Chatting with a friend at Greenpeace recently I said “As with most people I don’t worry too much about the ‘ecological crisis’. After all the present situation is one that has been created by our activities over the last couple of hundred years.” He made one comment: ‘You claim to be a follower of Jesus, have you never thought of how God views what we are doing to His world - and you an amateur conservationist”.

In Africa and the few areas of Asia that still have some forests, native tribes practice a type of seminomadic lifestyle supported by hunting, gathering, and ‘slash and burn’ agriculture. They have done so for millennia. The forests were not much affected. Climate change was something that happened slowly over tens of thousands of years. Plenty of time for native species to adapt or move on.

Nowadays, many of these tribes are shifting to the cities. The forests have been taken over by agriculturalists following close on the heels of the poaching and timber mafias. The few remaining forests are being decimated.

In fact, the whole world’s population is shifting to the cities. The human race has lost touch with the land that gives us life. Everywhere, businesses accumulate land and exploit the land for the maximum output at the least possible investment.

We don’t worry about the results on the land as long as our supermarkets are well stocked and prices remain affordable. The land has become invisible.The same could be said for many things, electrical energy, gas (petrol), building materials, steel, and so on are not areas of concern, and unless prices rise we just don’t think about it at all.

The one environmental issue that we do get a bit concerned about is pollution and that is only because we do have to feel the consequences in our landfills, in the air we breathe and in the water that we drink. The easy way out is what we always prefer and you would be surprised at how much toxic waste gets exported to the third world for disposal. That’s the stuff that’s too nasty to dump anywhere near ‘civilised’ people.

The results of our selfishness are the steady destruction of the ecological balance of the world. Down the road we will pay a heavier price as pollution, deforestation and global warming take hold. Crichton is wrong!

That process has already started. Take the lowly mosquito; a silent and versatie vector for various nasty diseases, this tiny insect is working its way ever northward as winters get milder. The result now is a few cases of West Nile Virus attacks sporadically here and there. Unfortunately, these will be followed by Japanese Encephalitis, Dengue, Malaria, Chikungunya… and other little horrors for which there are no known cures.

Starting with God’s word, the creation imperatives lay out the present situation rather too well. Gen. 1:28 “Multiply…subdue it and have dominion”. We have, in our fallenness, persevered without a care for the condition of the land.

The issue for me today is to start obeying God’s commandments in the light of what history and science teach. But, neither history nor science are very encouraging for they leave me with a sense that our best intentions can cause more harm than good. Interventions on behalf of nature very often backfire resulting in unforeseeable bad consequences. Human interventions in anything are disaster-prone!

Today, what effect will it have if I take Jesus’s teachings on the kingdom to heart and start living as a citizen of the kingdom of God? Some of His basic teachings are:

1. To identify with the have-nots.

2. To not accumulate wealth or possessions.

3. To freely share whatever I have.

4. To be more concerned about others welfare than my own.

5. To not build up buffer stocks against whatever may happen tomorrow.

6. To consume only what is absolutely necessary for today.

7. To use all of the talents that God has given me to the best of my ability.

8. To love and accept responsibility for all mankind without discrimination while ignoring worldly and genetically determined imperatives.

9. To personally stand for justice and to support systems and laws that promote justice in its narrowest and broadest senses.

10. To pay taxes and to demand accountability from the leadership on behalf of God’s kingdom.

Jesus’s teaching of these principles automatically brought him into conflict with both the politicos and the religious. There is no mammon to be had for anyone in God’s kingdom, it won’t even trickle down! Therefore, there is a big element of risk involved, especially if a growing proportion of Jesus’s followers start taking His kingdom teachings seriously.

For our environment, if I can live by the principles of the kingdom, the results will be at least neutral (we won’t make matters any worse) but more probably will give the world of nature some breathing space and maybe help to see something of a recovery.

Live to serve : Serve to live