Peace Messenger

Going Vegetarian - The Revolutionary Potential

From: Kathy Freston, "The Startling Effects of Going Vegetarian for Just One Day," AlterNet, 2 April 2009

If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would save:

• 100 billion gallons of water, enough to supply all the homes in New England for almost 4 months;

• 1.5 billion pounds of crops otherwise fed to livestock, enough to feed the state of New Mexico for more than a year;

• 70 million gallons of gas -- enough to fuel all the cars of Canada and Mexico combined with plenty to spare;

Custodianship of Creation - An Adventist Mandate

From: Allan R. Handysides, "A Plastic-Polluted Planet," Adventist World-NAD (April 2009)

Plastic is only one among the myriads of waste products our consumer world is producing. With spreading industrialization worldwide, the amount of waste products is accelerating. Just the debris from our “obsolete” computers is massive. Carbon dioxide is warming the planet as it befouls the atmosphere. Radioactive waste that has a half-life of thousands of years is still being produced.

Isn’t it time to think seriously about the part each of us plays in the trashing of the earth? Surely, as custodians of the planet, we need to learn to consume less, conserve more, and care better for the handiwork of God.

In Revelation 11:18, the Bible speaks of Jesus coming to destroy those who destroy the earth....

As the planet becomes “shrink-wrapped” in plastic, all life is squeezed and distorted. As the world becomes more and more like a trash heap of pollution, God must look with horror at our ways. Once more we are frantically engaged in “cure,” having disdained prevention.

 

It might be easy to say, “Oh, Jesus will someday make it all right,” but I don’t want to be among those who make it all so wrong! Surely, we respect God enough to honor His handiwork.  Full article

 

Photo: www.sustainablebags.net