Creation Corner Column for July 2014: summer reading suggestions

For your consideration of summer reading, here are some suggestions; subjects include:

Beginner's Guides
Biographies
Climate Change
Ecology
Environmental Policy
History
Miscellaneous
Religion and the Environment
Resolution on Fracking of the Upper Susquehanna Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America


BEGINNER'S GUIDES from 
http://www.oneworld-publications.com/beginners include such titles as

Animal Behavior, by John A. Byers.
Planet Earth, by John Gribbin.
Climate Change, by Emily Boyd & Emma L. Tompkins.
Conservation, by Paul Jepson & Richard Ladle.
Oil, by Vaclav Smil.
Biodiversity, by John Spicer.
Energy, by Vaclav Smil.
Over 100 titles in a variety of subject areas.


BIOGRAPHIES

 Alexander Wilson: The Scot Who Founded American Ornithology, by Edward H. Burtt Jr. and William E. Davis Jr.
 
Devil in Deerskins: My Life with Grey Owl, by Anahareo, edited by Sophie McCall.The  Horse Lover: A Cowboy's Quest to Save the Wild Mustangs, by 

H. Alan Day with Lynn Wiese Sneyd; foreword by Sandra Day O'Connor.
 
Malthus: The Life and Legacies of an Untimely Prophet, by Robert Mayhew.

Napalm: An American Biography, by Robert M. Neer.
 
Nature's Oracle, by Ullica Segerstrale.  A biography of WD (Bill) Hamilton, the evolutionary biologist whose insight into the operation of kin selection at gene level suggested how altruism might have emerged from natural selection.
 
Oil and Honey: The Education of an Unlikely Activist, by Bill McKibben.

Rachel Carson and Her Sisters: Extraordinary Women Who Have Shaped America's Environment, by Robert K. Musil.

The Sun's Heartbeat: And Other Stories From the Life of the Star That Powers Our Planet, by Bob Berman.

Wilfred Thesiger: The Life of the Great Explorer, by Alexander Maitland.

  

CLIMATE CHANGE

Antarctica: An Intimate Portrait of a Mysterious Continent, by Gabrielle Walker.

Beacons: Stories For Our Not So Distant Future, edited by Gregory Norminton.  (21 original stories about climate change imagining our worst and best possible futures),

The Carbon Crunch: How We're Getting Climate Change Wrong---And How To Fix It, by Dieter Helm.

The City And The Coming Climate: Climate Change in the Places We Live, by Brian Stone.

The Climate Casino: Risk, Uncertainty, and Economics for a Warming World, by William D. Nordhaus.

Climate Change Impacts in the United States: The Third National Climate Assessment, a report by the US Global Change Research Program, 829 pgs., May 2014.

Climate and Social Stress: Implications for Security Analysis, edited by John D. Steinbruner, Paul C. Stern and Jo L. Husbands.  available at http://www.nap.edu/catalog.

Climate Wars: The Fight  for Survival As The World Overheats, by Gwynne Dyer.

The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future, by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway.  Daedalus (journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences), Winter 2013.

The Future Is Not What It Used To Be: Climate Change and Energy Scarcity, by Jörg Friedrichs.

Our Once and Future Planet: Restoring the World in the Climate Change Century, by Paddy Woodworth.

Turn Down the Heat: Why a 4°C Warmer World Must Be Avoided, a report for the World Bank by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Climate Analytics.  November 2012, 58 pgs., available at http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2012/11/17097815/turn-down-heat-4%C2%B0c-warmer-world-must-avoided.

Walden Warming: Climate Change Comes to Thoreau's Woods, by Richard B. Primack.

What We Know: The Reality, Risks and Response to Climate Change, a report by the Climate Science Panel of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  28 pgs. March 2014.

The Wrath of Capital: Neoliberalism and Climate Change Politics, by Adrian Parr.


ECOLOGY

The Age of Ecology, by Joachim Radkau.

Buzz: Urban Beekeeping and the Power of the Bee, by Lisa Jean Moore & Mary Kosut.

Ecological Restoration, edited by Steven N. Handel.

