Scientists Issue Warning

“HUMAN beings and the natural world are on a collision course. . . . No more than a few decades remain before the chance to avert the threats [to the environment] will be lost.”

This warning, issued by the UCS (Union of Concerned Scientists), was published in Annals, a Canadian medical journal. If man’s life-​threatening practices continue, the report adds, these “may so alter the world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know.”

Cited among urgent problems that must be addressed are ozone depletion; water pollution; deforestation; loss of soil productivity; and the extinction of species, which by the year 2100 may include a third of all species now living. “Our tampering with the interdependent web of life,” says the UCS, “could trigger widespread effects, including collapses of biological systems whose dynamics we imperfectly understand.”

The concerns of the UCS were endorsed by more than 1,600 scientists worldwide, including 104 Nobel laureates. According to the UCS, “these senior members of the world’s scientific community warn all humanity that a change in our stewardship of the earth is needed if vast human misery is to be avoided.”

The Bible agrees that man is truly “ruining the earth.” (Revelation 11:18) It even acknowledges that a change in world stewardship is needed. (Jeremiah 10:23; Daniel 2:44) In fact, the Bible promises that such a change will occur, not through man’s efforts, but by God’s Kingdom, the heavenly government for which Jesus taught his followers to pray.​—Psalm 145:16; Isaiah 11:1-9; Matthew 6:9, 10.

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Photo: Godo-​Foto