Here is an excerpt from John’s post.

“The centrality of human relations and redemption to both Up and WALL-E may have something to do with the relationship between Stanton and Pete Docter, the director/co-writer of Up, and a fellow Christian. In fact, the original story for WALL-E dates back to a 1994 conversation between the two, and they earned a joint Oscar nomination for their screenwriting efforts. Both were also integral to the creation of Toy Story, and Stanton was later the executive producer of Up. It requires no great feats of interpretation to see how the directors’ mutual Biblical faith influenced the two movies. Even if some of the references to Genesis were the result of what Stanton describes as the Old Testament being ’sort of built into our DNA,’ others certainly were intentional.”

You can read the full post at The New Atlantis website by visiting http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-genesis-of-pixar.

The article linked below explains, “All fish were contaminated with mercury, more than 66 percent of them at levels higher than those set by the Environmental Protection agency as a ‘level of concern for fish-eating mammals,’ according to Reuters. More than 25 percent of the fish were contaminated at levels higher than those set as the threshold for human consumption.”

A full summary can be found at:

http://www.naturalnews.com/028284_fish_mercury.html

A brief excerpt :
Imagine miles and miles of desolate savannah in Eastern Colombia, without a tree or bird or child in sight, a veritable no-man’s land. Over the last almost two decades now 8,000 hectares of trees have been replanted with Carribean Pine.

The Las Gaviotas reforestation project is not only about planting trees for climate stabilization; it is, primarily, about catalyzing a development program that will pave the way for creating a sustainable future for our children where society is able to provide for the basic needs of all in terms of water, food, human health, shelter, energy, jobs and education with local resources.

Climate change and the church to be discussed at Dordt Wednesday March 3.

SIOUX CENTER, IA – “Environment, Creation, Climate Change, and The Church,” is the topic of Mitchell Hescox, President and CEO of the Evangelical Environmental Network, who will speak at Dordt College Wednesday, March 3, at 7 p.m. in the Science and Technology Center Lecture Hall SB 101.

Rev. Hescox will discuss creation stewardship, including the biblical mandate for creation care; the light shed by science on climate change; and how Christians can make a difference.

This free, public presentation is sponsored by the Dordt College Environmental Studies Department, the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, the Office of Social Justice of the Christian Reformed Church of North America, and the Evangelical Environmental Network.

You can review and download the report here and read a special release from Campbellsville University here.

A small preview, “In Chapter 11 He is standing in front of the tomb of his friend Lazarus who has just died of the plague or disease… He claims to be God and He is standing in front of the tomb and the bible says He is angry … Jesus Christ who says He is God can be mad at he plague and still not mad at himself, because He knows this is not the way it’s supposed to be … so someday He can end all this [pain, suffering, disease, pain] without ending us.”

The following transcript can be found at:  http://www.grist.org/article/2010-02-03-sen.-lindsey-graham-on-the-importance-of-passing-climate-legesla/

Transcript of Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) remarks today at the “Business Advocacy Day for Jobs, Climate & New Energy Leadership” in Washington D.C.

Thanks y’all.  Thank you.

Hey everybody.  It’s always good to be introduced by someone that can vote for you—just sounds better. Joe comes to every event I’ve ever had in South Carolina and he is on message with intellectual property and energy.

But to the South Carolina folks—thanks for coming up.  Appreciate all the taxes you pay. Sorry about how we’re spending it.  That’s applies to everybody by the way. I am here from the federal government and I’m here to help you.  You’re supposed to laugh.

Well anyway, I don’t where we are going as a nation on a lot of issues. I know where we should be going, and that’s why we’re here right? We seem to be going at a snail’s pace on all the things that really matter. And finding common ground on hard big issues is not unknown to business, to families or to politicians. But eventually you have got to do something, because time is not on your side.

When it comes to social security and medicare reform, and the big entitlement programs, the baby boomers are retiring in droves. When I was born in 1955 there were 16 workers for every Social Security retiree. How many are there today? Three right? Two in 20 years. You know guys like me are the problem—I don’t have any kids. We have to come to grips with the fact that the demographic changes in America are real and Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid are $51 trillion underfunded when you add them all up. That’s not going to get solved just by arguing with each other.

We’ve got to find a pathway forward on entitlement reform. I just mention that as one issue on the economic side—long-term indebtedness that has to be addressed—only going to be solved when Democrats and Republicans come together we all say it, all 100 of us, we never seem to be able to accomplish much beyond saying it.

