From a netfriend:

God designed the universe in a particular way. When it runs as it should, then it is perfect. When one part of creation rebels, then it starts to fall apart.

There is a term I once heard that describes man’s relationship to his environment called ‘the prisoner’s dilemma’. It envisions a large jail cell filled with prisoners and an outside community (jailers and such) who have all died off because of some catastrophe. Therefore the inmates have lost any outside support. Within the cell is enough food and provisions to keep the whole group alive and healthy for a year (presumably enough time for them to devise a means of escape). But it will only last if it is doled out in humble portions and each prisoner takes it upon himself to ration according to his needs. The dilemma occurs because none of the prisoners trusts any of their inmates. Therefore some immediately grab and consume as much as they can in order not to be cheated out of their share. When those who have chosen to be diligent see that their own sacrifices will be for nothing, they themselves will begin grabbing up as much as they can. The supplies are quickly depleted and everyone ends up starving to death. All it takes is for one prisoner to be greedy and the selfishness of each of the rest will cause them to follow suit.

If you every watch David Suzuki’s ‘The Nature of Things’ (don’t know if it is syndicated in Australia or not) you would notice that almost every week he has some grim news about how our environment is being systematically destroyed by modern technology. The blame is usually laid at the feet of governments or corporations or other insentient bodies. However, institutions can’t hoard or destroy. Only people can. The real problem is a prisoners dilemma. None of the suggested solutions like laws or embargoes or self discipline are going to work because whatever method is employed, some individual, group or faction is going to ignore it in order to gain an advantage. Moreover, what ever you do, some group somewhere is going to suffer badly as a result (lose their livelihood, be forded to move, that sort of thing). If some governing body tries to force obedience then the result will invariably be conflict which will cause more damage than the pillage that is the original target of the law.

The problem itself is inherent in each and every individual, not in the groups that they are part of. Each person who is in rebellion against God’s natural order will be happy to go along with whatever steps are necessary to preserve the future as long as he gets his share first. If you examine the behavior of those who already have more than they can spend in 100 lifetimes you will see that human nature dictates that nobody’s share, however large, will ever be enough. There are always many who scream loudly about the destruction of the environment and who smugly demand sacrifices. However you might notice that they are always calling for the sacrifice of others, never their own.

Definition:

Environmentalist: (n)

Somebody who lives in the woods who becomes very upset when other people come to live in the woods.

The root cause is sin. As long as sin remains it can never be fixed by human efforts. There is one solution that will work that David never mentions. If you remove all humans from the planet then in a very short time (perhaps 100 years) the world will return to it’s pristine state, full of every kind of florae and fauna.

However, God doesn’t want humans to be erased from creation. He want’s them to remain and fit in. His plan for salvation was created so that we could be reconciled to Him and once again live according to his design. No matter what we think, we Christians remain in rebellion against God because, regardless of our efforts to the contrary, we continue to sin. But that state we’re in is just for now, in this sin dominated world. What separates Christians from those who remain in rebellion is what’s in our hearts. That is, the desire to be what God designed us to be. It is by grace that we can achieve that end simply by accepting Christ’s sacrificial gift. The gift of salvation is for all, if only they will accept it. God wants ‘all’ of his children to come back to the fold. However, those who choose to remain in rebellion until their deaths will continue to do so regardless of what new creation they are given. In this case it just won’t work. They have to be removed otherwise the cycle will remain.