A Field Guide To Your Own Back Yard: A Seasonal Guide to the Flora & Fauna of the Eastern U.S., by John Hanson Mitchell; Laurel Molk, illustrator.

Hope on Earth: A Conversation, by Paul R. Ehrlich and Michael Charles Tobias.

In Wildness Is The Preservation Of The World.  Eliot Porter, photographer; text by Henry David Thoreau.

Sonic Wonderland: A Scientific Odyssey of Sound, by Trevor Cox.

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, by Elizabeth Kolbert (widely reviewed in 2014; see also her previous book: Field Notes from a Catastrophe).

Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, by David Quammen.

Still the Same Hawk: Reflections on Nature and New York (city), edited by John Waldman.


ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

101 Ways to Help Birds.  Laura Erickson.

Building a Green Economy: Perspectives from Ecological Economics, edited by Robert B. Richardson.

The Burning Answer: A User's Guide to the Solar Revolution,by Keith Barnham.

Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil, by Timothy Mitchell.

Coming Clean: Breaking America's Addiction to Oil and Coal, by Michael Brune.

Confronting the Blue Revolution: Industrial Aquaculture and Sustainability in the Global South, by Md Saidul Islam.

Environmental Policy Change in Emerging Market Democracies: Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America Compared, by Jale Tosun.

Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat, by Philip Lymbery.

Fueling Up: The Economic Implications of America's Oil and Gas Boom, by Trevor Houser and Shashank Mohan.

Growing Resistance: Canadian Farmers and the Politics of Genetically Modified Wheat, by Emily Eaton.

The Housing Bomb: Why Our Addiction to Houses is Destroying the Environment and Threatening Our Society, by M. Nils Peterson, Tarla Rai Peterson, and Jianguo Liu.

How to Save the Planet on a Student Budget, by Kate Aydin.

The Last Ocean: Antarctica's Ross Sea Project, Saving the Most Pristine Ecosystem on Earth, by John Weller.

Land, Stewardship, and Legitimacy: Endangered Species Policy in Canada and the United States, by Andrea Olive.

Leave No Trace: The Vanishing North American Wilderness.  Jim Wark, photographer; Roderick F. Nash, essays.

Life on the Brink: Environmentalists Confront Overpopulation, edited by Philip Cafaro and Eileen Crist.

The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail, by W. Jeffrey Bolster.

Nature Wars: The Incredible Story of How Wildlife Comebacks Turned Backyards into Battlegrounds, by Jim Sterba.

The Oil Curse, by Michael L. Ross.

The Race For What's Left, by Michael Klare.

Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: How Scarce Energy is Creating the New World Order, by Michael Klare.

Snake Oil: How Fracking's False Promise of Plenty Imperils Our Future, by Richard Heinberg.

Solving Deer Problems: How to Keep Them Out of the Garden, Avoid Them on the Road, and Deal With Them Anywhere!, by Peter Loewer.

Stung! On Jellyfish Blooms and the Future of the Ocean, by Lisa-Ann Gershwin.

Ten Billion, by Stephen Emmott.

The Way To Bee: Meditation and the Art of Beekeeping, by Mark Magill.

Wheel of Fortune: The Battle for Oil and Power in Russia, by Thane Gustafson.

White Beech: The Rainforest Years, by Germaine Greer.

Wilderness and the American Mind, by Roderick Nash.


HISTORY

1493: How Europe's Discovery of the Americas Revolutionized Trade, Ecology and Life on Earth, by Charles C. Mann.

"A Rich Spot of Earth": Thomas Jefferson's Revolutionary Garden at Monticello, by Peter J. Hatch.

Anticipatory History, edited by Caitlin DeSilvey, Simon Naylor & Colin Sackett.

Environmental Problems of the Greeks and Romans: Ecology in the Ancient Mediterranean (2nd ed.), by J. Donald Hughes.

Global Crisis: War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century, by Geoffrey Parker.

Heretics and Heroes: How Renaissance Artists and Reformation Priests Created Our World, by Thomas Cahill.

