Many people, not
just christians,
believe that they have
a duty or
responsibility to look
after the planet and everything on it.
Christians
believe in looking
after the planet
on God's behalf
"God called the dry
ground " earth" and
the watere that had
gathered together
"Seas". God saw
that it was good."
Genesis 1:10
"I establish my new
covenant with you and
your decendants and with
every living creature that
was with you" Genesis 9:8
Environmental
problems
Waste
Lots of people waste
things like food while
others go without and
starve
People like farmers and
manufacturers spend long
periods of time making things
which often are quickly
thrown away, wasted, or not
used to there full potential
Some supermarkets buy more
food than there going to sell
and end up throwing lots of it
away
People buy things, like
plastic bottles, and only
use them once. they then
end up taking decades or
centuries to biodegrade
when they could be used
over and over again
Pollution
Fossil fuels
Lots of things that
make lots of the thing
we take for granted
possible are
unsustainable
Most fossil fuels will run out soon
It's difficult to transport them
There have been lots
of oil spills which
greatly damage the
environment
They relise harmful gasses into the atmosfere
which harms the environment
The harmful gasses, like CO2,
also hams humans; like in
Bejing
Many things, like
plastic bottle are
quickly thrown
away and go on
landfills
This can destroy natural
habitats or land that could
be used to grown food
Climate Change
Climate change is where the planet permanatly warms up
It can be natural
Or it can be induced
Climate change
nowadays has
been/ is being
brought about by
human activity
We're burning to much fossil fuels and this is reliesing CO2
Some of the CO2 is being taken in by plants and
the sea but lots of it is lingering in the
atmosphere and traping the suns heat
It is having some
disasterus
consequences
Ice caps are melting, this could lead to
the extinction of many tundra animals
Because there's more liquid water
there can be more floods, which
might lead to the washing away of
more habitats
With more floods it will be
harder for us to grow food
People are cutting down lots of trees, mostly in the rainforrests
This is leading to all kinds of bad things
Habitats are being destroyed
This is leading to the possible extiction of lots of animals and plants which
might infact have great medicinal properties
Individual and
community
responses
The three
Rs
People can reduce
the harm they do on
the planet
They can obstain from
buying things with
exessive packaging
They can also save
energy buy instead of
useing energy for heating
they can put on an extra
layer or a nice jumper
People can reuse things
so they they don't end up
on landfills
People can reuse and
save plastic bags for
things like shopping
instead of throwning
them away after one use
The same can be said for
bottles, instead of throwing
away a bottle people could keep
it and reuse it as a water bottle
or something like that
Also lots of natural waste
products like old bits of food and
feaces could be put in a compost
heap and used to fertilized
gardens or farms
People can recycle things
By recycling people get rid off things
they need or want and they can be
used to make something useful
People can reduce the amount of cars pumping things
like CO2 into the atmosphere by buying things that have
been made localy, instead of getting things shipped from
half way across the world
By doing this people would invest more money into their local comunities so
the area can become rich and invest in more environmetaly friendly things
I heard of some people in the U.S who came up with an exelent
response that can be use by individuals or community
It's the repleacment of concreate roads with solar panled ones
It's responses that can help the environment
National and international responses
Many countries, like the
UK, trying to find
non-environment-harming
alternitives to things they
need and want
Other countries, like Brazil are
tying to cut down the damidge
the do on the environment by
not cutting down so much of
the rain forrest
In 2006 Lord Stern, an
economist, published a 700 page
paper on how it would
economicly beneficial to cease
impacting the environment
Many countries are now
buying into greener
souces of energy like solar
panels and wind farms
Many christians do, and
are encouridged by their
leaders to, help the
environment
Our own Bishop of Liverpool,
James Jones, with the bishop of
London, call for a cut of personal
carbon emmisians during lent
Even Pope Benedict has help; by
putting 2700 solar panels on the
roof of the Vatican to heat it. He
critisiezed the "Unbalanced use of
energy in the world
Respect
Christians are told to activly
help other people and the planet
A World Divided
In the world recorses are not shered
equaly and as a result people suffer
Each day about 40000
children starve to death
Half of all adults own only 1%
of the world's welth while the
richest 1% of people own 40%
of the world's wealth
In many rich countries obesity is a
problem while in other countries
malnuetritian is a massive problem
Lots of the time poverty is
caused my natural disasters but
other times it is brought on by
people
In zimbabwe the government took farmland of experiancied
white owners and gave it to some of the
government's black suporters but many farms were
looted and fell into disuse.
Now many there is hyperinflation, many
people strugling to find food and other
people fleeing the country
Causes of
poverty
Drought
Drought can cause
crops to fail thus
leadining to widespread
famine and starvaton
Then many workers get
weaker or die so
projects that might help
people might cease
A lack of workers means
a lack of people to
provide care for the
hungry and sick
With lmore people
dieing of starvation
there's less farmers to
harvest food and less
people to carry out
government healthcare
inisiatives that could
rejuvinate the nation
Bad governance and
corruption can lead to the
wasting of resorses
Also conflict would take
farmers and workers away
from helping people and
growing food
Plus attacks on properties might
destroy farms, homes, factories
and hospitals
Christian responses
Many christians help the poor by
giving money to homeless people
While others organize or partake
in charity events like marathons
and bake sales
While others have set up
or help out in charities
like christian aid and
compasion