On the jobs side, we’re at 12 percent unemployment in South Carolina hardest hit that I can remember in my lifetime. Manufacturing in our state has really been hit hard. The textile industry that I grew up knowing and being around my whole life has really been hit. I can’t promise South Carolinians or people from Michigan or any other place that we can build a wall around America and that these jobs are not going to leave. But I can promise you there is a way to create jobs back here at home. One of the ways to create jobs back here at home is to become energy independent and clean up the environment. That is the best way.

[Applause]

This is so logical it is scary.

[Laughter]

Maybe that’s the biggest flaw with it, it just makes too much sense. It sounds too good to be true.

We send $1 billion a day overseas to buy oil, sometimes from countries that do not like us very much. We are in the middle of two wars.  The war on terror has many tentacles to it, and what to do and how to do it is a reasoned debate I suppose, but eventually the way to win this war is to try to get to root cause of problem. The root cause of the problem is that there is a small minority of people out there who have a way of doing business, a religious view, that doesn’t accept moderate Muslims, Jews, Christians, anybody else and they are a minority within the world’s population but they have to be confronted on a multi-level approach, sometimes military action, sometimes economic aid. But this country would be in a better position to deal with that problem and other problems if we could go to Middle East and say we’d like to help you with your problems but we don’t need your oil.  That would really be a game changer in terms of our domestic national security concerns.

[Applause]

Now, I’m speaking the day after the president spoke in New Hampshire.  I like the president. I’m having a hard time finding common ground but we’re trying.  One of the issues that I think we have some common ground on is trying to come up with a rational energy independence policy married up with climate change policy that will clean up the air but make money doing it and create jobs in the process and looking at old problems anew. There was this idea floating around yesterday—don’t know how serious it is—that somehow it would be wise for Congress to do an energy bill only. I don’t think that’s wise.

[Applause]

The reason I don’t think that’s wise is that “it is a kick the can down the road approach.” It’s putting off to another Congress what really needs to be done comprehensively.

I don’t think you’ll ever have energy independence the way I want it until you start dealing with carbon pollution and pricing carbon. The two are connected in my view—very much connected. The money to be made in solving the carbon pollution problem can only happen when you price carbon in my view.

So if the approach is to try to pass some half-assed energy bill and say that is moving the ball down the road, forget it with me.

[Applause]

If my Democratic and Republican colleagues—but the Democratic leadership—brings an energy bill to the floor, and that’s the only way we’re going to do things, you better get ready to vote for an amendment that allows offshore drilling with revenue sharing. Because you’ll never become energy independent in my view unless we start exploring for resources that we own in America in an
aggressive and environmentally-sensitive way. So this idea that the energy bill makes us energy independent doesn’t cut it with me because the bill that came out committee doesn’t have any revenue sharing for state of South Carolina or any other state who would agree to offshore exploration. So you’re not going to be to pass this bill and tell me we’ve done anything about energy independence.

On nuclear power side, the nuclear title in this bill is woefully inadequate to create renaissance in nuclear power. 82 percent of power in France comes from where? Nuclear.  Surely we can be as bold as the French. French have found a way to produce nuclear safely, efficiently. It is cleaning up their environment, it’s creating jobs. If you want a job renaissance in America then you need a renaissance in nuclear power, that’s where jobs are going to come from. Trust me, you cannot be serious about cleaning up the environment unless you are serious about nuclear power. You cannot replace coal-fired plants with wind and solar—it’s 15 percent of the grid at most. I’m a serious guy. Honest to God’s truth is that nuclear power has been put in the backseat in this country in an irrational way.

But nuclear is just one part of the solution Wind and solar does matter. We have 250 years of coal—we should use it, but it just should be cleaner

At the end of the day we need a comprehensive approach that would allow this country to jump start its economy and lead the world to a cleaner environment

Every day we wait in this nation China is going to eat our lunch. The Chinese don’t need 60 votes.  I guess they just need 1 guys vote over there—and that guy’s voted.

[Laughter]

He has decided to do two things: First, kind of play footsie with us on emissions control stuff but go like gangbusters when it comes to producing alternative energy. The solar and wind and battery-powered cars is an amazing thing to watch. And we’re stuck in neutral here.

So my message to you—you’re up here to advocate—advocate. Let the Congress know that you want a comprehensive approach to two serious problems. You don’t have to believe that Iowa is going to become beachfront property to want to clean up carbon. It is not about polar bears to me, it’s about jobs. I like the polar bears as much as anyone else but I want to create jobs.

