Justice Focus: Mother Earth

April 1, 2010

The Earth is in bad shape. The Ozone has holes in it. Plant and animal species are dying out. Huge quantities of land are undergoing deforestation. We use energy like it is a never ending supply, but the sources of oil, gas and coal are running out. The climate is all out of balance. And we keep going in this direction of being mega consumers, things have to really take a u-turn before we can slow down the amount of damage.

A GIFT FOR US
The Earth is an amazing gift given to us by God to live in, to be good rulers and stewards of (see Genesis 1:28). But that has not exactly happened. In the 1980s scientists began to ring the alarm bell on how bad things were getting. What we have got is a situation handed down to us by previous generations, now we have to work really hard at a clean up job.

We need to protect plant and animal life. We need to stop using products that put holes in the ozone. We need to reduce the amount of energy we use and look for clean renewable energy sources. Recycling should be really important to us. We need to stamp out the use of chemicals that are polluting us. It’s about learning how to protect our planet in our local communities and the bigger world picture.

U.N. MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOAL #7
MDG number seven outlines the following plan to getting the earth back on track:

• Make the principles of sustainable development part of country policies and programs
• Reverse the loss of environmental resources
• Begin to slow down the rate at which we are loosing animal and plant species
• Slow down deforestation
• Reduce CO2 emissions
• Educate and reduce the use of ozone damaging substances
• Protect land and water resources
• Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation
• Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020

RESOURCES
Websites:
United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) – 8 goals to achieve worldwide by 2015
United Nations Cyberschoolbus – Online Interactive site to learn about the 8 goals
MDG Monitor – Tracking how well we’re doing on the MDG’s

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