An article in “The Atlantic Daily” caught my attention as anything Brazilian always does. You don’t live in a country 14 years without having an interest in what goes on there. I was attracted to the article because of the raging fires that are destroying the life-giving Amazon Forest.
The article said, “The Amazon Rainforest does, in some sense belong to Brazilians and the indigenous people who live there. But as a store of carbon, it is fundamental to the survival of every person. If destroyed, the Amazon, as a system, is simply beyond humanity’s ability to get back; Even if people were to replant half a continent’s worth of trees, the diversity of creatures across Amazonia, once lost, will not be replenished for roughly 10 million years. And that is 33 times longer than Homo sapiens, have existed.’
It is one thing for lightening to start fires in the Amazon as it has in California. But what is worse is the fact that fires in both places have been started by humans. The recent fires in the Amazon have been started by farmers clearing the land.
In the creation process God made everything, blessed it and looking upon what he made, “God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:25). And God made man and said, “Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)
This verse and others in Scripture establish the fact that God has made man a manager, a steward, a keeper of the earth and God holds man accountable for his actions. The truth is that man is not doing a very good job of replenishing the earth.
What we are seeing, to our disadvantage, is the destruction of planet earth. Cut enough trees down, pollute our seas with garage and trash, burn enough fossil fuel and destroy air quality, pour chemicals and pesticides into our streams and rivers and soon we will have no oxygen to breath, no water to drink and like the dinosaurs mankind himself will be extinct. And who will be responsible? Mankind himself!
As Christians we should demand that those in responsibility be better stewards on behalf of humanity to take every measure to safeguard plant earth. Our time to turn the situation around for the good of mankind is extremely short. Is making dollars more important than having oxygen to breath, or clean water to drink, or a planet to live on?
In His love,
Charles
