The Angry Planet

What have we done to this planet that He gave to us to live on? How has it come about?

Lots of people I know would ask how, if there is a God, could he let us destroy the natural wonders that he created. I used to ask this very same question up until it was pointed out to me that God granted us free will, He allows us to make choices, good or bad, He allows us to make mistakes so that we can learn from them.

But what we have done with the free will He gifted to us is really quite appalling. The pristine, plentiful, cleansing seas have been polluted and plundered. The vast shoals of fish that used to roam the open waters have disappeared through over-fishing, through the use of supposedly bigger and better fishing trawlers, through the use of technology to locate the larger shoals that still exist. The waste created from this industry through by-catches and undersized fish being caught in the shoal is horrendous. Some will now point to the farmed fish industry, saying that we are cleaning up our act. I wonder if the people who have this view realise that most farmed fish are fed fish-meal pellets. That fish-meal is produced by trawling for sand eels and other smaller species of fish that are not profitable for direct human consumption. These species though are an important part of the food chain, they are essential for the multitude of life in the seas.

The pollution of the seas is also quite astounding, from ships washing out tanks out at sea (a banned practice in 'on shore waters' but still practiced on a regular basis), spillages from oil transfer stations, ship wrecks and oil exploration. And this is just the start. There is the wash-off from over fertilised soils into the rivers and out to sea, causing algae blooms that asphyxiate all life. then there is the general waste, discarded fishing nets, plastic bottles, plastic bags, all manner of human created waste that gets dumped directly or directly in the seas. On top of this there is the warming and acidification caused by anthropogenic climate change which is killing off the corals and krill and plankton that provide the fish nurseries and food source for so much of the life in the water.

A similar pattern has happened on land. Great herds of animals have been slaughtered, migration paths blocked, soil eroded, forests uprooted. In so many places artificial fertilisers have to be deployed, or natural carbon sinks of peat have to be dug up to provide some substance to the dirt left by intensive farming practices.

Looking at why this has happened, I have to turn to my guide, for the one word that springs to my mind is greed. My guides words are much more eloquent : "Because society has taken the self indulgent path and turned away from God; turned their backs on His love and forgiveness instead worshipping money and material things. People have lost sight of what's important as life is too comfortable."

I will come back to this subject more and more, for it is at the root of such much that has gone wrong in the world and its societies.

Is it any wonder that the planet seems to be angry, that we have unprecedented floods and fires and storms. The planet is trying to get back to some sort of equilibrium, trying to tell us that enough is enough, it is desperate for us to see what we have done, to see what we need to change to restore this unique place in the universe that was gifted to us by God.

I hope and pray that the world can change and we can restore some sort of harmony to His world.