How to be a good ruler of the earth

I brought you to a fertile land so that you could eat its fruits and produce, but you came and made my land unclean; you made it a hateful place. Jeremiah 2:7

My friends and family probably all know that I’m a bit of an eco-warrior. And for those who didn’t know consider this your warning. Cardboard in the general waste makes me twitchy, I’m an avid follower of George Monbiot’s blog and never, ever get me started on the topic of farming.

But I understand that in this globally connected age there are so many worthy causes vying for our attention that the environment isn’t always the first thing on our minds. There are also so many conflicting views on any one issue that it can be almost impossible to know what to believe. Take climate change. Most scientists agree that it’s happening, but what about those who don’t? And even among those who do no one can seem to agree on how bad it’s going to be or what we should do about it. But this post isn’t about arguing for or against climate change, it’s about our attitude to the environment.

It always makes me sad when people who genuinely want to dedicate their time or money to a good cause disregard the environment and how we treat it because, they reason, people are more important that plants. We all know that a person is more important than a plant, but what this attitude really shows is that we think of the natural world as separate from our society, as something that we can live without. How often do we consider that without plants our lives would fall apart?

Vandana Shiva recently wrote an article exploring why our attitude towards our natural environment needs to change. Shiva suggests that if we treated the land and its ecosystems with respect and love, rather than as property that we have the right to use how we like, then many of the problems that we face wouldn’t exist. Species loss, soil and water pollution, land grabbing - all of which have a huge negative effects on people by the way - are caused by someone acting on the idea that they have the right to get as much out of the land as they like and to hell with the consequences.

If land is understood to have more than a monetary value, and treated as more than a buy-and-sell commodity, then maybe some of the people who need food aid could still be making their own living by farming. Instead they are bought out or exploited by global corporations with more money and power than sense.

If the land and its produce were treated as if they were valuable then perhaps food wouldn’t be wasted on such a vast scale. And maybe the soil wouldn’t be degraded by agrochemicals and its fertility would be preserved.

In a way this attitude has some roots in the Bible. God blessed them and said: “have many children and grow in number. Fill the earth and be its master. Rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds in the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28

But it depends on how you interpret this. I take it to mean that, whether we like it or not, every one of us (you, me, everybody) is a master of the earth. That's a pretty big deal. The question you have to ask yourself now is: what sort of master are you?

There are the kinds of rulers who treat their subjects however they like, who use their power for their own gain, to increase their own comfort, even if it means running the kingdom into the ground. There are the kinds of rulers who take no responsibility, no interest in their kingdom and let it be attacked and destroyed, so long as they are alright. These two views are, sadly, widely held.

Or there are the kinds of rulers who think of their subjects before themselves. Who protect them and ensure their safety however they can. They go out of their way to understand how the kingdom works so that they can rule it even better. That’s the kind of masters we ought to be. We have the responsibility to treat, not only every person, but also every animal, plant, river, forest, ocean, resource, etc etc, as if they are important. Because they are. And we need to understand their importance and how to best look after them.

This is not very hard to do. We can be good masters in every area of our lives. Instead of playing Candy Crush we can spend five minutes researching where some of our food is grown, we can choose not to buy from clothes shops that we know don’t source their clothes ethically, we can pay attention to the plants and animals on our own doorstep.

This particularly applies to those of us who answer first and foremost to the Big Boss, God. After all the Earth belongs to the Lord and everything in it – the world and all its people. Psalm 24:1

Fin.

I know that I come across as a total hippy in this post but I'd like to reassure you all that I still wear shoes, that I have not become a vegetarian and that I'm not judging anyone for buying from MacDonalds or Primark since I still buy stuff from those places when money or hunger or sunglasses get the better of me. But I'm not condoning them either and I wish it was easier (and that we knew enough) to make the right decisions.

As always, your thoughts and ideas are very welcome :)