On Saturday I went to a matinee with my wife Ruth for the newly released documentary, Manufactured Landscapes. We have been fascinated by the photographs of Edward Burtynsky which focus on the terrible and strangely beautiful re-working of the natural world by human beings. The film documents a trip to industrial China. One segment focuses on the communities where our old North American computer junk is dismantled by hand so that the small component parts can be melted down for their valuable metals. The result is the degradation of the soil and water in these towns and cities as toxins are released. It also directly affects the health of the workers who use stone-age methods to take apart these high-tech components.
It struck me that the dark side of globalization is my usually unwitting complicity in shipping environmental problems to the other side of the planet. The economic "miracles" of China and India are coming at a great price. As a Christian this is not loving my neighbour, however distant he or she may be.
Is there a solution? Jesus also encouraged us to live simply and to be content with what we have.
My choices may not be the solution, but they can be a beginning.
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