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Footsteps 20

OUR ENVIRONMENT

The environment is our inheritance. It is ours to care for and pass on to our children. God’s creation is a wonderful balance of nature. When we interfere with this balance, it is often impossible to fully understand the effects. What is becoming clear, however, is that environmental damage throughout the world threatens to have serious effects on God’s creation and on all our lives. All around the world we see the results of environmental damage: forests cut down and burnt, industrial pollution, soil erosion, deserts steadily growing, climate changes, global warming – the list is endless. However, our use of God’s resources can be in harmony with nature – we do not have to be destructive.

Please find below articles from Footsteps issue 20 in html.

To download a pdf version of Footsteps issue 20 click here (892K).

Bible study Caring for our environment by Revd Tim Oakley. When God created Adam and Eve, he put them into a garden, with the responsibility of looking after it. We may not all have gardens, but as the descendants of Adam and Eve, we all have a responsibility f... More >>

Community Action and the Environment How communities can deal with politically sensitive environmental problems by Andrew Leake. Around the world, more and more local communities are coping with environmental damage which is not caused by them. For example, a village that depends on a... More >>

Editorial - Our inheritance: the environment Most people believe that the creation of our planet began many thousands of millions of years ago. It is almost impossible for us to make sense of this length of time. However, it is easier to understand if we compare the earth to a person 46 years o... More >>

Environment Case Studies All around the world groups are responding to environmental problems in a variety of ways. Here are a few examples… Bainings Community Eco–forestry Project The extensive forest of Papua New Guinea provides many of the everyday needs of the people. ... More >>

In search of water Dowsing or water divining, can mean different things to different people. To the scientific community it is superstitious nonsense; to many farmers in Britain and elsewhere it is a useful method of finding good water for their livestock; to many it i... More >>

Letters Water divining The word divining is unfortunate in that it carries connotations of spiritual darkness and the occult. Water divining I would see at worst as harmless, and at best as a gift to locate water. It is a gift that can be used for the well-... More >>

Moringa oleifera - a multi-purpose tree by Geoff Folkard and John Sutherland. River water taken for household use can be full of suspended matter, particularly in the rainy season. The water carries silt particles, solids, bacteria and other micro-organisms (some of which can carry diseas... More >>

Resources A legend from India… ‘The traveller begged for shade. The tree gave it. Then he begged for food; the tree gave it. Then the traveller felt like staying with the tree and building his home near it. He looked for an axe to fell the tree. Then he beg... More >>

Sustainability - the key environmental issue by Mike Carter. Hundreds of books have been written about ‘sustainability’. Perhaps the simplest way of explaining what it means is to look at the word itself. Sustainability is about the ability to sustain. Can whatever it is we are doing, continue... More >>

What happens to the rubbish? by Isabel Carter. Piles of scraps of plastic, old batteries, paper wrappers and empty drink cans… Rubbish is a problem all around the world. Large cities and developed countries have rubbish collection schemes. In the rural areas of most countries t... More >>

Wildlife Management A case study from Zambia After many years of trying, through a very expensive law enforcement campaign, to deal with the poaching of wildlife, Zambia realised that no progress was being made. Poaching continued at the same rate – in some areas it ev... More >>

Other Tearfund sites: www.tearfund.org Youth & Students Connected Church Climate Justice Fund Living Gifts Created