If just a fraction of what is being predicted about global warming is true, that’s enough to motivate us all. But if worse thing you did—as Tony Blair would say—is you provided a cleaner environment, I don’t think you’d go down in history in a bad way.

The key in my view to those who believe we should address carbon pollution is to make sure that the energy initiatives that will get us there are done in a package.

If you break this apart you’ll have a watered down solution on both fronts.

Health care was big, it was controversial—I didn’t like the bill—but that doesn’t mean you can’t do other hard problems.

If the lesson from health care is let’s not do anything hard, then why don’t we all go home, which might be good for the country by the way.

But if we go home, China won’t.

The world is moving, pollution is growing, we’ve got a chance to get ahead and lead. If we wait too long and if we try to take half measures as the preferred route on all these hard problems they just get worse.

My challenge to you and to myself is to not let this moment pass. This is the best opportunity I’ve seen in my political lifetime for a Republican and Democrat to do something bold and meaningful.

Why did I get involved in this? I ask myself that a lot. I saw an opportunity. I’ve become convinced that carbon pollution is a bad thing, not a good thing, and it can be dealt with, and we can create jobs.

This is the time, this is the Congress, and this is the moment. So if we retreat and try to just go to the energy-only approach—which will never yield the legislative results that I want on energy independence—then we just made the problem worse.

What Congress is going to come up here and do all these hard things? Who are these people in the future? Because we constantly count on them. I don’t know who they are.  I’ve yet to find them.

So I guess it falls to me and you.

So let’s do it.

Thanks.

[Applause]

“If God treats the tree like a tree, the machine like a machine, the man like a man, shouldn’t I, as a fellow-creature, do the same — treating each thing in integrity in its own order? And for the highest reason: because I love God — I love the One who has made it! Loving the Lover who has made it, I have respect for the thing He has made.”
(Francis A. Schaeffer, Pollution and the Death of Man, Ch. 4)

The following review of Pollution and the Death of Man appears  on the Apologetics Resource Center blog. A few paragraphs of that review appear below the link:

http://www.arcapologetics.org/blog/2006/04/francis-schaeffer-speaks-to-problem-of.html

“When the man Francis Schaeffer is thought about, his great books that detail how true biblical Christianity answers the problem of man usually also come to mind. The God Who is There, Escape From Reason, He is There and He is Not Silent, and later on, How Should We Then Live are some of his dominant and most influential writings. But tucked away in an obscure corner of any complete Schaeffer library is his thinking on ecology, a topic most Christians rather enjoying ignoring, perhaps because we have a taste for beef and chicken, and we find little time for recycling or protecting endangered species. In fact, environmentalism is often associated with left wing liberal types and organizations such as PETA, thus to protect the environment, oddly enough, has a non-Christian flavor to it in our modern day.

Schaeffer, in his wisdom, begs to differ. In this short treatise, he offers the only lasting solution to the current ecological crisis, namely, a solid stance on the Christian worldview. He points out in the first chapter, however, that not all agree that this is so. He refers to an article written by Lynn White Jr., who emphatically declares that the problem is Christianity itself, with its belief that man has “dominion” over the earth, and thus deduces that he can treat it any old way that he pleases; that is, he has the right to “despoil nature.” Of course, this is a terrible interpretation of the dominion mandate given in the first chapters of Genesis, and Schaeffer goes on to show White’s error.

A major part of Pollution and the Death of Man is spent demonstrating that other worldviews are insufficient in providing an intellectual base for protecting the environment. Chapter 2 is a lengthy presentation revealing the inadequacies of pantheism to provide the needed foundation for keeping the planet clean. Schaeffer summarizes the problem:

‘What I am saying is that a pantheistic answer is not just a theoretically weak answer, but it is also a weak answer in practice. A man who begins to take a pantheistic view of nature has no answer for the fact that nature has two faces: it has a benevolent face, but it may also be an enemy. The pantheist views nature as normal. There is no place for abnormality in nature, in this view…If we accept this romantic and non-Christian mysticism, the difficulty is that we have no solution for the fact that nature is often not benevolent.’”

You can read the follow review here.

A smile in another man’s face as he patiently offers to let you pass.

The moonrise over the ocean, so big and so golden it seems like the sun; its rays illuminating the thin bands of clouds blanketing the waves.

The luminescence and spectacular beauty of a lighting storm as seen from above; pure darkness, utter blackness suddenly interrupted by a flash that throws silver lining along the mass of clouds, backlit with white fire and halfway translucent; the flicker as it dies away, like a spluttering candle.

The sea-green and aquamarine pools of the Caribbean seen from 39,000 feet; with white shores rimming barren strips of desert, and wider patches of green.

