The Church of England faith says that we have “to take all possible steps, both nationally and internationally, to establish a just and economical use of the Earth’s energy resources, and to minimise the impact of consequential environmental pollution.” This shows that England and the rest of the world need to use the Earth’s natural energy sources economically, and carefully in order to reduce the risk of severe pollution.
Pope John Paul has spoken about pollution for the Catholic Church. He said, “Our actions have consequences for the rights of others and for the resources of the Earth” and “We must consider the welfare of future generations in our planning for and utilisation of the Earth’s resources.” By this he means that if we destroyed the Earth in any kind of way then it will effect the future generations of our world. We need to use the natural resources in a positive way so that we do not damage the world.
The Earth is continuously being damaged. Pollution is destroying the planet in numerous ways. The build up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is known as the greenhouse effect. This traps heat from the sun in the earth’s atmosphere resulting in global warming. This could mean intense weather conditions and may even melt both poles causing global flooding. The ozone layer above the earth filters the ultraviolet rays of the sun. A hole has appeared in the ozone layer above the Antarctica, which is increasing every year. This could result in a rise in the risk of skin cancer. The major factors eating away at the ozone layer are CFCs and other synthetic chemicals. Acid rain is caused by some of the harmful chemicals that are in the air. These include sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides which are waste gases from the industrial processes of the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil. When these gases reach the atmosphere and combine with rain, they convert to sulphuric and nitric acid which destroys trees and pollutes rivers.
Industrial waste pollutes rivers and seas killing countless fish and also enters the human food chain. This could be nuclear waste from power stations, toxic waste from manufacturing processes, sewage discharges, or farm pesticides.
Conservation is the attempt to preserve the planet and to stop the pollution that is destroying it. There are a quite a few things that a person could do to help stop pollution. As Christians we should be protecting our world in every way that we can. We could: avoid dropping litter, avoid using CFC aerosols, walk or use public transport where possible to reduce car pollution, use organic gardening methods, start a compost heap to recycle organic household waste, avoid buying pre-packed goods in plastic or polystyrene containers to encourage shops and industry to stop the use them, and use less detergent to decrease the quantity of chemicals polluting rivers and oceans. Conservation groups have tried to persuade governments to reduce the destruction of forests. There are many different groups attempting to stop the amount of pollution on Earth for example, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the Council for the Protection of Rural England.
