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<\/a><\/p>\nHis All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew lost no time ringing the alarmist bell as he officially opened the symposium, \u201cRestoring Balance: The Great Mississippi River\u201d today. <\/p>\n
He said that, \u201cwe have reached a defining moment in our history \u2026 the point where absolute limits to our survival are being reached … instead of living on income, or the available surplus of the earth, we are consuming environmental capital and destroying its resources as if there is no tomorrow.\u201d (Full text below.)<\/p>\n
Really? No one disputes that we have a responsibility towards the environment and the EP has garnered justifiable praise for leadership in environmental stewardship. Yet His All Holiness increasingly approaches environmental care using the playbook of Progressive environmental activism. The alarmist tone is one example. So are the ostensible “facts” justifying the alarm:<\/p>\n
- \n
- We have lost half of the great forests of the world to the demand for timber and for conversion to agriculture, without thinking that these giant wet sponges are responsible for the delivery of much of the fresh water. <\/li>\n
<\/p>\n
- Irrigation for agriculture takes 70% of global demand for water, and \u2013 almost unimaginably \u2013 some of the world\u2019s greatest rivers are so depleted by the influence of humans that they no longer flow to the sea; and those that do, carry in their waters all the chemical fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides and waste materials they have collected along their course. <\/li>\n
<\/p>\n
- Desertification is increasing on land at the same time that the fish stocks of the oceans are depleted by over exploitation; and those that remain are being poisoned by toxic materials dumped carelessly in their habitat. Instead of living on income, or the available surplus of the earth, we are consuming environmental capital and destroying its sources as if there is no tomorrow. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
There is some accuracy to the statements, as far as they go. But do they justify the alarm? For example:<\/p>\n
- \n
- The total acreage in the U.S. devoted to wildlife areas and state and national parks has increased from eight million in 1920 to seventy-three million in 1974, and all the land used for urban areas, plus roadways still amounts to less than three percent of the land area of the United States. [See Richard Stroup and John Baden, Natural Resources: Bureaucratic Myth and Environmental Management (San Francisco: Pacific Institute, 1983); Charles Baird, Rent Control: The Perennial Folly (Washington D.C.: Cato Institute, 1980); and Bernard Frieden, The Environmental Protection Hustle (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1979).] Like climate change, many of the facts in evidence are in dispute<\/a>.<\/li>\n
<\/p>\n
- \nWhile the overuse of water for irrigation is a problem (and one for which technological answers can be found), we can’t forget that the primary purpose for irrigating arable land is for the production of food. Irrigation has saved millions from famine, disease, and death. Is irrigation abused? Certainly. Are millions fed because of it? Absolutely.<\/li>\n
<\/p>\n
- \n“Desertification” describes the process by which land becomes increasingly drought-prone. Most experts describe desertification as a very complex process that is poorly understood. Some argue that desertification is actually a function of global cooling since much of earth’s available water remains locked in the ice caps. The Sahara, for example, was grasslands when the earth was warmer and had more water available for rain. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Alarmist environmental activism is blind to the economic and social dimensions of environment care. Alarmism, in other words, should have no place in our deliberations about the environment because it ignores the economic and social ramifications that environmental policy will have on real people<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Don’t discount the ramifications. Some are deadly. Take the DDT scare of the early 1960s for example. In 1962, Rachel Carlson published “Silent Spring” contending that DDT threatened human civilization. She too rang the alarmist bell and the activists duly took note. The result was that DDT was banned and millions (estimates range from 20 to 50 million) in the Third World died of malaria. Read more here<\/a>. <\/p>\n
The only viable ethic of environmental care recognizes the value of the human person a-priori<\/em>, and discerns environmental stewardship from this starting point. A comprehensive ethic has yet to be developed and the Orthodox could offer an important contribution given our developed anthropology.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the EP has thrown his mitre in with the alarmists. After the address, Senator Paul Sarbanes read a few words from Vice President Al Gore to add the final polish to the Patriarch’s presentation. Sarbanes has a very poor record in the defense of human life including a vote to overturn legislation that would ban partial-birth abortions. How can an environmental ethic that values human life be constructed when those who are selective in their defense of who lives and who dies are feted as representatives of Orthodox thinking? <\/p>\n
And why does the EP align himself with Gore, the poster boy of environmental alarmism, and still expect that his words be received with care and deliberation by those who don’t accept Gore’s apocalyptic warnings<\/a>?<\/p>\n
Full text of the address below followed by a GOA press release. <\/p>\n
++++++++++++++++<\/div>\nOpening Address of His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew <\/strong><\/p>\n
Symposium The Great Mississippi River: Restoring Balance\u2019 (New Orleans, 21 October 2009) <\/p>\n
It is with great pleasure that we welcome you all to the official opening of Symposium VIII, entitled \u201cThe Great Mississippi River\u201d. <\/p>\n
This Symposium is in many ways both historical and unique. This river comprises a microcosm of our planet. In its waters, we observe many of the world\u2019s ecological issues. We are humbled in its presence. We have come to listen to its story, to learn from its history. <\/p>\n
Let us consider our own presence on this great river. <\/p>\n
As the Mississippi links the prairies to the sea, we ourselves form the link between the past and the future. Science has developed a theory to explain the beginning of the Universe almost 14 billion years ago, the beginning of simple life forms some 4 billion years ago and the birth of human beings a mere 160,000 years ago. <\/p>\n
Although the time we have been on the planet is insignificant in the context of the life of the planet itself, we have reached a defining moment in our story. <\/p>\n
We have expanded our dominion over Nature to the point where absolute limits to our survival are being reached. We have lost half of the great forests of the world to the demand for timber and for conversion to agriculture, without thinking that these giant wet sponges are responsible for the delivery of much of the fresh water. <\/p>\n
