Mel Landers Reply
Dear Rick,
Thank you for sharing this vision you have for a sustainable urban environment. I have made comments below:
What you have suggested would redirect congregations toward being good stewards of Gods creation. That would be a powerful witness to a society which is now quickly destroying that very creation. The industrialized world is flooding the atmosphere with gasses which turn the stratosphere into a greenhouse with no evaporative cooling system. The result is the same as a greenhouse in Arizona in August which has been shut down for the summer. Whatever plants are left are dry as a bone in the desert.
It was just discovered that Arctic glaciers are now melting at double the rate that they were in 1990. Glaciers in Alaska have lost hundreds of feet in depth. Meanwhile, Northern Africa and Central Asia are quickly becoming nothing but desert. The North American wheat belt will be the next area to dry up. Carbon Dioxide is not the main culprit, as most commentators lead you to believe. Methane is the reason for the rapid rise in warming over the last decade. In the upper atmosphere it becomes water vapor and water vapor is THE main greenhouse gas. The methane comes from people and especially from the enormous amount of livestock which are eaten by the people of the developed nations. Bio Digester technology [to capture and use the methane] is the solution to this problem.
The solution for many other problems can be found in what you are proposing. There is another problem at the core of many of these problems though. That is "self interest" If churches were willing to once again become interested in others outside themselves and be strong witnesses, more people would become concerned with the wellbeing of others and they would no longer be so concerned with their own wealth, security, comfort and enjoyment. This would be a good witness.
Your friend Mel Landers
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