What Does the Future Hold?

MAN is only part of the big picture. All creatures on earth have their place, according to their God-given role. We share many things with the life-forms around us—above all, the miracle of life itself. For this reason, many people cannot help but feel a powerful sense of loss when a life-form vanishes.

Scientist Anthony C. Janetos, writing in Consequences magazine, stated: “Many would agree that as a society we bear the ethical obligation to protect the habitability of the planet, and to act as responsible stewards of its biological riches for the present and future welfare of the human species. To do that requires an appreciation of the value of biodiversity—both what it provides for the natural world and the ways we can use it—and a commitment to preserve it.”

What Is Being Done?

Indeed, global concern over the loss of living resources has brought representatives from governments and other agencies together to draft a Convention on Biological Diversity. This comprehensive agreement recognizes that the conservation of biodiversity is a common concern of all people.

As a further step to understanding biodiversity, biologists, ecologists, and other scientists around the world have declared 2001-2 to be International Biodiversity Observation Year (IBOY). Diana Wall, a biologist at Colorado State University who chairs the IBOY, states: “Exploring biodiversity  will unlock many benefits through discovery of new genes and chemicals that can be used for drugs, to improve crops or to restore polluted land.” Wall adds: “More importantly, learning where new species are, their role in maintaining healthy ecosystems and how we can conserve them is vital for making informed decisions about our land, rivers and oceans.”

Fundamental Changes Needed

Although some commendable progress has been made, such efforts have mainly addressed symptoms rather than causes. According to researchers, at this point man does not have the luxury of ample time. As Ruth Patrick, of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., contemplated what she termed “the potential biodiversity depletion,” she concluded that “time is of the essence . . . Incisive and urgent action is at a premium.” To reverse the trend toward extinction, there needs to be an urgent restructuring of the way man treats this planet and the living things on it. More than damage control is required. “The problems of conserving biological diversity therefore cannot be separated from the larger issues of social . . . development,” declares the World Resources Institute.

Achieving such a goal would require nothing less than a fundamental change in human society. The book Caring for the Earth acknowledges that responsible stewardship requires “values, economies and societies different from most that prevail today.”

The Bible clearly shows that humans are simply not equipped to bring about such changes. Jeremiah 10:23 says: “I well know, O Jehovah, that to earthling man his way does not belong. It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step.” (Proverbs 20:24) This truth has certainly been made manifest throughout the course of history, and the results of man’s ignoring this principle have brought us face-to-face with the “critical times hard to deal with” that are spoken of at 2 Timothy 3:1-5. This series of verses also shows us that the critical times are caused by the wrong thinking of people. Therefore, until people change, any solutions to the problems we face are at best temporary.

World-renowned scientist Dr. Jane Goodall observed in an interview that habitat destruction “is often tied up with economic greed and materialism in the developed world.” And botanist Peter Raven, former secretary of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, warned that “ignorance, indifference, poverty and greed are producing interrelated problems that threaten to radically alter Earth for the worse.” Thus, some of the values that need to change include selfishness, greed, ignorance, shortsightedness, and self-centeredness.

The Ultimate Protection of Biodiversity

Understandably, the Creator of life in its staggering variety is keenly interested in the future of his creation. The Bible tells us that God will soon take action by ‘bringing to ruin those ruining the earth.’—Revelation 11:18.

Will God bring back life-forms that have become extinct because of man’s ruining the earth? If the Creator wishes to have extinct animal species reappear on the earth, he can certainly recreate them in the future. The same would apply to the extinct vegetation. But since the Bible does not tell us, it would not be wise to speculate on the matter.

What God’s rule does guarantee is a blessing for every living thing on earth. “Let the earth be glad,” says the psalmist. “Let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy.”—Psalm 96:11, 12, New International Version.