A Covenant with all Creatures

This is World Wildlife Day and so I should be posting on my sorely neglected Groundling eco-faith blog. But wherever I write, the subject of biodiversity is vital to the health of the world God created. We are moving through the scriptural covenants or promises this year and we began with the covenant with Noah and his kin and with all living creatures. I pointed out that Sunday morning that this has become an urgent call to humans to look beyond themselves to the sustainability of ecosystems. With seven billion of us on the planet we are literally pushing other creatures to the brink of extinction and beyond.

At Docfest we watched a film called Cowspiracy which began strongly then morphed into something of a quasi-religious screed for veganism. But it did remind us that humans are emptying oceans and clear-cutting forests in our rapacious desire for more animal protein. North Americans love their beef and raising cattle requires tremendous resources. We don't see what is happening in the waters of the planet but it is disastrous.

We came away from that film asking what we can do to live our covenantal commitment to care for and sustain diversity, including changing our diet.

The areas around Belleville, in all directions, have abundant wildlife but we know there is pressure on habitats for birds, turtles, and larger mammals. We can "have a care" today and every day. As I said two Sundays ago, this planet is the ark, or Turtle Island, as First Nations peoples term it.

Thoughts?