Earth Day and Environmental Ethics

The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970, when I was a high school sophomore.  I remember little about that school day.  What I've not forgotten is the impact Marvin Gaye's Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) https://genius.com/Marvin-gaye-mercy-mercy-me-the-ecology-lyrics which came out in the fall of 1971, had on me.  It caused me to question how did we end up making such poor decisions on the environment, when we were supposed to be the stewards of our world?  Over the years, many pop-music groups from the Beachboys to REM have spoken to environmental issues.  My immature thinking was refined to some extent during my college years through the environmental courses I took at Clarkson University, but what's been most formational in refining and maturing a deeper and more realistic environmental ethic has been my career as a water resources and environmental engineer and my Christian faith. Through the many projects and programs I've worked on and led, I've learned to seek engineering solutions that result in the least environmental harm. Finding engineering solutions that meet more than bare minimal environmental standards takes a fine degree of thoughtfulness.The place where engineering meets the natural environment is complex and quite interconnected.  Through my Christian faith and reading of the Bible, the context for my learned environmental ethic is one that's consistent with the deeper reality of my relationship with the Creator and creation. My environmental ethic has also been nurtured through the writings of Holmes Rolston III in Philosophy Gone Wild and other books, and to some extent by other thoughtful writers. 

I've spent my 40 year career working at the intersection of engineering and the environment. I am perplexed to see the environment focused on in a way that's out of sync with deeper realities of the environment and ourselves.  Some of my favorite quotes from Holmes Rolston III get to the core of what I feel is a realistic and sensible Christian environmental ethic.  These include:

• Nature is intrinsically valuable, but nature is not a moral sphere.
• I am more convinced than ever that nature is grace, that nature is value-laden. This life-abundant Earth is a wonderland.
• No sooner did I discover that nature is grace, than I found we were treating it disgracefully.
• It is not simply what a society does to its slaves, women, blacks, handicapped children, or future generations, but what it does to its flora, fauna, species and landscapes that reveals the character of that society.

So while a Christian environmental ethic explains that it's wrong to have a utilitarian view of the environment, it's also wrong to make an idol of it.  I cannot have a utilitarian view of the environment if I understand it to be value-laden, grace filled, and life-abundant.  These characteristics are consistent with both God's nature, the Gospels and the New Testament.   But it misses the mark to elevate the environment to a place where it becomes a moral sphere, or a religion.  And if we're going to hold to a high view of the environment, it's hypocritical to hold to a disgraceful view of any person or group, who are also created by God and in His image.  In 21st century America, our culture's environmental thinking and ethics have come sadly off the rails.