The Biblical Bases For Environmentalism

Biblical environmentalism is far from an oxymoron, but there are only very specific reasons why Christian theology and environmentalism are not in opposition.  Without them, there is no Biblical basis for treating the planet as anything more than a convenient structure that can be exploited at whim for short-term personal or collective benefit.  While one of these reasons has to do with the inherent nature of the physical world within the framework of Christianity, the other pertains to the nature of humankind.

The environment may have a degree of intrinsic value according to the Bible, but a single human has more value than the universe on the Biblical worldview, as only humans bear the image of God.  It follows that Biblical environmentalism is, at the very least, concerned with two things: 1) preserving the environment for its own sake because all of creation possesses a fundamental significance (Genesis 1:31) and 2) preserving the environment for the sake of the humans who inhabit it.

Far too often, even Biblical environmentalists ignore the second of these two points in favor of emphasizing the first.  Those who do so simply undermine their own theological foundation for taking care of the planet.  If the universe did not house sentient life, particularly sentient life made in God's image, a significant part of the Biblical basis for environmentalism would be lost--not that non-theistic ethics has any legitimacy whatsoever.

Some go even further than this, positing that the whole of the human species is a plague that needs to be controlled so that the environment can thrive.  This completely ignores the connection between the health of the environment and the flourishing of humanity, as if humans are of trivial concern compared to a seemingly inanimate cosmos.  Not only is there no basis for this set of priorities other than emotion and preference, but it is also potentially devastating to the wellbeing of the very people who champion it.

No one has to obstruct or trivialize human wellbeing in order to safeguard the planet from unnecessary harm at the hands of humans.  One of the most dangerous fallacies is the false dilemma, and one does not have to search very long to find examples of people treating environmentalism as if it excludes concern for human life.  There is nothing contradictory about making both people and the planet they live in priorities, even if the former is Biblically superior to the latter.