Orthodoxy & Creation
Christian Belief on the Environment
Your Excellency Comandante Fidel Castro,
Your Eminences, Your Excellencies,
Dear Friends,
It is for us a most gratifying fact that during our visit to this beloved and exceptionally beautiful country of Cuba, we can observe how highly developed is the interest of the Government and its progress-loving people for the natural environment, even to the extent that there is a special Ministry of Science and Environment which extended to us the invitation to address you on an environmental theme.
At this moment we express our satisfaction for the intense interest which you express by your invitation, and we congratulate those in positions of responsibility and the people for the care and research done to deal with the serious ecological problem, the consequences of which will befall all humanity if we do not take proper measures now. These consequences will befall not only those who are guilty of pollution and degradation of the environment, but all people.
We are obliged to state that our personal interest and that of the Ecumenical Patriarchate for the environment does not emanate from a position of idolizing it, as is sometimes the case with ecologists, but rather it is because the entire physical world is a work of God which He deemed "very good."
Mankind, in the person of Adam, the first person created by God, receives the command "to cultivate and protect" the earthly paradise in which he was first placed. Mankind is still obliged today and into the future to cultivate and to protect the natural world which surrounds him. As a people we are to make the world suitable for human life and for the life of future generations, by keeping it healthy, productive, fruitful and beautiful.
We are not moved by false concepts that humankind, the animal and plant world, and the rest of the physical creation or the elements in it are creatures of equal value, because this would denote a downgrading of humanity who is created by God as the king of creation. This would be, as a concept, unacceptable to Christians. We believe that the human principle dominates in nature, as the scientists specialized in this field confirm. In other words, everything is regulated by God for the purpose of assisting the life of humankind. Therefore, we constantly campaign for every human being and for every government to become sensitive to the fact that we must not rearrange this divinely appointed order of the natural environment, because the long-term result will be to our detriment.
The natural environment has a balance and an ability to regenerate and preserve itself whenever its natural order be disturbed – within certain parameters. Humankind, for example, bums wood for warmth, and in this process large quantities of carbon dioxide are produced which can be harmful to human life. But plant life absorbs and breaks down the components of carbon dioxide, exuding oxygen necessary for human life and retaining the carbon for constructing its wooden-like fibre. This natural recycling process is disrupted however when a fire destroys a forest or when an area becomes dry and desolate. In such cases, the environment is unable to provide conditions for human survival and, thus, the perpetrator of this catastrophe is responsible for the consequence that befall his fellow man. A similar thing happens when waters are polluted so that they are not drinkable, nor fit for sustaining the fish life living in them, or for maintaining other aquatic life and plants. This situation is created also when the atmosphere of a region is polluted to an intense degree.
It is true that the perfect plan of God regarding the air and the waters has foreseen their constant cycles and chaotic movement, which can be seen in the gradual discharging of pollutants thrown in them. On the earth, this happens through the cycles of air as well as through the flow of waters caused by the movement of air upon the waters. This naturally leads to the dispersion and reduction of pollution in one area distant from the location where the pollution emanated, and in the spreading of it, which in a way reduces the consequences with regard to the place of emanation.
At the same time, however, it also leads to the broadening of legal responsibility regarding harmful emissions all the way down to the local level where naturally dispersed concentrations of pollution are harmful. From a more general views, it leads to the widespread sharing of ethical responsibility of every human being for every defect of the environment, even for the most insignificant, because the many miniscule harmful actions can collectively provoke undesirable harmful consequences. Certainly, the discharge of an empty cell upon an unpolluted shore is not noticeable as a substantial polluting act, but the discharge of a single empty cell every time it is washed or carried upon the shore can alter it into a place of pollution. Consequently, the perpetrator of this apparently insignificant polluting is jointly responsible for the result of the debilitated situation which is a collection of many similar acts. For this reason we try to persuade every fellow human not to contribute to the destruction or worsening of the natural environment through his or her own minor harmful actions. Certainly, with even greater intensity, we try to persuade those who cause extensive pollution to find ways to avoid doing so, but this does not mean that the responsibility of the major polluters minimizes the responsibility and excuses the lesser polluters from their responsibility to be conscientious.
Our efforts are not limited to those opportunities where we are invited to speak. For many years now we have organize ecological and environmental summer seminars on the island of Halki at the Holy Monastery of the Holy Trinity which housed our Theological School. Furthermore, in cooperation with the European Union we organized the International Environmental Symposia aboard ships sailing on the Aegean, the Black Sea, the River Danube, the Adriatic and the Baltic Seas. The ocean or river waters in these regions are to a large extent receptors of pollution and toxic waste. The result is that we have found that these waters are at the threshold of being inadequate for the continuance of life and the inability to purify themselves. It was for these reasons that they were chosen for special international cooperative study with the participation of specialist from all the shores and banks bordering these countries. The discussions were fruitful and constitute a prototype of collective research on environmental themes concerning many countries which cannot be dealt with by means taken by only one of these countries singularly.
Cuba is particularly endowed by an extremely beautiful natural environment. Abundant waters, natural lakes, developed flora, extraordinary biological life make her a country of rare natural and environmental characteristics. Even though the great problems of the environment - such as the reduction of the ozone, global warming, the expectation of vast glacial meltings, and the rising of the ocean water levels here, their pollution and that of the atmosphere through toxic waste, the careless disposal and maintenance of radioactive substances and the like - are of concern to the planet earth, there is room for initiative for the environment in every small and large community. For, as it is known, in each region local environmental agreements have been created, the maintaining of which is the responsibility of every local community.
Neglecting this responsibility wounds first those who cause the environmental destruction. The deliberate abuse of the earth and marine wealth impedes its regeneration ability and denies economic gain in the years to come. The destruction of a forest causes floods, erosion on the surface of the earth's fertile soil, the drying of water sources, the reduction of earthly waters, the reduction of oxygen in the atmosphere, the distancing of the bird life and the wild animals, and, generally, a degradation of the affected region. For this reason their regeneration is necessary, as soon as possible. For this purpose the education of the masses of people in the prevention of their destruction is necessary.
We refer by example to the environmental issue, so as to emphasize how valuable is the awakening of the interest of every citizen for the environment. We express our joy that the consciousness of the citizens of Cuba have become sensitive to this issue, which is most timely for our civilization. It is our wish that this sensitivity will be widespread so that all of humanity will maintain the correct stance and take the proper measures for the preservation of the environment. On the other hand, humankind must act appropriately to restore the environment wherever it has already suffered destruction or harmful intrusions.
Humankind, to whom God has given the responsibility "to cultivate and protect" the earthly creation, as well as its dominion, must behave toward the world as its wise steward and not as its foolish destroyer. This point is one of the criteria of the level of civilization of every society. We express again our joy that we have found here in beloved Cuba the vigilant conscience of the people and its leaders concerning the environment. And we wish that this interest will continue and increase, so that the most beautiful natural environment of Cuba, known worldwide, will be preserved and the Country, through her achievements, will become an example for other peoples.
The grace of God, Who created the world and said, "it is good," and Who asked of us to respect His creation, receiving from it whatever is required for our existence without destroying its innate ability to reproduce these things forever for the generations to come, as it has until now, be with you all, our beloved.
Amen.
His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I