Home Fires: How Americans Kept Warm in the Nineteenth Century, by Sean Patrick Adams.

Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes, by Svante Pääbo.

The Oldest Living Things In The World, by Rachel Sussman, with essays by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Carl Zimmer.

Owning The Earth: The Transforming History Of Land Ownership, by Andro Linklater.

Palladius (Opus Agriculturae): The Work of Farming (translated from the Latin by John G. Fitch).

The Sea & Civilization: A Maritime History of the World, by Lincoln Paine.

Shores of Knowledge: New World Discoveries and the Scientific Imagination, by Joyce Appleby.

The Third Horseman: Climate Change and the Great Famine of the 14th Century, by William Rosen.

Walden's Shore: Henry David Thoreau and Nineteenth-Century Science, by Robert M. Thorson.

The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? by Jared Diamond.


MISCELLANEOUS

22 Ideas to Fix the World: Conversations with the World's Foremost Thinkers, edited by Piotr Dutkiewicz and Richard Sakwa.

3.11: Disaster and Change in Japan, by Richard J. Samuels.

The Axial Age and its Consequences, edited by Robert N. Bellah and Hans Joas.

Ethics of Liberation in The Age of Globalization and Exclusion, by Enrique Dussel.

The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate, by Robert D. Kaplan.

The Secret Within: Hermits, Recluses, and Spiritual Outsiders in Medieval England, by Wolfgang Riehle, translated by Charity Scott Stokes.


RELIGION AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Christian Environmental Ethics, by Jim Martin-Schramm.

Deep Ecology and World Religions: New Essays on Sacred Grounds, edited by David Landis Barnhill and Roger S. Gottlieb.

Earth Habitat: Eco-Injustice and the Church's Response.  Dieter T. Hessel and Larry L. Rasmussen, editors.

Earth-Honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key, by Larry L. Rasmussen.

Eco-Lutheranism, edited by Karla Bohmbach and Shauna Hannen.

God, Creation, and Climate Change.  Karen Bloomquist, editor.  Lutheran World Federation Studies, vol. 02, 2009, pgs. 33-46.

God's Earth Is Sacred:  Essays on Eco-Justice. National Council of Churches of Christ, USA.

Indigenous Traditions and Ecology: The Interbeing of Cosmology and Community, by John Grim.

The Mark of the Sacred, by Jean-Pierre Dupuy (translated by Malcolm B. DeBevoise).

This Sacred Earth: Religion, Nature, Environment, 2nd edition, edited by Roger S. Gottlieb. A "textbook" now with 40 new selections; 700 pages.

Sacred Ecology, third edition, by Fikret Berkes.

A Watered Garden: Christian Worship and Earth's Ecology, by Benjamin M. Stewart.  Kindle version available.


RESOLUTION ON FRACKING, UPPER SUSQUEHANNA SYNOD, EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA

Lutherans Call for Repeal of “Fracking Loopholes” - Press Release

UPPER SUSQUEHANNA SYNOD, ELCA

NEWS RELEASE

Contact:       Chad W. Hershberger, Director of Communications

                    Phone:  (570) 713-5826               E-Mail: news@uss-elca.org

The Rev. Dr. Leah Schade, Task Force Member

Phone:  (610) 420-6861 (cell)      E-Mail:  jimleah@aol.com

For Immediate Release:  June 26, 2014

Lutherans Call for Repeal of “Fracking Loopholes”

SELINSGROVE— On the recommendation of a bipartisan task group, the Upper Susquehanna Synod Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) voted on June 20, 2014, to call for all environmental and public health exemptions on shale gas and oil drilling and its related processes, known as the “Halliburton loopholes,” to be repealed and all processes related to shale gas and oil extraction and processing to be subject to the Safe Drinking Water Act (1974), the Clean Air Act (1990) and Clean Water Act (1972). 

The task force was created as a result of action taken at the Synod’s 2012 assembly directing the group to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the justice issues surrounding the natural gas industry.  The resolution came as a result of two years’ worth of research, field work, and discussion by a diverse group of individuals, appointed by The Rev. Bishop Robert L. Driesen, representing opposing viewpoints on the issue of hydro-fracking.

