 |
Q's
& A's
Why Is There Environmental
Degradation?
Adam and Eve were to have exercised their dominion
over the earth (Gen 1:28) with wisdom and love.
Instead, they destroyed the existing harmony by
deliberately going against the Creator's plan,
that is, by choosing to sin. This resulted not
only in man's alienation from himself, in death
and fratricide, but also in the earth's "rebellion"
against him (cf. Gen 3:17-19; 4:12). When man
turns his back on the Creator's plan, he provokes
a disorder which has inevitable repercussions
on the rest of the created order. If man is not
at peace with God, then earth itself cannot be
at peace: "Therefore the land mourns and
all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts
of the field and the birds of the air and even
the fish of the sea are taken away" (Hos
4:3). (Pope John Paul II, “Peace
with God the Creator, Peace with All of Creation”)
|
|
|