Irrigation for agriculture takes 70% of global demand for water, and \u2013 almost unimaginably \u2013 some of the world\u2019s greatest rivers are so depleted by the influence of humans that they no longer flow to the sea; and those that do, carry in their waters all the chemical fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides and waste materials they have collected along their course. <\/p>\n
Desertification is increasing on land at the same time that the fish stocks of the oceans are depleted by over exploitation; and those that remain are being poisoned by toxic materials dumped carelessly in their habitat. Instead of living on income, or the available surplus of the earth, we are consuming environmental capital and destroying its sources as if there is no tomorrow. <\/p>\n
The dilemmas we are faced with are the problems created by human beings. <\/p>\n
Having struggled for centuries to escape from the tyranny of hunger, disease, and want, the technological advances of the last half century have created the illusion of us being in control of our destiny as never before. We have cracked the code of DNA, we can create life in test tubes, we can genetically modify crops, we can put men upon the moon \u2013 but we have lost our balance, externally and within. Wealth generated in the developed world has not put an end to suffering. Technological achievements were not able to contain the wrath of nature witnessed in this area only four years ago. The explosion of knowledge has not been accompanied by an increase in wisdom. Only wisdom could make us realize that the Creation is an interdependent, undivided whole, not an assemblage of isolated, unrelated parts that can be eliminated, replaced or modified as we see fit. Even the smallest human intervention, even the minutest change in the natural order brought about by human action can have \u2013 and does have – long term devastating effects on the planet.<\/p>\n
In addition to seeking balance between ourselves and our environment, we need to find balance within ourselves, reassessing our values as well as what is valuable. Let us remember that whoever we are, we all have our part to play, our sacred responsibility to the future. And let us remember that our responsibility grows alongside our privileges; we are more accountable the higher we stand on the scale of leadership. Our successes or failures, personal and collective, determine the lives of billions. Our decisions, personal and collective, determine the future of the planet. <\/p>\n
As we look at this great river and explore the challenges faced by local communities, let us search for solutions from the perspective of Faith, mindful that we are all in the same fragile boat of life \u2013 that we are living defining moments in history, and that we are living them together in Truth, in Love, in Hope and above all, in Responsibility.<\/p>\n
++++++++++++++++<\/div>\nGREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AMERICA<\/strong>
\nPress Release<\/p>\nOctober 22, 2009<\/p>\n
ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW OFFICIALLY OPENS EIGHTH ENVIRONMENTAL SYMPOSIUM IN NEW ORLEANS <\/p>\n
NEW ORLEANS \u2013 His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew officially opened today the Eighth Religion, Science and the Environment (RSE) Symposium, entitled \u201cRestoring Balance: The Great Mississippi River,\u201d which takes place here for the next five days under his high patronage and includes a large and diverse group of theologians, scientists, policymakers, environmentalists, representatives of business and NGOs, and media. <\/p>\n
Roman Catholic Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans welcomed the Ecumenical Patriarch and read a cordial, prayerful and personal message from Pope Benedict XVI in which he conveyed his support and solidarity in the effort of caring and protecting the environment and \u201cthe safeguarding of God\u2019s creation.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in his very significant opening address said that \u201cwe have reached a defining moment in our history\u2026the point where absolute limits to our survival are being reached,\u201d and we \u201cinstead of living on income, or the available surplus of the earth, we are consuming environmental capital and destroying its resources as if there is no tomorrow.\u201d (See full text below) <\/p>\n
Following the Patriarchal Address, retired US Senator Paul Sarbanes, who is a participant in the symposium read a message from former Vice President Al Gore, in which he expressed his esteem and respect for the Ecumenical Patriarch\u2019s perseverance demonstrated by this Eighth Environmental Symposium. Al Gore was the first to address Patriarch Bartholomew as the \u201cGreen Patriarch\u201d in 1997 when welcoming him to Washington D.C. <\/p>\n
Finally, Archbishop Demetrios, as the Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, offered an official welcome to the Ecumenical Patriarch both to the United States and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, which is an eparchy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are in this wounded city, New Orleans, and in an equally wounded River, the mighty Mississippi. And we are here to contribute, as much as it is possible, to the healing of both,\u201d said Archbishop Demetrios and added that His All Holiness is \u201cthe Healer Patriarch who laboriously, incessantly, and deliberately serves in an extraordinary way the ecological healing process and tends to the wounds inflicted upon nature by human beings.\u201d <\/p>\n
Information on the Ecumenical Patriarch and his visit to the U.S. can also be found online at: www.goarch.org<\/a>” or www.usvisit2009.org<\/a> and on the Mississippi symposium at: www.rsesymposia.org<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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- \nWhile the overuse of water for irrigation is a problem (and one for which technological answers can be found), we can’t forget that the primary purpose for irrigating arable land is for the production of food. Irrigation has saved millions from famine, disease, and death. Is irrigation abused? Certainly. Are millions fed because of it? Absolutely.<\/li>\n
- The total acreage in the U.S. devoted to wildlife areas and state and national parks has increased from eight million in 1920 to seventy-three million in 1974, and all the land used for urban areas, plus roadways still amounts to less than three percent of the land area of the United States. [See Richard Stroup and John Baden, Natural Resources: Bureaucratic Myth and Environmental Management (San Francisco: Pacific Institute, 1983); Charles Baird, Rent Control: The Perennial Folly (Washington D.C.: Cato Institute, 1980); and Bernard Frieden, The Environmental Protection Hustle (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1979).] Like climate change, many of the facts in evidence are in dispute<\/a>.<\/li>\n