Choosing To Care For Our Planet

There’s been a lot of public attention on the issues of pollution and climate change recently. Ever since David Attenborough and the BBC ‘Blue Planet II’ programme highlighted the enormous global problem of plastic pollution in the oceans, many people have tried to change their lifestyle and use less plastic. There has been pressure on big companies to do their bit as well, from stopping plastic straw use through to eliminating plastic packaging.

Public opinion appears to be coming around to the idea that we do face a climate crisis caused by human activity.

Globally, there are vast swathes of rainforest being destroyed by farmers growing palm oil and soya or raising cattle for meat consumption. Illegal logging continues to be a huge problem to the Amazon rainforest. Closer to home we have wildlife losing valuable habitat due to new buildings or poor land management. It’s an escalating crisis.

The Bible establishes from the very first verse that the Earth is God’s creation. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth” declares Genesis Ch 1vs1. We’re not told how or when God created the universe. We are told however that he filled it with water and land, plants and trees, birds, fish and animals and ultimately, people. The prophet Isaiah tells us that God made the Earth to be inhabited by His creation; “…the Lord, who created the heavens… who formed the Earth and made it… He established it; He did not create it empty, He formed it to be inhabited.”

God won’t allow mankind to utterly destroy the Earth, but it is our responsibility to care for it. We can all make positive choices about our impact on the environment to help maintain the planet that God has given us to live on, alongside the rest of His creation.

Useful Bible passage to look up:  Psalm 104

Photo by Daniel Olah and Nasa on Unsplash