Environmental Degradation Of The Environment

It is said that Lynn White felt that “the worlds environmental problems,” were at their root caused by Christianity. When considering this opinion, many will turn to the beginning of Scripture, pondering the words of Genesis 1:26, “which gives humans dominion over the earth,” thus determining that God has given mankind permission to do as they desire with His creation, making it ethically acceptable to use nature in any way they so desire. It is this verse that remains at the center of the debate as to whether a Christian should be an environmentalist or not. Furthermore, it is also believed that “religious conservatives” are merely “awaiting the coming of a New Heaven and Earth,” thus, why would they feel a need to remain concerned about the one which mankind dwells upon now Consequently, those who believe that the verses of Genesis give them the right to do with the earth as the please, go about “treating our planet in an anti-human, god-forsaken manner.” Thus, human actions go on adding to the groanings of the earth, which it hath endured since the fall of Adam and Eve. Although some choose to proclaim that Genesis reveals their misuse of earth as morally sound, I do not agree, instead I feel that mankind is called to have “respect for God and God’s creation, therefore, man is not simply ruler, set apart from nature, but should instead be view “creation as a

Discussing Critically Religious and Secular Ethical Arguments About Environmental Issues In his book, 'The End Of Nature', Bill McKibben highlights the fact that we are destroying the natural environment at an increasing rate, for our own short-term gain. Since the day that man created agriculture, and industrialisation to follow, the imbalance between man and nature has been growing[1/2]. This has been accompanied by a massive population increase, tripling in the twentieth century alone[3]. Human pressure on nature has never been so great.

Christian voice is correcting them or proclaiming the biblical model of man’s relationship to nature which: is unique and superior to the dominant free-market and environmentalist models. . According to Gardner and Stern (1996), in that place are exclusive approaches that have power to be implemented in companionships search to defend the environment. One like approach may take a closer look at holy and regarding duties beliefs and the effects of these beliefs on the environment. The idea to create values and beliefs in environmental issues are important components of having a safer and enjoyable world for its people and the world they live in. Christian and non-Christian, at hand, must see the environment and the shortcoming of business by reason of a proper conversion to an act or purpose of and preservation of the wealth the planet has to support life. Christians as the Bible originate directing the eye to what has to be published by word force in reference to human natures dependence and bounden duty to the nature and its resources. As Christians we should do what ever it takes to make sure this earth glorify God. If we are careless about science and economics — not caring about how they work and what they describe, creation’s economy will suffer (Christians Research Institute).

Scholar Rosemary Ruether’s analysis of White’s thesis seems to be a combination of all three: apologetic, constructive/critical and sympathetic. Ruether reviewed the development of Christianity through history and concluded that the Christian belief in redemption into another world cannot be entirely blamed for leading Christians to neglect and abuse the environment (Ruether, 464). However, she also concluded that White’s thesis was mostly correct (Ruether, 464-65). Yet, Ruether’s analysis also points to the industrial revolution and exploitation of nature for the sake of economics or consumerism as additional perpetrators of environmental destruction (Ruether, 464-65). According to Ruether, Christianity, as well as Judaism and Islam, all have important insights that can help the planet avert disaster (Ruether, 466). However, Ruether believes that religions must accept the belief that humans do not have absolute power over nature (Ruether, 466), which would mean rejecting their Genesis-based mandate of “dominion” over the Earth. Similarly, religious persons must stop the Western world’s abuse of the environment that damages not only nature but harms other humans (Ruether,

White argues that the impact of science and technology dominated by western, Judeo-Christian thought, is what is responsible for the environmental crisis.13 The Abrahamic religions do not believe in spirits within natural objects, and see man as made in god’s image, not as part of the ecosystem. She interprets Genesis’s creation story as the cause of the man/nature dualism and the legitimizing source for man to exploit nature.. “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” (Genesis 1:26)8 White’s recommendation that the “roots of religion must also be the remedy” supports a religion-conservation collaboration, but was religion really the cause in the first place? 13 Hillel’s critique of White argues for an alternative interpretation of the creation story, one based on the fundamental Christian beliefs of God’s unconditional love and human stewardship. Adam should not be seen as nature’s dominator, but as a caretaker with a responsibility towards protecting and conserving the resources within it. Greed in developed countries and lack of sustainable alternatives in developing ones should be blamed for environmental degradation, not this framework of human accountability on its impact in nature, which is precisely in line with the conservation

In the Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis, Lynn White argues that western Christianity is guilty and responsible for the current environmental crisis. He writes that Christianity gave human a reason to be a master over other living creatures and “nature objects”. I agree with White’s opinion that Christianity affected the nature negatively, but I expect no responsibilities for Christians. In this paper, I will write about why I support White’s idea, but not fully.