“Our task force was made up of scientists, professors, pastors, teachers, and lay leaders in the church, as well as individuals who actually work in the shale gas industry or are supportive of it.  Some of us would like to see a total ban on fracking.  Others think it can be done safely with proper regulation.  The fact that we were able to come to the table and engage in civil, bipartisan moral deliberation about this issue and offer a recommendation for the larger church is very important,” said The Rev. Dr. Leah Schade, member of the task force.  “At the very least we could agree that the loopholes created for the industry exempting it from the established laws protecting our water, air and public health are unjust and need to be repealed,” Schade said.

Schade noted that this task force provides a model to other religious bodies as well as civil society for bringing people together across ideological lines to engage in robust ethical debate about controversial issues and arrive at some consensus for the common good.

The task force also provided a report that offered guidelines for approaching shale gas and oil drilling based on biblical and Lutheran theological values, as well as materials and resources to help people understand and interpret the abundance of information about the shale gas and oil industry, pro and con, that continues to grow and change almost daily.  Those resources can be found at http://www.uss-elca.org/for-congregations/fracking-resources.

A copy of the task force’s final report and resolutions will be sent to the Secretary of the US Department of Energy and the Director of the US Environmental Protection Agency, the PA Department of Environmental Protection, local elected officials, Governor Corbett, and other ELCA Synods within the Marcellus and Utica Shale region.

The Upper Susquehanna Synod, headquartered in Lewisburg, PA, is one of 65 synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  The synod is made up of 130 congregations in Clinton, Columbia, Juniata, Lycoming, Mifflin, Montour, Northumberland, Snyder, Tioga and Union Counties.  For more information on the synod and its congregations, visit http://www.uss-elca.org.

6/14 Creation Corner Column: More Environmental Leaders identified by TIME magazine

More Environmental Leaders identified by TIME magazine

In addition to the Christian Evangelical climatologist Katharine Hayhoe regarded as a “Pioneer” among TIME’s “100 Most Influential People” cover story of May 5/May 12 (noted in this column last month), these others are noted:

TITANS

Tony Fadell, 45, CEO of NestLab, is combining design, engineering and entrepreneurship to create “smarter homes.”

Aliko Dangote, 57, businessman/activist is “doing well and doing good for Africa” as an advocate for agricultural research, malaria control, and leadership on polio and other diseases.

Ertharin Cousin, 56, from Chicago, is an advocate with a goal to eradicate hunger in our lifetime as she heads the United Nations World Food Programme, bringing food to more than 100 million people worldwide yearly.

PIONEERS

Kathryn Sullivan, 62, former astronaut, is the scientist/new administrator of NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and thus “the world’s weatherwoman.”  With the planet suffering increasingly severe upheavals, at least partly a result of climate change (droughts, floods, typhoons, tornadoes, etc.) she is “the right person for the right job at the right time” according to John Glenn.

Tom Steyer, 56, an investor/environmentalist/fundraiser is seen as a “green game changer”.  His group, “NextGen Climate” mobilizes young voters, politicians and candidates for office to ensure that facts, not anti-science climate denial, have a better chance to be heard.  He is also profiled in a two-page article, entitled “Green Giant” in the June 2 issue of TIME. 

Jack Ma, 49, chairs the Nature Conservancy’s China program.

ARTISTS

Barbara Brown Taylor, 62, author and Episcopal preacher is seen as a “centering voice in the wilderness”.  Her latest book, Learning to Walk in the Dark, helps in strengthening our “mental environment”.

Yao Chen, 34, is a romance comedy actress with more than 66 million followers on the Chinese Weibo blog, where she writes about the disturbing by-products of the epic economic rise in China.

LEADERS

John Kerry, 70, U.S. Secretary of State, is said to have a commitment to address the dangers posed by climate change that is long-standing.

Jerry Brown, 76, Governor of California is cited as a wise steward of the state’s resources, focused on overhauling its broken water system, supporting America’s largest agricultural economy, and fighting climate change.

