BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Nature loss ‘dwarfs bank crisis’
The global economy is losing more money from the disappearance of forests than through the current banking crisis, according to an EU-commissioned study.
It puts the annual cost of forest loss at between $2 trillion and $5 trillion.
The figure comes from adding the value of the various services that forests perform, such as providing clean water and absorbing carbon dioxide.
Seems to me that the two are linked; that is to say, greed and consumption at the individual as well as corporate/institutional level would be behind both crises. Just read an interesting passage this morning in Isaiah 9:10 where Israel, in arrogant and ignorant rebellion says about the judgment/chastisement that has befallen them:
The bricks have fallen down,
But we will rebuild with smooth stones;
The sycamores have been cut down,
But we will replace them with cedars.
It says in subsequent verses that the Lord arms their enemies and spurs them on and yet they do not turn back to Him. This is a picture, in my opinion, of what judgment looks like (and what our ignorant response usually is). A crises arises. An enemy attacks. We don’t say, “Hmm…what is God saying?” or, “This must be the Lord.” No, we say, “(darn), this fell down. I’ll have to prop it up differently.”
As to this bit of news about deforestation…I wonder if it will make the headlines? I wonder if we’ll seek how to steward this planet differently? I wonder what the Church’s response will be?