The Genesis of Environmentalism - Part 1

Go read Genesis 1:26-31. In verse 28 G-d gives the first command to humans. "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." He follows that up by giving us all the plants of the earth for food. That was before Adam and Eve fell. That was before G-d said to stay away from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

So, given it was G-d's first command it seems like it was important. Our G-d given job description as humans is to "subdue" the earth and to have "dominion" over all living things. That puts us in charge of managing the earth. We are responsible for it. The interesting thing about being us being the managers of earth is that I feel like it puts us in an odd middle spot between the two standard ideological positions.

Position 1: "Environmentalism"
Environmentalism generally takes the stance, in varying levels of extreme, that the earth must be preserved and that we as humans are impinging on it's ideal human free state.

Position 2: "Consumerism"
I'm using the term consumerism a little out of it's normal usage, but the idea is similar and related. The earth is big and rich and we should use it as much as we want. We are so little how could we screw it up?

Both positions are very much out of line with the Genesis command. On the first, G-d gave us dominion which means sovereignty or control. That means that we are expected to use and change nature. Not hide ourselves from it. On the second side, when coupled with the rest of scripture the idea of dominion implies good stewardship which requires reasoned management and preservation of resources. So needlessly making messes and not cleaning them up is antithetical to the authority given in the command.

Tomorrow I will explore what it SHOULD look like. At least in my opinion.