The Judeo-Christian Ethic is Ruining Our Environment - Essay Example

?The Judeo-Christian Ethic is Ruining Our Environment Introduction According to White (1967), the Judeo-Christian ethos of dominance over nature is one of the causes of our environmental problems. While I submit that this is undoubtedly true – one must only look at how we treat our animals and our environment to see that the Judeo-Christian belief in dominance over nature and the animals has been harmful to our environment and our animals – this is not the entire story. Another part of the damaging equation lies in the Christian belief that we are to go forth and multiply, therefore there is ban on contraceptives instituted by the Catholic church. This is another part of the Judeo-Christian belief that is damaging to our environment, and this belief is perhaps most damaging at all. This essay will examine the man-made causes of global warming, and the effects of global warming. This essay will also examine the way that we treat our animals, which is a part of the equation that would be inherent in White's essay. Finally, this essay will look at the effects of overpopulation, which, if it gets much more out of hand, will be the effective end of environment. All of these problems can be directly traced to Christian ethos of dominion over the environment, animals, and the command for the human race to go forth and multiply. The Bible and Animals White's argument centered around the fact that the Bible has been used by humans to justify treating nature and our environment in a way that shows that animals and natural resources were put on this earth simply to save man. He approved of the way that St. Francis of Assisi saw the animals – St. Francis of Assisi thought of the animals as being God's creatures, with souls, and that they were put on this earth not to serve man, but because God created them the same way that he created us. This meant that St. Francis respected the animals as sentient beings with souls. This is clearly not the way that man thinks of animals, if one considers factory farms. For instance, the ethicist Peter Singer, who believes the way that St. Francis did, that animals were not put on this earth to serve us, but they were created in their own right, details how humans treat animals. For instance, he states, in his book The Meat and Milk Factories: The Ethics of How We Eat (2006) that pigs are kept in a crate that is so small that they cannot turn around. Without even hay to sleep on, this is all these pigs know – this tiny crate. The breeding sows are kept in tiny crates that are only a foot longer than their bodies, while being forced to have litter after litter. Male pigs are castrated with an anesthetic. Cows are not treated much better. For instance, the veal cow is put into a dark crate for 16 weeks. During this time, it has a tied neck and is basically starved of iron, so that it becomes anemic. Therefore, it is certain that man believes that animals are simply on this earth to be exploited by humans. Otherwise, there would be a greater outcry about how our animals are treated. Instead, the issue is mostly swept under the rug. In the recent United States Presidential election, the issue of animal rights and factory farms did not come up. Once. That is because of the belief that man has dominion over the animals. Because animals do not have soul, and because man is supposed to have dominion over them, that means that we can treat them any way that we want to treat them, and forget that they have feelings and can sense pain and fear. But the fact that factory farms are cruel is just one part of the equation. The other part is that they are bad for the environment. Thus, the factory farming lends credence to Smith's overall thesis, which is that the Judeo-Christian ethic is bad for the environment. Michael Pollan explains why this is so. According to Pollan (2008), factory farms harm the environment because the animal waste is in such abundance, because meat in general is in such abundance, that it is no longer fertilizer, but a pollutant. The reason for this is because the animals are on a feedlot, not the land, so much of the manure is wasted. Therefore, because manure is not being used to fertilize the land, we are using fossil fuels instead, so this is harmful to the environment. This is not the only way that factory farms hurt the environment. Another way that it is harmful to the environment is because they deplete groundwater, and, since so many animals consume a great quantity of food, much of our farmland is used to grow food to feed them (Miller, 2008). This means that, in turn, we must clear-cut forests to get enough land to grow the crops to feed the animals. This, in turn, means that our soil is depleted and eroded. The water is also contaminated by the excess manure, and the chemicals used to fee our animals also pollutes the water (Miller, 2008). The Bible and the Population Problem While it is clear that the Judeo-Christian ethic regarding dominion means that we treat our animals in a very selfish manner, which leads to great animal suffering and environmental problems, the Bible and the Judeo-Christian ethic also damages our environment simply because it leads to overpopulation because, among other things, the Catholic Church bans birth control (Talbot, 2012). While this is not necessarily a problem in many developed countries, as many people simply ignore this edict, it becomes a problem when this ethos prevents developed countries from encouraging birth control in developing countries where overpopulation is a problem. When there is a substantial coalition that does not believe in birth control in control in a government, therefore that country does not help supply birth control to countries that need it, this leads to overpopulation, and the results are astounding – our world now has 7 billion people on it (Worldometers.info). What is even more alarming is the rate at which our population is multiplying. Our world realized its first billion person population in the year 1800. Assuming that man has been on this earth for around 2 million years (Holladay, 2004), then it took millions of years to reach the first billion people. The second billion took 130 years after that (1930). The third billion was reached just 29 years after the second billion (1959). The fourth billion was reached just 15 years after the third billion (1974). The