Natural capital, as Dr. James Martin explains in The Meaning of the 21st Centu
ry (Riverhead Books 2006), are the environmental resources that fuel man’s insatiable need to live and practice culture. Unfortunately, we have thought of and in some cases pursue the belief that natural capital is inexhaustible–that we will never run out of food to eat, water to drink, air to breath. Or we do accept and acknowledge that these resources are indeed fleeting and prone to damage but disregard any action to preserve and conserve earth’s bounty.
It is a sin to our children and the future generations to deprive them of the gifts that we get from nature by our inaction to conserve our natural resources. I’ve read from an online news source that “A key international body of the Anglican Church has declared the wilful destruction of the environment to be a sin”.
Indeed it is our moral obligation to protect the environment.
This write-up need not serve examples on how we can contribute to the green cause for we already know how. A statement released by the Anglican Church points out that “We are becoming increasingly aware that the world is being harmed by us, and we know how to eliminate the harm we are doing.”
Furthermore, it reads, “this is breaking one of the most fundamental commandments known to us, in that we are knowingly causing the degradation of the world’s ecosystems out of our greed and selfishness, rather than living with and protecting the design that issues from the creator’s generosity”.
Greed is defined as “an excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth…” to which I add “…to the detriment of others and the environment.”
See, we already complain about the rising cost of oil and its implications to the growth of the world economy…but we forgot to look at the fact that we consume, in varying amounts, a resource which has taken 10,000 years to form.
Dr. Martin writes that the calculation of GDP ignores natural capital.
“Many countries proudly announce that their GDP per capita is growing but, in reality, if the depletion of natural resources were considered, the GDP for almost all nation would be declining.”
So, with this, I say happy are those who have less…for obviously they consume less.
I quote a line from my executive diary. It says, “Simplicity is not poverty. To live simply is to live in moderation.”
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