Earth Day 2010 – Sustainable


When the first Earth Day was celebrated, I was working for the Tennessee Stream Pollution Control Division. Those of us working for the Division viewed this celebration with mixed emotions. We were definitely in favor of an increased emphasis on the environment but we were a little skeptical – many of leaders were “hippies” and some of the immediate goals were technically unachievable. We assumed that when these goals were not met, the Earth Day movement would die as so many other American fads in the past. The movement did not die, though it has morphed and divided through the years. So here are my Earth Day thoughts as one who is still working in the environmental field and one who tries to view all of creation from a Biblical perspective.

The job with the state was not my best offer coming out of college. A national manufacturer of air pollution equipment offered me a very good job with a much higher starting salary. The problem: the only openings were either in Cleveland or Pittsburgh. In 1969 those two cites were characterized by gray-to-black skies and technicolor streams. We were just not interested in living there.

The Stream Pollution Control Law under which we operated was passed in 1947. The strongest penalty permitted by that law was a $50 per day judgment which had to be approved by a local General Sessions Court. The first time a fine was ever assessed was in 1971 and it made the front page of every major paper in the state. Our strongest weapon against pollution was to convince industry that treating their wastewater before discharging it into the stream was to their long-term advantage. Surprisingly, many did just that. There were times when we felt like toothless wonder-workers.

The environment in the United States is so much better this Earth Day than it was 40 years ago. That is something that we should truly celebrate. These improvements have come about because of increased public awareness, stronger laws, corporate sensitivity to public opinion, and a subtle understanding that the old ways threatened our way of life because they were not sustainable. Today the term “sustainability” has become a buzz word for many in the environmental movement, some of them holding radical beliefs. As Christians we should not reject sustainability just because it is embraced by some radicals. Rather, we should work to define it in ways consistent with our responsibilities to steward God’s creation. This can mean some radical things. For example, “industrial farming” is probably not sustainable in the long run and movements promoting the production of safe, local, and organic foods should be encouraged. At the same time, we should not rush to embrace the unproven and significantly unscientific “climate change” agenda. There are ways that mankind is leaving a big footprint on the earth but climate change does not appear to be one of them. Further, we should de-politicize our air and water pollution control laws and replace them with laws based on good science which protects both human health and the environment. In my opinion, this would mean things like stronger laws requiring “clean coal” technology and promoting the development of nuclear power using technology already developed by the French and Koreans. It would also mean changing the allowable air emissions formulas to allow the construction of new, heavy industrial facilities like an integrated steel mill (which current regulations prohibit). It is impossible to have a sustainable environment if we don’t have a sustainable economy.

“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” – Psalm 24:1. Consider this: what if, on Judgment Day, God asks us how we cared for His creation as well as asking how we loved one another?