For many years, the burning issue on justice has been confined to justice for people. But today a broadening vision of justice is emerging — it is a vision that embraces that which is inextricably interlinked with human justice — justice for the land. Awareness is increasing that injustices to people bring injustices to the land; that injustices to the land bring injustices to people.
Examples in Africa
In the south, environmental degradation is not complete nor universal, but crisis conditions are building. Here deforestation and its consequences are infecting the land and people. A recent issue of Earthwatch observes that "much of Lesotho, large areas in South Africa, and parts of Zimbabwe, Namibia, Swaziland and Botswana are already facing a firewood crisis because of acute wood scarcities. An eight-hour walk to collect a wood supply for three days is becoming commonplace, and in a continent where 29 trees are being cut down for every one that is planted, it is inevitable that in localized areas trees have disappeared completely."
Deforestation experienced in Africa and elsewhere is reducing the land's capacity to store water, bringing greater flooding during the rainy season and more severe drought during the dry season. Depleted national treasuries are likely unable to support tree planting. And if loans can be obtained for flood control, they likely will pay for dams rather than reforestation.
A Downward Spiral
Injustice to people brings injustice and violence to the land. Injustice to the land diminishes the gifts of the land that bring food, fuel, shelter and the enjoyment of living. Increasingly the situation in Africa is one where human injustice leads to environmental injustice. Environmental injustice — the degradation of the creation — feeds a downward spiral that diminishes people's ability to be good stewards of the land — one that threatens their very existence.
It is in this context of injustice for people and the land that a new injustice has appeared on Africa's horizon. A land whose people mourn over the death of their children, a land which itself groans from disintegration, increasingly is looked to as the dump of the developed world. Unwilling to address the justice of profligate consumption in a needy world, developed nations continue a pattern of consumption and waste — a pattern which finds them no longer willing locally to manage and recycle the products of their own consumption...
The issue of justice in our time is not separable from that of peace. The issue of peace in our time is not separable from that of creation’s integrity. The issue of creation’s integrity is not separable from that of justice. This is a growing realization. It is a growing realization with sweeping consequences.
For additional information on evangelical perspectives on justice and the environment, visit: creationcare.org