ICONS

Pope Francis, 77, Roman Catholic Pontiff, chose his name “Francis” after the Catholic saint of nature, and, because nature can be viewed as impoverished, marginalized, cast-out, he urges us to be moral leaders in word and deed, especially in our practice of environmental ethics.

Robert Redford, 76, actor, showcases environmental-theme independent films at the Sundance Festival and supports environmental causes such as the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

Arundhati Roy, 52, writer/activist, is said to be the “conscience of India” with her essays on crony capitalism and environmental depredation, thus providing  “bracing ways of seeing, thinking, and feeling.”

Carrie Underwood, 31, singer/songwriter is an American Idol winner (2005) and animal rights advocate.

Alice Waters, 69, chef and activist on behalf of better eating habits, food (fresh and local), cuisine, farmer markers, and improved home economics courses for children (The Edible Schoolyard Project).

Note:

If my analysis is correct, and my count accurate, these persons represent sixteen percent of the total of the 100 named, thus reflecting a considerable number of persons with environmental concerns, and a considerable depth of environmental issues worldwide.

5/14 Creation Corner:TIME Honors Evangelical Climatologist Katharine Hayhoe/World Environment Day

Evangelical/Climate Scientist Honored by TIME magazine

TIME, in its "100 Most Influential People" issue of May 5 and 12, raised up evangelical Christian and Texas Tech University climatologist Katharine Hayhoe as a "pioneer."

The book by Hayhoe, "A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions", co-authored by her husband, a pastor, makes an effort to correct the disinformation (misguided views) on climate science some religious people have.

She advocates a transition to cleaner renewable energy sources.

"Because climate change disproportionately affects the poor and vulnerable, the very people Christians are called to care for and love," she has said, responding to "climate change is not inconsistent with Christian values."

"When I look at the information we get from the planet," she has said, "I look at it as God's creation...telling us that it is running a fever."  And as her husband might add, thermometers are neither Republican nor Democrat.

Hayhoe is also featured in the recently-released series "Years of Living Dangerously," on the Showtime network.

"It's hard to be a good steward of the planet if you don't accept the hard science behind what's harming it, and it can be just as hard to take action to protect our world if you don't love it as the rare gift it is.  For many people that implies a creator," said TIME profiler and Showtime interviewer of Hayhoe, Don Cheadle.

 

"It's Our World: World Environment Day, June 5"

The World Environment Day is the principal way that the United Nations uses yearly to encourage worldwide awareness and action for the environment.

This year the theme for the June 5th event is "Raise Your Voice, Not the Sea Level" in an effort to mark the survival threat of rising sea levels, due to climate change, to Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

The web site  http://www.unep.org/wed provides A-Z steps one can take; related links; blogs; articles; supporters and messages; activities; regional features; youth voices; multi-media (posters, banners, videos, music, podcasts, logos); past yearly themes, etc.

                                                                                -30-

April '14 Creation Corner Column

 The Ten Commandments of Environmental Responsibility, by Rev. Dr. Alvin Pitcher (1913-1996).

1.  Thou shalt begin each day with thinking about, praying with and for the universe.  Use a globe as a symbol for the universe or find a picture of the heavens with galaxies.

2.   Remember that 40,000 kids under five die every day from hunger and hunger-related diseases.

3.  Thou shalt save energy.  Cut your energy use at least 20 percent during the next 12 months.
----walk, bicycle, carpool, reduce number of shopping trips
----replace incandescent bulbs with fluorescent mostly
----insulate
----buy a car that gets 50 miles per gallon

4.  Thou shalt recycle!

5.  Thou shalt listen to what God is saying to us through the scientists' descriptions of what is happening to the earth.

6.  Thou shalt choose to use less---less gasoline, less fuel for heat, less hot water, less meat, less food grown with chemicals (fertilizers and pesticides), less paper, give less material goods and more of self, buy fewer clothes, less purchased recreation, less traveling, less housing, less purchased entertainment, purchase fewer books, less purchased jewelry, less alcohol.

7.  Thou shalt be part of a group focused on caring for creation---a task force in your congregation, a group of students and faculty at your school, a group living on your block or in your apartment building.  This will include political activity.