fifth billion came just 13 years later (1987). The sixth billion came 12 years after this (1999). The seventh billion came after another 12 year (2011) (Worldometer.info). Therefore, our world is adding a billion more people at the rate of every 12 years. Yet the Catholic Church has banned birth control for its followers, which would make the population issue even worse than it is now. And this affects our environment because it leads to a severe diminution of resources. For instance, Harrington (2011) states that overpopulation might lead to the human race reaching carrying capacity, which is the maximum population size for the amount of resources available – food, water and natural resources. If humans exceed this, the population becomes unsustainable, and diseases and war are likely to occur. It also leads to a strain on our food resources - as Harrington (2011) notes, the population may grow exponentially, but our food sources only grows arithmetically. Climate Change Our population is exploding, which means that we are using our natural resources. And this has led to climate change. Therefore, the climate change may be attributable, at least in part, to the ethos that birth control is bad, which come from the be fruitful and multiply edict, which leads, in turn, to industrialized countries not helping developing countries control their population. The evidence on climate change includes the fact that the scientific consensus is that it is occurring, and man is the reason why (Oreskes, 2004). While some may deny that man causes climate change, and that climate change is the result of natural occurrences like solar flares and volcanic eruptions, Crowley (2000) states that this is not true, as natural variabilities, such as volcanic ash and solar flares, can only account for around 25% of the heating of the earth. Conclusion In White's article, he made the argument that the Judeo-Christian ethics regarding dominion over nature and animals is the cause of environmental problems. This is certainly the case. Unlike the gentle St. Francis of Assisi, who believed that animals had souls, and that they were put on this earth for themselves, and that man is not to be a monarch over the animals - “with him, the ant is no longer simply a homily for the lazy, flames a sign of the thrust of the soul toward union with God; now they are Brother Ant and Sister Fire, praising the Creator in their own ways as Brother Man does in his” (White, 1967, p. 1206). White states that this is the way that man should think of nature and animals – that we should respect them, and see them as apart from us. That the animals, and nature in general, are not on this earth so that we, as man, can exploit them without regard. And he makes the point that, until the Judeo-Christian ethos regarding dominion over nature and animals is extinguished, that we, as man, will be plummeting towards an environmental disaster. White is correct. We can see the Judeo-Christian ethic at work in the way that we treat our animals. St. Francis would be beyond disgusted to see our pigs, packed in tiny crates without hay, never seeing the sun until the day that they are loaded up on the truck to head to slaughter. He would be revolted at the sight of our veal cow, with a rope around his neck, immobilized, starved of nutrients and sunlight, waiting for death. And he would nod his head, knowingly, at the knowledge that the way that we are treating our animals is leading to our own demise, as the overabundance of animals leads to pollution, a diminution of groundwater and poor soil. St. Francis would probably figure that man should be punished in some way for the awful way that we treat our animals, so this would be just desserts. White is correct in other ways, although he doesn't explicitly state it – the Judeo-Christian ethos is leading to overpopulation. With our world's population now growing at the rate of a billion every 12 years, it is simply irresponsible to not institute some kind of worldwide birth control, especially for the developing countries that do not practice birth control and do not have the resources to care for their population. Our industrialized countries should have a moral obligation towards population control, and should be able to implement a policy regarding this. However, because the Catholic Church is so strong, and the Judeo-Christian ethos regarding multiplying is also strong, our industrialized countries are not the leaders for population control like they should be. So, our population continues to explode. Sooner or later, the population will reach carrying capacity, which means that Mother Nature will step in, with wars and disease, to decimate the population, as we have not been able to. In the meantime, 7 billion people and counting means an enormous drain of resources. Included in this is the climate change, which scientific consensus agrees is occurring, and is the result of man. Therefore, as White says, the Judeo-Christian ethos is the reason for much of environmental problems, if not all of them. Unfortunately, this ethos is strong, so we will continue to arrogantly destroy our environment. Until there is no environment left to destroy. Sources Used Crowley, T. (2000) Causes of climate change over the past 1000 years. Science, 289, 270-277. Harrington, B. (2011, October 3) Critical mass: World population hits 7 billion,” Rabble.ca Retrieved from < http://rabble.ca/news/2011/10/critical-mass-world-population-hits-7-billion> Holladay, A. (2004, December 10) How Old Is Man? Depends on How You're Counting, USAToday. Retrieved from: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/ columnist/aprilholladay/2004-12-10-wonderquest_x.htm# Oreskes, N. (2004) The scientific consensus on climate change: How do we know we’re not wrong? Science, 306, 1686-1711. Singer, P & Mason, J. (2006). The Meat and Milk Factories: The Ethics of What We Eat:  Why Our Food Choices Matter. New York. Rodale Book, Inc. Miller, D. “CAFO Is A Bad Word?” The Joplin Globe 22 April 2008. Retrieved from: Pollan, M. “Farmer In Chief.” The New York Times 9 Oct. 2008. Retrieved from: Talbot, Margaret. “Why Is the Catholic Church Going to Court?” The New Yorker Online 31 May 2012. Retrieved from < http://www.newyorker.com/ online/blogs/comment/2012/05/birth-control-and-the-catholic-church.html> Worldometers.info. 3 December 2012 Retrieved from: < http://www.worldometers.info/> Read More