01 08 09 Buffalo Killers and Planet Cookers
Today I heard an interview on NPR (Fresh Air), where the guest described the near extinction of bison in North America by hunters. After the interview I began to see that time as something of a metaphor for today. The truth is, the hunters didn’t think much about causing an extinction. They were just hunting for their own purposes—meat or profit. In their view nature was so expansive and so huge--and belonged to God and not to them, after all--how could they be concerned. Surely, small human beings couldn’t have that much impact on something as massive as these wondrous herds of bison that stretched clear across the continent.
Today, I hear thinking much the same. So what if methane and CO2 contribute to global warming? Nature produces more methane and CO2 from rotting vegetation and volcanic eruptions than humans can imagine. What are human beings that we should consider ourselves powerful enough to have any impact in the face of these?
And of course there was a time when this was true. There was a time when humans numbered few across the earth. Disease and disaster killed them off so fast that they had to work hard and multiply as fast as possible just to keep up. So few were the people, and so simple their technology that even poor ecological practices had relatively small impact on the face of the earth. But, of course, that time is gone.
Now people number in the billions across the face of the earth. Population is counted in terms of the average number of people per square mile, and the technology to keep them alive is quite advanced. People are consuming more than ever before, and the goods they consume come from factories and transportation sources and power sources that operate nearly exclusively from fossil fuels. Year after year after year, humans pump billions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere. Granted, volcanoes can produce more. But we are more consistent than volcanoes.
Like bison hunters, we still like to think, ‘how could my small contribution (to extinction/to pollution) make a difference.’ I am small and mother nature is huge! But like bison hunters, we need to recognize that times have changed. We can't go on as we have in the past.
And so today I say, look at the buffalo; gone in less than a century. Look at our atmosphere; overheated just as fast. Why do we think that we are so small and insignificant? Doesn’t the Scripture tell us that God has raised us up? And if that is true, then don’t we have to accept the responsibility that is inherited by all who achieve such higher status?
Psalm 8
1 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
above the heavens.
2 From the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise [b]
because of your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings [c]
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air,
and the fish of the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Today, I hear thinking much the same. So what if methane and CO2 contribute to global warming? Nature produces more methane and CO2 from rotting vegetation and volcanic eruptions than humans can imagine. What are human beings that we should consider ourselves powerful enough to have any impact in the face of these?
And of course there was a time when this was true. There was a time when humans numbered few across the earth. Disease and disaster killed them off so fast that they had to work hard and multiply as fast as possible just to keep up. So few were the people, and so simple their technology that even poor ecological practices had relatively small impact on the face of the earth. But, of course, that time is gone.
Now people number in the billions across the face of the earth. Population is counted in terms of the average number of people per square mile, and the technology to keep them alive is quite advanced. People are consuming more than ever before, and the goods they consume come from factories and transportation sources and power sources that operate nearly exclusively from fossil fuels. Year after year after year, humans pump billions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere. Granted, volcanoes can produce more. But we are more consistent than volcanoes.
Like bison hunters, we still like to think, ‘how could my small contribution (to extinction/to pollution) make a difference.’ I am small and mother nature is huge! But like bison hunters, we need to recognize that times have changed. We can't go on as we have in the past.
And so today I say, look at the buffalo; gone in less than a century. Look at our atmosphere; overheated just as fast. Why do we think that we are so small and insignificant? Doesn’t the Scripture tell us that God has raised us up? And if that is true, then don’t we have to accept the responsibility that is inherited by all who achieve such higher status?
Psalm 8
1 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
above the heavens.
2 From the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise [b]
because of your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings [c]
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air,
and the fish of the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
testing
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