The fog and mist on hills covered in rainforest, rising and falling, creating lightshows and lending a haunting loneliness to the mountains as they spill toward the sea.

The fragrance of newly wet earth, blown in from a thunderhead miles distant, the dark streak of rain slanting toward the thirsty ground.

The amazing intricacy of certain tiny blossoms, scarcely large enough to catch your eye as you pass quickly by.

The sudden crispness in the air as summer gives way to autumn, accompanied by the occasional crunch of the largest leaves underfoot.

The unanticipated and non-negotiable generosity of a friend who pays for your meal before you even have time to protest.

Just standing in the rain and letting God wash the filth and the complications from your life, feeling his grace fall to the roots of your hair and run off your nose, drenching and renewing you completely.

Watching a falling snow gently cover the world with silence and peace; being still and knowing that He is God.

Stopping to watch a butterfly and wondering if it truly has a destination, or if it is there simply to be seen and admired.

Looking out from a mountain and thanking God you are alive.

Just listening to a friend talk about their passions, and thanking God for creating more than just you.

A squirrel springing through the grass, either in directionless bliss or abject terror at your passing.

Gazing in wonder at a sky blazing with stars, tracking the disk of our galaxy across it; a sky that helps you to realize your size in proportion to the universe, and the disproportionate love of the creator for you.

Hugging a pine tree and breathing in the butterscotch-vanilla scent.

Being deafened by the roar of a torrential downpour on a metal roof.

Swinging lazily in a hammock on a hot afternoon, gazing at ants below and being glad you’re not quite as busy.

Listening to pigeons coo in the evening and train whistles in the distance at night.

Being blinded by a flash of lighting and left deafened with the crash of thunder as God reminds you that you are mortal.

Trading a knowing glance with a fox, as both stop to contemplate one another.

Witnessing another’s baptism and sharing in their joy, as yet another screwed up individual becomes a blameless brother or sister.

Pouring out your soul in worship, sometimes oblivious, sometimes aware of and warmed by the scores of voices raised up around you, praising your common Father.

The sudden realization that somewhere, someone is praying for you.

Prayer with a friend.

God’s embrace.

John 1:1-5 (TNIV)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Today is December 22, 2009. We have just passed though the darkest day of the year. I’m happy. Darkness is one of those things that never bring me joy. The past few years, months, weeks and even days have been dark times for many people. Even the recent COP 15 Copenhagen Climate Summit had its share of dark moments. As for me, I see a ray of light and hope, and that light is Christ. For far too long, people have been confused and aggravated by the endless arm-twisting and debate regarding climate change. It seems as more information and scientific study emerges supporting the harm we are doing to God’s creation, the more someone else attempts to cloud the real issues with darkness. Smokescreens are darkness meant to confuse, frighten, and hide what true light reveals as truth.

Isn’t that what Christmas is all about? Jesus became incarnate into His creation to light up the world with hope and joy and break through the darkness. Consider some of the people active during Jesus’ time on earth. Pharisees in Jesus’ day blamed the world’s failure on the sin of others and attempted to uphold a legalism that no one, especially the Pharisees, could live up to. Sadducees simply believed life was all about the now and were easily co-opted into claiming faith while continuing to live in the world. Zealots were so self-righteous that they believed they had the right to murder anyone standing in the way of their “true” faith. Essenes believed that they were the only truly faithful people and went into the wilderness to isolate themselves and wait for the world to end.

Sound familiar? These same groups exist today, albeit with different names. This Christmas, just like 2,010 years ago, Jesus’ light comes into the world and drives away the darkness, fear, and confusion. He offers hope and life. Jesus’ light and truth are simple: The lighted way, My Way, doesn’t point fingers at others’ sins, or believe worldly ways are best. Violence doesn’t provide hope, and excluding yourself from creation never changed a single soul. My way is very simple. Love God, love others, and love yourself. And the good news is through me you have the power to love as I love.

So let’s move away from the darkness and into the light. Let’s move from self-interest to God-interest. Let’s move from confusion into confession and then into action by the transforming love of God in Christ Jesus for His creation and all His children. Most importantly, let’s live in hope because of what Jesus Christ has already done.

The darkness is over; the world has seen a great light! Have the same mind and heart of Jesus. Believe because we have Christ’s hope that we will make a difference in caring for the 100’s of millions already impacted by our changing creation.

Romans 15:13 (NIV)
13May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Rev. Mitchell C. Hescox
President/CEO
Evangelical Environmental Network