Is It Too Late?: A Theology of Ecology Page: 6
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IS IT TOO LATE? A THEOLOGY OF ECOLOGY
generating plants can be built, and the electrical grid of the nation can be
interconnected.
The last dodo died in 1689, and a hundred more species of birds have since
vanished forever. But there are plenty of other birds. The California grizzly is
extinct, but there are plenty of other bears. The giant Galapagos turtle will soon
be gone from its native home, but the San Diego Zoo will preserve the species.
Both the United States and the Soviet Union have enough atomic weapons to
destroy all humanity several times over. Their arsenals of chemical and bacterio-
logical warfare are no less potent. But they exercise restraint.
One out of every four persons born today will carry through life the irreversible
physical or psychological effects of malnutrition. Thousands starve every day.
Protein deficiency stunts the normal development of intelligence. We are assured
that agricultural technology will solve these problems.
Insect pests develop new strains capable of surviving chemical insecticides,
while their natural enemies, the birds, are killed. We undertake to control the use
of such insecticides while raising the official level of allowable contamination in
milk and poultry.
For some time we have been more or less aware of one or more of these matters.
We have felt some sadness, even a little anger, but we have accepted them as the
price of progress. If the situation ever became really serious, we assure ourselves,
our leaders would correct it.
It is only quite recently that we have begun to realize that all these problems are
interconnected and cumulative. The attempt to solve one problem all too often
worsens others. Furthermore, they are neither local nor temporary. The transfor-
mation of forests and grasslands into brambles and dustbowls has been going on
for thousands of years. Ancient civilizations collapsed when they destroyed their
agricultural base, but these were local problems. Now civilization is worldwide,
and if our worldwide resources in soil are further depleted, there will be nowhere
left to turn.
Smog may be an especially severe problem in the Los Angeles basin because
of atmospheric inversion, but it is now a national and worldwide problem as well.
The smog of Tokyo is breathed in California. It is not the air here and there, but
the total planetary atmosphere that is being poisoned.
It is no longer just an occasional stream that has been turned into a sewer. Most
of our major waterways are seriously polluted. Lake Erie is dead and Lake
Michigan is fast dying. Even Lake Tahoe is affected! When Paul Ehrlich wrote a
science fiction scenario entitled The Year the Oceans Died, projecting present
trends, his date was not 2300 but 1979!
The problem of an adequate supply of electrical power is proving to be
nationwide. Good sites for more dams are becoming scarce. The public is alerted
to the risks of atomic power. The use of coal and oil pollutes the air and hastens
the depletion of these resources.
Whereas species of birds and animals have become extinct throughout history,Cobb
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Cobb, John B., Jr. Is It Too Late?: A Theology of Ecology, book, 1995; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc52175/m1/8/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Center For Environmental Philosophy.