Why I am … Green

Yesterday’s post in this series about how I’ve been influenced by different movements across Christian history talked about antiracism, an issue that focuses on the needs, safety, and thriving of specific groups of people marginalized in our society. Today’s is even more dire, advocating as it does for the needs, safety, and thriving not only of every single human on the planet for the foreseeable future, but also life as we know it on the planet itself. Today, I’m talking about why I am green, by which I mean ecologically conscious.

At its most basic level, I am green because everyone with any sense of long-term self-preservation must be. The ways we are doing life are simply and literally unsustainable — in that we literally cannot keep living as we do. For example, I have a simple, walking, urban lifestyle, only rarely replace clothing and electronics, and have shifted to almost entirely locally-produced foods and a more plant-based diet, and even with all these ecologically-friendly lifestyle choices, if everyone lived like me, we’d go through 2.5 times the amount of resources the Earth can produce in a year. And based on North American averages, I’m doing pretty well; the Canadian average is 7.4 ‘Earths’, just under the American average of 7.5. (Check out the thought-provoking Ecological Footprint test for yourself!) And I haven’t even mentioned climate change, giant garbage patches in the ocean, or the strong signals that we are in the midst of a mass extinction event of our own making. (Current low estimates suggest an extinction rate 100 times higher than baseline.) The point is that our way of doing life on the planet cannot be sustained. If we want life as we know it to continue, we need to make big changes to how we live. And part of that is how we understand and relate to the world around us.

As it happens, returning to the Scriptures with this different lens ends up being pretty eye-opening. It challenges old interpretations of such ideas as humanity’s “dominion over the earth,” offers new insights into what it means to be created in God’s “image and likeness,” and puts a spotlight on aspects of the text that have long been left in the background. And there’s nothing wrong with this process. As I wrote a few years ago about this:

[F]or much of human history, [an adversarial attitude towards the natural world] was not unreasonable; humanity was a relatively small part of creation, and, lacking natural protections in a dangerous world, a very vulnerable part at that. In such a situation, a competitive attitude towards the wilderness makes sense. But, of course, now the power balance has completely flipped. We have the power to move mountains, flood valleys, and hunt animals to extinction within a few short years. (Think of the passenger pigeon, whose numbers dropped from an estimated five billion in 1800 to complete extinction one hundred years later.) In light of this change in situation, we need to reassess our attitudes and make sure our reading of Scripture is accurate.

Being green is also beneficial in a Canadian context in Christian efforts at reconciliation with the Indigenous peoples of the land. This is because much Indigenous wisdom involves sustaining reciprocal relationships with the many different human and non-human inhabitants of the world. As Cherokee theologian Randy Woodley has put it:

Living out shalom means taking into account all of creation in reciprocal relationships and learning from creation as object lessons for understanding God’s shalom provision. (Shalom and the Community of Creation)

This is nothing other than one more arena in which we are called to live out the Bible’s conception of faith, showing up in relationship with God, one another, and the world around us.

Finally, I am green because I like the way it makes me think differently, not just of my relationships with the outside world, but within myself too. This came out last year in my series that applied permaculture principles (which are all about sustainable living) to Christian living. Such principles as looking for patterns and natural flows, making good use of feedback, reducing waste, and exploring the margins — all drawn from observation of natural environments — make so much sense when applied to life.

So then, why am I green? Because the writing is on the wall: We must do life differently, and having an ecological sensitivity opens up fresh, healthier, and more holistic understandings of the Scriptures and how to live.