8.  Thou shalt write people, especially your friends, send literature, subscribe to magazines for them and other people.

9.  Thou shalt expose yourself to the world of nature---to forest, mountains, rivers, lakes, marshes, to garbage dumps, feed lots, agricultural processes.

10.  Thou shalt be open to accepting the ecological crisis as a gift---as an opportunity for new experiences, new ways of being with and for each other.

Alvin Pitcher was a longtime civil rights activist in Chicago, and retired as a divinity professor from the University of Chicago.  In 1994 Pilgrim Press published his Listen to the Crying of the Earth:  Creating Creation Communities.  In 1965 he received the Edwin T. Dahlberg Peace Prize from the American Baptist Convention.

3/14 Creation Corner Column: Earth Day Sunday 2014 and Beyond

Creation Justice Ministries develops Earth Day Sunday
materials each year to help congregations celebrate and care for God's
Creation.  The 2014 theme is "Water, Holy Water" (see Job 5:10,
Psalms 104:10-13; Isaiah 43:16-21, Genesis 1:20, Hebrews 10:22, Exodus 17, Ezekiel 34:18, and over 700 other Biblical references to water).

Beyond a six-page introduction to the theme, the web site for 2014 and
topics for prior years offers adult and youth educational resources, sermon
starters, a bulletin insert (prayers and litany), and action steps for
congregations.

Materials for themes of prior years include climate change, energy and
faith, environmental health, food and farming, green building churches, land
and wilderness, and young adult fellowship.

Resources include those for biodiversity, the Chesapeake Bay, climate and
energy, environmental justice, faithful budgets and stewardship, analysis of
energy subsidies and poverty assistance programs.

Ecojustice includes all ministries designed to heal and defend Creation,
working to assure justice for all of Creation and the human beings who live in
it.

See http://www.creationjustice.org/earthday

Also in April:

1.  Soil and Water Stewardship Week, April 27-May 4, 2014, sponsored by your regional conservation district.  "Dig Deeper: Mysteries of the Soil" is the theme.  Educational materials for all ages and stewardship program insert/litany available.  Visit http://www.nacdnet.org/education/resources/digdeeper or call 1-888-695-2433 

2.  Earth Day, April 22, 2014.  "Green Cities" is the theme for over one billion people in 190 countries.  Sponsored by Earth Day Network (many partners).  http://www.earthday.org  

3.  Arbor Day, celebrated annually the last Friday of April, inspires people to plant, nurture and celebrate trees.  http://www.arborday.org  

And, if you missed this at http://www.lutheransrestoringcreation.org, from Peter Bakken:

Sign Up Your Congregation Now for the Lutheran Energy Stewards Initiative!

ELCA congregations and camps can apply now (deadline is May 1, 2014) for the Energy Stewards Initiative (ESI), a one- to two-year national program beginning in June.

The program helps congregations track and reduce energy use, lower their carbon footprint, and free up funds for other ministries.

The first ten camps or congregations to sign up will receive a FREE copy of the EarthBound video series!

Learn more and apply at:

https://sites.google.com/a/lutheransrestoringcreation.org/www/Home/project-elca-cuts-carbon-emissions

You can also sign up for an informational webinar on March 25, 2014 (7:00 p.m. CT) at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5598175904190977281

 

 

Creation Corner Column: 2/14, Ten Commandments (environmental perspective)

The Ten Commandments: an environmental perspective

Exodus 20:1-17 (The Ten Commandments) reflected upon as nature is about to be reborn as Spring approaches. What can we do for God's Creation, the Earth?

