Dorchester and Roxbury, where structures made of concrete, steel, and asphalt will retain more heat, creating more heat stress for residents. Dorchester also has the largest land area vulnerable to coastal flooding from sea level rise. The community residents in these areas need to be adequately represented as the City of Boston makes plans in preparation for our addressing the effects of climate change (Climate Ready Boston Initiative).
So climate change has become one of the most politicized and polarizing topics of the 21st century. I’m not going to address those issues with you today, but I do want to give you an overview of the facts that pertain to climate change. First, let’s distinguish between global warming and global climate change. Global warming refers to the increasing surface temperatures on Earth since the start of the Industrial Revolution. Climate change results from global warming, and refers to large scale, regional changes in climate, particularly temperature and rainfall.
Climate change results from an accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that trap the sun’s heat energy and do not let it escape. Two of these gases, carbon dioxide and methane, are released when we burn fossil fuels – coal, oil, and natural gas – as well as from our livestock and agricultural practices. The levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have also been increasing since the Industrial Revolution, and have a similar trend as the data for global surface temperature. Furthermore, as we look back on the effects of increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in Earth’s past, we see that when carbon dioxide goes up, so does the earth’s temperature.
Some say that climate change is a natural phenomenon that occurs in cycles. The graph displayed here demonstrates why these natural cycles do not fit our observations. The green line of this graph shows the contributions of natural causes to global climate change, such as solar activity, volcanism, and the eccentricity of Earth’s orbit. Together these do not explain the overall warming trend shown by the observed temperature change. It is only when we add in the human drivers of climate change, such as carbon dioxide and methane emissions, that the changes in global temperature are explained.
There are multiple lines of evidence that the climate is already changing. The temperatures of both the atmosphere and ocean are increasing, and the ocean is becoming more acidic due to increased inputs of carbon dioxide. Arctic sea ice, glaciers, and ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica are melting, and ice sheet melting is contributing to rising sea levels. There are more extreme weather events, from storms to droughts, to heat waves.
Climate change is a social justice issue because those who are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change live in poverty and are people of color; as such they do not contribute much to carbon dioxide emissions. The must vulnerable areas are low-lying countries like Bangladesh, island nations, and small-scale farmers that are at threat from changing rainfall and temperature patterns.
There are a number of ways that humans are impacted by climate change. There have been many deaths in recent years from heat waves, and people can lose life and property from the severe storms that are affecting coastal areas. Increasing temperatures will also allow more emerging diseases to spread, such as our recent pandemic.
Climate change is a very complex and polarizing issue and I have only begun to scratch the surface in the short time I have here. There is plenty of evidence that the climate is already changing and that humans are an important cause. Rather than stick our heads in the sand about this issue, I would like to suggest that we take a precautionary and prudent approach to climate change, as suggested in Proverbs 22:3. If we wait too much longer, it may be too late and our only option will be to adapt to a much warmer and wetter world.
I hope you have learned something new from this reading about why creation care is so important and necessary for individual Christians and the Church. As I wrap up this blog, I’d like to share a success story of how one small group of people made a big difference for creation in the African nation of Kenya.
Last year, I was contacted by a man named Silas Wekesa, pictured in the middle on the right, who lived in the village of Mwiyenga in Kenya. He asked for my help to raise money for a project that involved the constructing a well, starting an indigenous tree nursery, and setting up a conservation area for small animals along the Nakhwana River. I engaged my students to help with this project.
The village desperately needed a source of clean drinking water. The women of the village had to walk miles to the only available well, so instead they would get their water from the nearby river, which is polluted. The water would make people sick.
They also dreamed of starting a nursery for native trees that could be planted in the nearby conservation area and throughout the community. The trees would provide food and oxygen while removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
They also wanted to establish a small conservation area along the Nahwana River for the protection of small animals that remain only in small pockets of fragmented forest habitat. They wanted a place for the people of the community to enjoy God’s creation and to learn about the creatures with which they shared their space.
To date, the well has been constructed and is providing drinking water for over 700 families in the community. Over 10,000 native trees have been planted in the community and in the conservation area to improve the habitat for wildlife – and they are planning to plant 6,000 more. The conservation area is now protecting a variety of animals, including 15 species of frogs that live and breed along the river.
God made all of this possible by using a small conservation biology class at a Nazarene college in Boston to accomplish something meaningful for the biological community in Mwiyenga. They raised the money for the well construction and tree nursery, and took the first steps toward writing a management plan for the conservation area. Now, just imagine what your church could do to enhance and restore creation in your community or in another community half way around the world.
Tending To the Garden 
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