How Green Is Your Faith?

Environmentalists who preach doom and gloom for the earth often frighten people into inaction. Edward O. Wilson's recent book, The Future of Life, is so beautifully written, however, that his pleas for maintaining the earth's myriad diversity of creatures are like the poetic passages by the biblical prophets -- you hate the message, but what a way to deliver it! As both a Pulitzer Prize winner and one of the most accomplished field naturalists prowling the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, Wilson presents a concise scientific analysis of the "biodiversity crisis" that is easily accessible to a nonbiologist. 
The Future of Life argues that human-caused extinction of other species began almost the moment Adam and Eve were kicked out of Eden. At least for the last few thousand years, humans have been displacing or extinguishing many of the earth's large mammals and birds. Wilson cites as an example Hawaii, where Polynesians arriving in log canoes brought with them non-native species, such as pigs, which began to wipe out ground-nesting birds. Humans added to the toll by clearing forests and hunting anything big enough to barbecue. Captain Cook then "discovered" the islands, beginning a new wave of extinction orchestrated by commercial agriculture and more animal invaders, such as the Indian mongoose. 
Humans, in fact, usually start the extinction process with the larger species and then "work down the food chain," Wilson writes. People probably first occupied Madagascar around AD 700 and promptly wiped out all the native animals heavier than 20 pounds, except for the resilient Nile crocodile. The fatalities included a lemur species larger than a gorilla and an elephant bird more than 10 feet tall. Wilson extends these island trends to the world's ecosystems, where deforestation alone is extinguishing dozens of species annually. As the human population grows, we occupy more habitats and interfere with more ecological processes, thereby driving other species out of their homes.
Even undiscovered species can have great utilitarian value, Wilson asserts. We must preserve the earth's diversity to find new cancer-fighting drugs and to extract genes that protect crop plants against insects or frost. Wilson also builds an almost mystical argument when he invokes his biophilia hypothesis: Humans need natural variety for their emotional and physical well-being; we're biologically programmed to love other living organisms. By degrading the world's ecosystems past recognition, we may lose forever "much of the rest of life, and part of what it means to be a human being." (p. 129)
Like many Southern boys processed through Harvard, Wilson long ago shook off his Baptist roots. In the last chapter of The Future of Life, however, E.O. Wilson, the staunch evolutionist, gives full credit to green Christians who have lobbied to protect endangered species. He writes: "For the Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the environmental ethic is compatible with belief in the holiness of the Earth and the perception of God's handiwork." (p. 157) Wilson understands that a moral consensus is necessary to slow the present planetwide trend of species loss, and that collaboration between religion and science is both necessary and feasible.
Anyone who is an amateur naturalist, gardener, hiker or outdoor recreationist probably will enjoy this short volume. Wilson, unlike many radical environmentalists, has avoided blaming Christen-dom for all the planet's woes. Christians, in turn, should study biodiversity issues as part of their ethical education. In Genesis 2, God gave Adam (and Eve) a mandate to "watch and preserve" Eden. The Future of Life reminds us that God's command is for our well-being and to ensure a future for all God's delicate and wonderful creation. 
 

Dr. Susan P. Bratton,
AB '70 (Columbia University), PhD '75 (Cornell University), PhD '97 (University of 
Texas-Dallas), is associate professor and chair of environmental studies.