The United States has 61 protected areas known as national parks. If you have ever had a chance to visit one, you may find your sense of patriotism swelling from appreciation of their beauty and grandeur. State parks and conservation areas also remind us, in the words of Henry David Thoreau, that "in wilderness is the preservation of the world." That is true because by observing how Earth provides for us, we find ourselves compelled to protect it. But we must also face our shadow – how humans have degraded the Earth.
In A Field Guide to Nature as Spiritual Practice, Christian spirituality teacher Steven Chase offers a spiritual practice based on environmental studies professor Calvin B. DeWitt’s "provisions of creation" given by God and seven "degradations of creation" resulting from human activity.
Provisions of Creation:
"1. Regulation of Earth’s energy exchange with the sun, which keeps Earth’s temperatures at a level supportive of life through the long-standing greenhouse effect, and which protects life from the sun’s lethal ultraviolet radiation by filtering sunlight through the stratospheric ozone layer.
"2. Biogeochemical cycles and soil-building processes, which cycle oxygen, carbon, water, and other vital materials through living things and their habitats and build life-supporting soils and soil structure.
"3. Ecosystem energy transfer and materials recycling, which continually energizes life on earth and incessantly allocates life-sustaining materials.
"4. Water purification systems of the biosphere, which distill, filter, and purify surface waters and the ground water on which all life depends.
"5. Biological and ecological fruitfulness, which supports and maintains the rich biodiversity of life on Earth by means of responsive and adaptive physiologies and behaviors.
"6. Global circulations of water and air, which distribute water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and other vital materials between living systems across the planet.
"7. The human ability to learn from creation and live in accordance with its laws, which makes it possible for people to live sustainably on Earth and safeguard creation."
Degradations of Creation:
"1. Alteration of Earth’s energy exchange with the sun, which results in accelerated global warming and destruction of the earth’s protective ozone shield.
"2. Land degradation, which destroys land by erosion, salinization, and desertification, and reduces available land for creatures and crops.
"3. Deforestation, which annually removes some 100,000 square kilometers of primary forest – an area the size of Iceland – and degrades an equal amount by overuse.
"4. Species extinction, which witnesses the elimination of more than three species of plants and animals from the Earth each day.
"5. Water quality degradation, which defiles ground water, lakes, rivers, and oceans.
"6. Waste generation and global toxification, which result from atmospheric and oceanic circulation of the materials that people inject into the air and water.
"7. Human and cultural degradation, which threatens and eliminates long-standing communities that have lived sustainably and cooperatively with creation, and also eliminates a multitude of long-standing varieties of food and garden plants."
As Chase recommends, review DeWitt’s lists of divine provision and human degradation. Then:
- Visit locations for each, especially locations for starting points of degradations.
- Explore scriptural references to the gifts of creation.
- Pray about the degradations and contemplate how to heal them.
- Prayerfully reflect on how your gifts and longings, God’s guidance, and the Earth’s needs call you to respond.