I do admit that I have an interest in eco-consciousness. My interest in green and natural living stems from three principal branches: stewardship of what God has given us, health, and frugality. It is amazing that so many benefits for one's health and pocketbook flow from responsible management and care of the natural resources God entrusted to man.
Unfortunately, the popular notion of environmentalism is not born of a relationship between Creator and created. Case in point is the National Geographic Channel's special entitled "Human Footprint." The aim of the program is to illustrate just how much an average American will consume over their lifetime, and to highlight different ways that consumption that we take for granted can be particularly wasteful. While this seems a noble endeavor in theory, I am deeply disappointed in its overall execution.
Take for example the show's first point of attack - the disposable diapers that one child will use. The producers gathered the 1,898 empty pint containers of crude oil that it takes to manufacture said diapers, and heaped them on a well-manicured suburban lawn for effect. Four fallen trees were also thrown onto the pile, and they had a pretty impressive illustration of the cumulative effects of the disposal of the diapers. I presumed that some viable option to the disposables would be presented, and in fact cloth diapers did get a mention, though not so honorable as one might think. The show's only comment about cloth diapers was a lamentation of the water needed to launder them! Things did not get any better from that point on as the program discussed a lifetime consumption of beef, eggs, and bread, all addressed in the same scolding and condescending tones, meant to shame the viewer for his mere existence. I wondered out loud if funding for this project might have come at least in part from the scary folks in the Voluntary Human Extinction movement.
The leftist barnyard pigs at National Geographic contrived a graphically pleasing way to disseminate their ultimate Orwellian message - "FOUR LEGS GOOD, TWO LEGS BAD." This is what the envirofacists and global warming junk scientists would like the sheep of the American public to mindlessly and endlessly bleat.
What a pity that is. God created the world for man to care for as well as enjoy. How sad that our culture has strayed so far from the Christian worldview that "saving the planet" often translates to "reduction of mankind." And it would be really nice not to have to qualify yourself with this statement whenever someone gives you a raised eyebrow for your preference for green products: "I'm not one of those wackadoos - really."
And for the record, I am really peeved about the planned elimination of the incandescent light bulb. For all my crunchiness, I despise those little corkscrew things they try to pass off as decent lighting devices. And they're full of mercury to boot!!
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3 comments:
I agree...about all of it.
I run what I would say is a pretty green household motivated nearly entirely by cheapness and adherence to the First Article. Why confuse it with all the environmentalist rhetoric? One of my most gratifying pastor's wife moments was when the treasurer reported that last year's utility bill came in way under budget.
Kelly, I like your point about the convergence of health, frugality, and good stewardship. Even in our fallenness, we get glimpses like that of how things were originally designed to work, and to a degree still can.
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