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 PrintableVersion Saving planet earthA Christian responseEnvironmentally awareSAVING PLANET EARTH Saving Planet Earth is a short introduction to green issues for Christians. The author, Colin Russell, is a historian who wants to persuade Christians of the importance of green issues. He writes particularly for people ‘who are newly aware of the environment’ and ‘who are not experts’. He often seems to have an older generation in mind. Prof. Russell says that he tried hard ‘to avoid an “academic” style of writing’ and to make his book readable, and he largely succeeds on both counts. So this is not a book laden with diagrams or technical language; instead he tells stories to support his claims. He does not even assume that his reader will be sympathetic to green issues. His first chapter asks why people avoid the subject. (The answer: because it seems too depressing to contemplate; too difficult to grasp; too demeaning to humans, for whom the world was made; and too dangerous a threat to gospel priorities.) At no point does he forget the deep suspicion of many Christians, and the whole book is an attempt to convince them that green issues must be taken seriously. The centrepiece is a series of three chapters that describe how we pollute the earth; how we waste resources and destroy habitats; and how we change the climate. The remaining chapters lay out relevant biblical principles. We undoubtedly need this kind of book. The problem with this particular book is that it is unreliable. It is claimed that the energy used to make wind turbines ‘would add up to their total output for not much less than their expected lifetime of only 25 years’ (p.79). In fact, various studies (one German and two Danish) have shown that the energy used in construction is recouped in a few months. It is claimed that organic farming ‘may be able to cover only 15% of the world’s needs’ (p.29). This is what the agribusiness lobby claims. In fact, long-term studies (over 150 years at Rothamsted) show that yields are at least as high with organic methods as with chemical fertilisers. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has stated that ‘organic agriculture has the potential to feed the world’. It is claimed that we have summer and winter because ‘our orbit round the sun does not have the sun at its centre’ (p.65). Now it is — in a sense! — true that the sun is not the centre of our orbit (our distance from it varies from 147 to 152 million km during the year), but this is not why we have seasons. We have seasons because the earth is tilted on its axis by 23.4 degrees, so the northern and southern hemispheres face the sun for six months each. Unfortunately these kinds of errors are endemic and are found on the scriptural side as much as on the scientific side. It does not help that the discussion rarely pauses on a subject long enough to explain it. Some errors may arise from loose expression rather than a misunderstanding, but they will mislead the reader nonetheless. I applaud the aim of this book, but not its execution. Dr. Tim Mitchell,
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