As society has flourished throughout the years, we have made impacts on our environment that, until recently, went unnoticed. Among these are deforestation, pollution, use of non-renewable energy sources, and destroying the oceans. However, we have reached a point where we have not just noticed these impacts, but realized that a majority of these issues have become irreversible. These issues are not just limited to the United States, but are on a global scale. Western industrial nations are the most to blame for these issues, but their impacts have reached to non-industrial countries as well, many of which do not have the means to limit the impact that the issues will have on their societies. In “Civilizations in Transition,” four

In the essay “The Cultural Basis for our Environmental Crisis” written by Lewis Moncrief, he argues against Lynn White’s claim that our economic crisis is due to Modern Judeo-Christian belief. Moncrief proposes interested points throughout his whole paper to disprove White’s claims, but there are a few assertions that Moncrief pointed out that go against White’s claim. The three points that Moncrief extensively explained are the lack of personal moral direction in the treatment of natural resources, the inability of social institutions to change the way things are to deal with this mistreatment, and our abiding faith in humanity. These are all very good points and solid arguments against White’s claims. One in particular stands out as being weaker than the others. The fact that Moncrief thinks that we as a society lack the moral code to treat nature with respect and care is a large generalization. He can be disproven by multiple examples of people trying to save the environment, and illogical reasoning.

In “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis” Lynn White proposes that the reason behind the modern day ecological crisis is solely to blame on Christianity. White comes to this conclusion by tracing Christianity back to its roots and how it has impacted human interaction with nature. White begins his argument modestly stating how cannons were fired in the 14th century requiring workers to start collecting wood and minerals, which led to early deforestation and erosion. He then compares this to modern day when our civilizations are rapidly destroying nature in order to sustain the dramatically high population.

Environmental pollution is one of the biggest problems the world faces today. Pollution troubles humans economically, physically, and everyday of our lives. The outbreak of diseases is linked to the contamination of the environment; however, most people do not know about this problem. This fact shows that increasing environmental pollution needs to be taken care of a soon as possible, not only for the good of the environment, but also for the people that live in it. “Although environmental pollution can be caused by natural events such as forest fires and active volcanoes, use of the word pollution generally implies that the contaminants have an anthropogenic source—that is, a source created by human activities” ("Pollution."). Many factors explain why environmental pollution has become such a large issue in the world. Air and water pollution has been caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Most of the rivers are polluted and ninety percent of urban water bodies are polluted. Half of china does not have access to clean water. Regulations are passed to regulate pollution, but they are not monitored. The Chinese government deals with the punishment of pollution, it spends two hundred billion dollars each year on pollution problems (Desonie 35). However, if the people of the world were to act on this problem, it would definitely help both the environment and the people. There are many activities that can be done by both the common citizen to the governments of the world, which

Christian theology states that God created the earth and gave it as a gift to humans to be shared with all other living creatures. This belief is known as the “Creation-centered approach to the natural environment” (Massaro, p.163). This approach emphasizes the value of nature by recognizing humans as being an equal part of God’s creation under which all “species deserve protection” (Massaro, p.163). With such publicly known cases of pollution like the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico or Bethlehem Steel’s pollution of Lake Erie decades ago, it is evident that humans have been using the environment in accordance with the Stewardship or even the Dominion model, both of which place humans above all other creations. According

Ecological theology focuses on the scientific and environmental aspects of theology. It tries to determine the proper relationship between nature and humans from a religious perspective. Throughout history, Christians have turned to the Bible for advice on almost every aspect of life, but only a select few have been asking questions about caring for the environment. The recent environmental crisis has caused an increase in interest for this type of theology over the past fifty years. Certain passages from the Bible calls Christians to love and care for each other and ultimately for the environment. Advocators for “creation care” have found verses in the Bible that suggest that God calls us to protect the Earth and serve as temporary stewards. Ecological theology seeks to find the answers to how Christians can remain true to God’s will in a time of environmental destruction and what exactly is the Christian ecological responsibility.

Human production and development systems have increasingly made use of the earth's resources, gradually leading to what can now be described as environmental crisis. Without immediate and future concern for the ways humans treat the planet and surrounding atmosphere, humans could be the creators of their own destruction. Economic, social, and political systems have all added to the degradation of the environment, such as mineral resource extraction, wars, political boundaries, and policy for actions taken within those boundaries. In order to attack the root causes of environmental destruction, we must first confront the reasons behind human actions, and develop ways to overcome the

The environmental degradation of natural resources, such as fresh water resources and fish or sea live stocks have become burning issue of potentially violent conflict between the nations. There are numerous historical examples that related to this issue. For example, the Ethiopian decision to store Nile water behind the walls of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam have brought ongoing tension between the Egypt, the Ethiopia and Sudan.

The increasing severity of global environmental challenges has prompted increased attention to the relationship between international trade and environmental degradations. On the one hand, there is a growing strand of literature on environmental degradations that focuses on emissions relocated by trade. As shown in the comprehensive surveys of Jayadevappa and Chhatre (2000), Wiedmann et al. (2007) and Sato (2012), there has been a growing interest since the 1970s for the interactions between trade and environment. A number of studies were carried out to estimate the physical amount of pollutants embodied in trade. Early contributions were made by Walter (1973) and Shui and Harriss (2006). More recent studies employ Global