Orthodox Environmentalism

[Not David]

I wonder if there is a type of Orthodox environmental care that is an alternative to the secular/Christian humanist option.

 

[AMM]

Father Barnabas Powell posted a video about orthodox views on the environment a while back (I think at least a year ago, maybe more). I thought it helped me understand the balance between reverence towards God’s creation, while not falling into the near-religious fervor and idolatry that some people have about the environment

Are you looking for books and whatnot on the topic? Or just seeking discussion?

 

[archer75]

I wonder if there is a type of Orthodox environmental care that is an alternative to the secular/Christian humanist option.

What is the "humanist option" as you understand it?

 

[ArmyMatt]

what exactly are you looking for or to do?

 

[Not David]

Father Barnabas Powell posted a video about orthodox views on the environment a while back (I think at least a year ago, maybe more). I thought it helped me understand the balance between reverence towards God’s creation, while not falling into the near-religious fervor and idolatry that some people have about the environment

Are you looking for books and whatnot on the topic? Or just seeking discussion?

Probably just discussions, though someone in another forum mentioned conservationism.

 

[Not David]

What is the "humanist option" as you understand it?

Western people stopping having children and considering big families as defective and old thinking. At least, that is my main issue.

 

[Not David]

what exactly are you looking for or to do?

Just want to know how to care about the environment but I am suspicious that the people who are mainstream are antitraditionalist and globalist.

 

[ArmyMatt]

Just want to know how to care about the environment but I am suspicious that the people who are mainstream are antitraditionalist and globalist.

I think to start, pay attention to the hymns and services of Theophany.

 

[rusmeister]

Western people stopping having children and considering big families as defective and old thinking. At least, that is my main issue.

That certainly is one of the aspects of unreasonable environmentalism. Certainly we should take reasonable care of the world around us, though not to a point where we forget that the Lord is in charge, not us.
People who subscribe to the unreasonable humanist views, within or without our Faith, tend to believe that birth control and contraception are good things, and that modern education and science have certain grasp on truth in all areas, and even the authority to correct what the Church teaches about man, sin, and death, including human origins. Thus, they place an excess of importance on what we can and should do in regard to caring for the Earth, and those within the Church make it a major issue of our concern at the expense of ones that really should be more important to us, and put external political action (ie, trying to get others to be holy) in a higher place than acquiring the mind of the Church (ie, striving to become holy)ourselves.

 

[rusmeister]

A lot of those bad ideas come from faith (inculcated in our educations) in the so-called “Enlightenment”, more properly called “the Endarkenment”.

 

[buzuxi02]

Other than common sense practises, there is no environmentalism in Christianity.

 

[Not David]

Other than common sense practises, there is no environmentalism in Christianity.

What common practices?

 

[prodromos]

What common practices?

Common sense, not common practices.

 

[LizaMarie]

Western people stopping having children and considering big families as defective and old thinking. At least, that is my main issue.

I graduated High School in the mid-1970's out on the West coast(Calif) The thinking back then, even from some religious people(even some Protestants and Evangelicals but not Catholics) was that having more than 2 children was irresponsible. 3 might be OK if the first two were of the same sex. ZPG (Zero Population growth was big then) I now live in the rural Midwest (USA) and I don't think that type of thinking filtered back here, although most people even here in my age group did not have more than 2 or 3.
One of my friends swore she was never going to have kids because it was bad for the planet. She did wind up having a daughter, and now has a grandchild.
From around 1980 on, Evangelicals actually became much more pro-life, dye to the influence of Francis Schaeffer and E. Everett Coop.

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

I have solar on my house, recycle faithfully, teach my students about conservation, try to reduce and reuse, eat and support organic foods and their farmers, and I try to be a good steward of the Earth. I try not to use pesticides and I eat clean.

But I agree with what Rus says mostly.

The environmental movement worldwide is largely a globalist power-grab that is more about controlling businesses, commerce, trade, taxation, and individuals. People like Greta Thunberg and her puppeteers are not to be trusted.

 

[Not David]

Common sense, not common practices.

Well, "common sense practices"

 

[Not David]

I have solar on my house, recycle faithfully, teach my students about conservation, try to reduce and reuse, eat and support organic foods and their farmers, and I try to be a good steward of the Earth. I try not to use pesticides and I eat clean.

But I agree with what Rus says mostly.

The environmental movement worldwide is largely a globalist power-grab that is more about controlling businesses, commerce, trade, taxation, and individuals. People like Greta Thunberg and her puppeteers are not to be trusted.

I don't want to go harsh on Greta, not because she is a girl, but I believe she has good intentions but she does not know who is she getting involved with.

 

[prodromos]

Well, "common sense practices"

Not consuming resources at a faster rate than they are being replenished. Common sense tells you that if you catch fish faster than they can breed then you will one day run out of fish.

 

[buzuxi02]

Well, "common sense practices"

On a personal level we know not to dump toxic chemicals in our backyard. We know not to cut down all the trees, Etc.
We shouldn't throw garbage overboard. Now those things happen but notice they are usually done by the people who should know better. Torn Fishing nets are thrown into the sea by the fishermen. Deforestation takes place by the lumber industry. But after awhile conservation takes place naturally as is neccesary for self preservation albeit government can nudge industry towards those goals. All the problems with pollution are remedied by advancement which render the previous advancement which initially creates the pollutants as obselete.
How many people remember the "hole" in the ozone layer? Late 1980's we were told we will all die from skin cancer, they then invented a new more environmentally friendly refrigerant and now all of a sudden the hole is repairing itself and is no longer a threat.
The biggest advancement in automobile pollution control occured in 1974, it was twofold. Before 1973 leaded gas was used and was required because it cushioned the metal parts in engines from severe wear. Advancements in the metallurgy of engine components rendered lead in gas obselete making gas cleaner burning. At the same time as the lead was phased out the catalytic converter was introduced allowing toxins in emissions to be converted to inert emissions. You could not have introduced the catalytic converter into automobiles while leaded gas was in use as lead clogs up the converter. And you could not have gotten rid of leaded gas until motor oil with advance detergents and metal components were strengthened to withstand the combustion.
I remember the concerns for the toxins with burning garbage as garbage incinerators were going up. They constantly upgrade the design and exhaust filteration in these plants making them less and less of a concern.
There is no need for global action (nor individual action beyond common sense) because it does not work, it just takes money and hands it to a bureaucracy of fraudsters. You already are paying for pollution control advancements when you actually purchase a polluting emitting device as they constantly upgrade it to reduce the carbon footprint and pass the cost along to you.

 

[Euodius]

A difference between 'humanistic' and 'orthodox' environmentalist is that they have different evangelions. Orthodox can only have the evangelion of Christ, but humanists have other evangelions - preaching salvation through any human endeavor. Thus the humanist urban planner proclaims paradise through carefully crafted urban planning. Similarly, the humanist environmentalists preach utopia through carbon control or, rather, sustainability.

The Orthodox would say, "the environment hurts because of our passions which we have brought up to a whole larger scale through modern technology and although the technology is not itself bad, we must be careful to live at a human scale and guard ourselves from the passions."

The humanist says, "Sustainability - we must be able to grow in the satiation of our passions at the largest scale possible without threatening our future growth in our passions." Therefore almost always do they determine sustainability at the count of human lives - 'austerity measures' to keep resources to themselves and radical infanticide to prevent others from partaking in the resources. This is why the U.N. has many times been caught sterilizing African women through vaccination and why the U.S. Military has done forced surgical sterilizations in South America.