KIRKSPIRE AUGUST 2012
Eco Sunday: Reflection on Prof. P.J. Sanjeeva Raj’s article:
‘Love Nature as Yourself’ in June 2012
murdoch mackenzie
Article written for Kirkspire, the magazine of St Andrew’s Kirk in Chennai, in response to an article by Professor P.J. Sanjeeva Raj pleading with people to ‘Love Nature as Yourself’.
Professor Sanjeeva Raj’s article reminded me of a talk which I gave on All India Radio in July 1973, when the 77 Society members were spearheading the environmental movement in Madras.The talk was printed in the Kirkspire. It was headed: ‘Who will guard the World’s Environment?’ Here are just a few short extracts:
“Who will guard the world’s environment? The answer to that question is very simple and yet very profound. It is an answer which many people do not wish to hear. God, who created every atom and every particle of the Universe in which we live, He is the person who will ultimately guard the world’s environment. At present the world is in a kind of agony – the agony of the threat of nuclear war, of pollution, of the greed of big business. And yet people are free to choose another way – the way of self-denial, the way of service to one’s neighbour, the way of love. It is obvious that people are not strong enough or humble enough to choose that way. It is only as we allow ourselves to be exposed to the dynamic power of God’s Holy Spirit that we will find ourselves strong enough and humble enough to guard the world’s environment.
The 1960’s were known as the First Development Decade. The 1970s are the Decade of the Environment. For all time to come the 1970s will be remembered as that period in history when men and women in every country in the world suddenly realised as they had never realised before that there is only ONE EARTH and that the resources of that earth might not last for ever.
Now it is Pollution rather than Development which is occupying the attention of the so-called developed nations. But, as Mrs Indira Gandhi pointed out at the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm last year, we should not allow this deep concern of one part of the world with its environmental problems to prejudice development for the two thirds of mankind who live in the so-called developing world. At this moment the energy crisis is acute. Americans are debating whether or not they should be allowed to use electric toothbrushes. In the villages of India millions of men and women are cleaning their teeth with sticks or with their fingers. The U.S. has only 6% of the world’s population yet controls one third of global energy production. India, with 14% of the world’s population hardly figures on the energy charts at all.
To put it another way, in the U.S. and other northern countries the environmental problems are caused by over-development. In India and other southern countries the pressing problems are those of under-development. But, and this is the important point, it must be understood by all that Development and Protection of the Environment are two sides of the same coin. Most important of all they have to be viewed in the context of the ONE EARTH on which all mankind has to live.”
I wrote this almost 40 years ago and I am glad to see the same issues being raised in the Kirkspire by Professor Raj. But I am sorry that they still need to be raised. It is absolutely true that the earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, but we borrow it from our children.
Above all, the earth belongs to God, the world and all its people.
Murdoch MacKenzie
Professor Sanjeeva Raj’s article reminded me of a talk which I gave on All India Radio in July 1973, when the 77 Society members were spearheading the environmental movement in Madras.The talk was printed in the Kirkspire. It was headed: ‘Who will guard the World’s Environment?’ Here are just a few short extracts:
“Who will guard the world’s environment? The answer to that question is very simple and yet very profound. It is an answer which many people do not wish to hear. God, who created every atom and every particle of the Universe in which we live, He is the person who will ultimately guard the world’s environment. At present the world is in a kind of agony – the agony of the threat of nuclear war, of pollution, of the greed of big business. And yet people are free to choose another way – the way of self-denial, the way of service to one’s neighbour, the way of love. It is obvious that people are not strong enough or humble enough to choose that way. It is only as we allow ourselves to be exposed to the dynamic power of God’s Holy Spirit that we will find ourselves strong enough and humble enough to guard the world’s environment.
The 1960’s were known as the First Development Decade. The 1970s are the Decade of the Environment. For all time to come the 1970s will be remembered as that period in history when men and women in every country in the world suddenly realised as they had never realised before that there is only ONE EARTH and that the resources of that earth might not last for ever.
Now it is Pollution rather than Development which is occupying the attention of the so-called developed nations. But, as Mrs Indira Gandhi pointed out at the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm last year, we should not allow this deep concern of one part of the world with its environmental problems to prejudice development for the two thirds of mankind who live in the so-called developing world. At this moment the energy crisis is acute. Americans are debating whether or not they should be allowed to use electric toothbrushes. In the villages of India millions of men and women are cleaning their teeth with sticks or with their fingers. The U.S. has only 6% of the world’s population yet controls one third of global energy production. India, with 14% of the world’s population hardly figures on the energy charts at all.
To put it another way, in the U.S. and other northern countries the environmental problems are caused by over-development. In India and other southern countries the pressing problems are those of under-development. But, and this is the important point, it must be understood by all that Development and Protection of the Environment are two sides of the same coin. Most important of all they have to be viewed in the context of the ONE EARTH on which all mankind has to live.”
I wrote this almost 40 years ago and I am glad to see the same issues being raised in the Kirkspire by Professor Raj. But I am sorry that they still need to be raised. It is absolutely true that the earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, but we borrow it from our children.
Above all, the earth belongs to God, the world and all its people.
Murdoch MacKenzie