1. Put God first, not the idol of your comfort, or economic materialism.
2. Do not worship nature.
3. Nature cannot be laid waste in God's name.
4. Honor the Earth. Seek to understand her, and work with her ways.
5. Avoid killing and poisoning the ecological system and its members.
6. Have a respectful regard for Creation; keep ourselves and the Earth good and pure.
7. Do not steal or make selfish use of forbidden fruit. If you do, the evolutionary balance God created will be upset, and nature will moan. We steal away the possibility of an inheritable earth, an inhabitable future, when we acidify the rain, deplete the protective ozone layer, add to global warming, lose species diversity, and cause deforestation.
8. Seeing the earth as our neighbor, we should speak well of her, defend her, explain her actions in the kindest way, overlook her weaknesses and mistakes, and speak only good of her. She is not to be betrayed or slandered or lied about. Nature is not to be challenged, exploited, or defeated.
9-10. When we do not covet anything of our neighbor's, we will not burn trash only to have our neighbor's space suffer its pollutants and wastes. We will not think we are wisely using earth's resources when we are actually leaving Creation poorer.

"The Earth is the Lord's": Thou shall not despoil it nor destroy the life thereon. That is a bold command. To set our attitudes and actions straight we should add: To preserve is worthy; to restore, divine.

The above was a Lenten meditation (March 16, 1994) by Lutheran layman Michael Ochs when he chaired the environmental task force of the Upper Susquehanna Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Lewisburg, PA. http://www.uss-elca.org/ .

Jan. '14 Creation Corner Column: Environmental Aphorisms, Quotes, Quips, etc. for the New Year

Environmental Aphorisms, Quotes, Quips, etc. for the New Year

Perhaps you are looking for some shorthand way to perceive God's good Earth, to motivate you on behalf of the integrity of Creation, or redeeming it. Consider the following in your search.

We've got to stop treating the Earth as dirt!

"The question is not what you look at, but what you see." Thoreau

"The children are our most endangered species." Daniel Berrigan SJ

Dilution is still pollution; it's no solution, merely delusion.

"The American people see themselves marching through wilderness, drying up marshes, diverting rivers, peopling the wilds, and subduing nature." Alexis de Tocqueville

"The earth is all we have in common. It is what we are made of and what we live from, and we cannot damage it without damaging those with whom we share it." Wendell Berry

"Food is the unifying fabric of humanity, connecting us to the earth and each other." Ed Kenney, chef

"If we do not permit the earth to produce beauty and joy, it will in the end not produce food either." Joseph Wood Krutch

If you can't spell it, or pronounce it, don't eat it.

"If economic growth and ecological health aren't reconcilable, which do we choose?" Jay Griffiths

"Our greatest problems result from the difference between how people think and how nature works." Gregory Bateson

"Anyone who thinks you can have infinite growth on a finite planet is either a madman or an economist." Quaker economist Kenneth Boulding

"We treat the earth like a business in liquidation." Herman Daly

"We are already fighting World War III, and I'm sorry to say we are winning it. It is the war against the Earth." Ray Dasmann

"What we most need to do is to hear within us the sound of the earth crying." Thich Nhat Hanh

"Zen is simple. Simple! So simple: Infinite gratitude to the past, infinite service to the present, infinite responsibility for the future." Goto, a Zen roshi in Japan

We are defined not only by what we create, but by what we refuse to destroy.

Judge each day not by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.

"Leave the coal in the hole, the oil in the soil, the gas under the grass." unattributed saying

Use it up, wear it out, make do or do without.

Renewable energy is homeland security.

One solution comes up every morning (the sun!).

Whenever there is a huge spill of solar energy, it's just called a nice day.

Renewable Energy: The Answer is Blowing in the Wind.

Renewable is Doable.

The climate is changing faster than we are.

Climate change is not a matter of faith; it is a matter of science.

"Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms." President Barack Obama

The Holy Land is Everywhere.

"There are no unsacred places. There are only sacred places and desecrated places." Wendell Berry

"Oh Beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticided grain, for strip-mined mountains majesty, above the asphalt plains. America, America, man sheds its waste on thee, and hides the pines with billboard signs, from sea to oily sea." George Carlin

I pledge allegiance to the Earth, and all the Life which it supports, One Planet, in our care, irreplaceable, with sustenance and respect for all. Unattributed

"Sing to the Lord, bless his name...Let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar...Let the fields exult...Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy." Psalm 96

"For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain..." Romans 8:22

Blogger Michael Ochs lives in Williamsport, PA.