A Different Lens
A Different Lens is an occasional feature looking at events of the day through a different lens - a different point of view than those you might be hearing through the media or institutional officials.
Eco Pendulum Swing
Today I walked by a vending machine that was selling cold bottled water. At that moment it struck me how far we have come in exploiting the earth.
I’m old enough to remember the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970. The Woodstock generation birthed that and although work on ecological matters has never stopped, it faded just as Woodstock faded. The hay days of the 90’s eclipsed any thoughts of responsibility for the earth. After all, God created the earth, saying it was good, and told us to “subdue the earth.” We were going to subdue the earth as we saw fit. After all, it was ours.
“Subduing the earth” became defined as strip mining for the most profit without thoughts of restoring the land. We drove large cars which gave us maybe 10 miles per gallon and asserted we had the right to use as many of the earth’s resources as we wanted. We had long ago forgotten the gas lines of the early 1980’s when gas went from 33 cents per gallon to $1.64. We bottled water in plastic bottles wasting petroleum making the plastic and throwing them into our landfills. Single serve packaging and precooked food became the vogue for convenience – we were just too busy, too overscheduled, too important to actually cook or fill a glass with water from the tap.
But in the last year, I’m guessing, the pendulum from convenience and waste is beginning to swing back to a more responsible look at our place on the earth. Corporations are making more eco friendly cleaning products. The building industry is developing ecofriendly housing using many recycled products in insulation and kitchen construction. An entire town is being built “green” after it was destroyed by a tornado. Recycling is more a way of life than a novelty. We are beginning to pass up bottled water in plastic for reusable containers. The automotive industry is seriously working on high mileage vehicles and we are actually buying them.
Ruling the earth as God intended seems to be where the pendulum is now swinging. Is it because we take seriously God’s charge of stewardship? Probably not. We are most likely reacting to negative impact on our wallet. But whatever way it takes for us to respect God’s creation, I think God is saying, “And it is good.”
July 2008
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