Third Rock from the Sun – the ‘Goldilocks’ planet (Job 38.1-11 + Romans 8.18-23)
Neil Millar
Move to another planet? Sounds interesting! Let’s check out the other planets in our solar system. Mercury is closest but it has no air. It’s sizzling hot during the day (up to 800°F) and bitterly cold at night. Venus has an atmosphere but it’s poisonous (and extrememly hot); we couldn’t live there. Mars might work but you’d always have to be in a protective shelter. Water is a problem too. And then, when your spaceship got to the outer planets, (which would take years), you couldn’t land since they are made up mostly of gas!
It’s a bit like the story of Goldilocks visiting the house of the three bears. These planets are too hard and too hot; these planets are too soft and too cold. But Earth, this planet, is just right for supporting life.
We’re situated at just the right distance from the sun, with a marvellous atmosphere, and abundant water. Planet Earth is a perfect home for us and millions of other creatures (8.7 million species to be precise – or quite precise!), which is why we must do all we can to keep it healthy.
So reads the (slightly adapted) dust cover description of What’s So Special About Planet Earth? – a Children’s Book writtenby Robert E Wells. I’ve since found the book and read it. The main point is simple. It’s that Earth, from our perspective, is unique and extraordinary. As far as we know, it’s the only planet in the universe that supports life. And the fact that it hosts intelligent life makes it ‘doubly unique’, writes Space.com’s Clara Moskowitz, who goes on to recount a litany of features that make Earth so special. Things such as:
- Our just right proximity to the sun—allowing just the right amount of heat; neither too much nor too little.
- Our just right size—large enough to hang on to an atmosphere that doesn’t retain too much heat.
- Connected to this, Earth gets just right protection from ‘big brother Jupiter’. Jupiter’s location serves to block Earth from massive amounts of incoming space debris, making a safer haven for life.
- Another, big factor making Earth conducive to life is the existence of just the right amount of liquid water on its surface; not so much as to cover everything or so little that it’s a parched wasteland (like Mars). The Earth has an ocean that covers almost 70% of the surface of the planet and water is life.
- And then there’s plate tectonics—the system of large rocky plates that make up Earth’s outer crust, that slip slowly under, over and beside each other, causing the planet’s towering mountain ranges and plummeting ocean depths, recycling carbon and regulating the climate.
Earth is ‘the only rocky planet we know of that constantly renovates its surface as its tectonic plates dive into the mantle in some places and re-emerge as molten lava in others’, writes Richard Lovett. ‘Many astrobiologists now think this constant renewal is just as important as liquid water for the flourishing of life as we know it.’
Did you know that Earth’s longest mountain range is found at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, and that the mostly submerged Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii is taller from base to tip than Mount Everest?
- Another feature that supports life on earth is our ‘friendly’ moon, which stabilizes our planet’s rotation, preventing drastic movements of the poles and massive changes in climate. The moon also helpfully pulls the ocean’s tides, which scientists suggest might have been the perfect place for early life to begin evolving to survive on land.
- The presence of a magnetic field which protects Earth from dangerous radiation from the sun is another important feature. Without this field, we’d die in seconds.
- In addition, the Earth’s rotation at a constant tilt together with its annual revolution around the sun allows for changing seasons and the distribution of heat, all of which supports habitability.
I could wax on about all that makes Earth conducive to life but even these facts – for me, anyway, awaken a sense of profound wonder and awe. So many conditions needing to be met for us to be here at all; so immense the systems that sustain the possibility of everything we know and love. To be present to this wonder, this majesty, this mysterium et tremendum, is to realise what a sacrilege it is for human beings to think it’s ours to exploit, to use and use up, as if we have some kind of right over it.
But as we know, this is a pervasive view, especially in the Western world. And it’s having consequences for the whole. Our current way of life, and particularly our burning of fossil fuel (releasing all that carbon stored in the earth’s crust) is upsetting the balance.
In the past 150 years, the concentration of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere has increased dramatically. This is affecting the amount of heat in the atmosphere and, in turn, the climate. To be sure, the concentration of CO2 has always fluctuated and the climate, but not like this (caused by us).
The Industrial Revolution with its emphasis on compartmentalisation, mechanisation, mass production and insatiable demand for fuel has been key in this. Industrialisation generated a lot of wealth (for some!), but with it came toxic waste and degradation of land, sea and sky. For a time, more or less, the environment seemed able to absorb this abuse. But now it’s clear – the earth is groaning ever louder in travail, her cry evident in fire, flood, hurricane, drought, melting ice, bio-diversity loss – and the impact of it all felt most by the poorest communities.
To help restore conditions conducive to life on Earth for all, we in the consumer oriented ‘western world’ must repent – must change our mind and ways. We had the Industrial Revolution and now we need an Ecological Revolution – a new vision of the inter-relatedness of all things. The environment is not something out there, opposed to the human world – a resource to use, little more than a backdrop for our human drama – our petty competition for wealth, power and prestige. The well-being of the environment and humanity are inextricably linked, we need each other and must be reconciled. ‘Let us take care of our Mother Earth’, the pope writes, ‘let us overcome the temptation of selfishness that makes us predators of resources, let us cultivate respect for the gifts of the Earth and creation, let us finally inaugurate an eco-sustainable lifestyle and society’. ‘From the hands of God, we received a garden’ he writes; ‘we cannot leave our children a desert.’
Caring for the earth is a crucial aspect of Christian mission. Most of us, feel small in the face of this calling, caught up and compromised in systems that contribute to the problem and are hard to change. What can we do; what difference can we make? Well, we can attend to the life of the world around us and love it – not letting ourselves go numb to her beauty and cry, but growing in tenderness and reverence; we can pray – for a change of heart in those with threatened interests; for the wellbeing of Earth and her creatures. We can vote – for leaders that take seriously working for the common good. We can protest decisions and actions that are detrimental to Earth’s healthand advocate for those that heal and help. We can support people, companies and organisations making ‘green’ choices and working for sustainable development, and boycott those that don’t.[1] And, we can keep working to transition our own lifestyle – to adjust our diet, modes of travel, and broader use of energy; our approach to waste, shopping, gardening, cooking and cleaning.
It’s true, personal changes alone won’t do it, but neither does leaving it all to someone else. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, ‘We must be the change we want to see in the world’.[2] We had similar encouragement from the book of James last week: ‘Be doers of the word, and not hearers only’, James writes, ‘otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves’.
So as we enter into this Season of Creation, let’s pray for our world and ourselves. I’ve got three prayers to offer, which you might find a useful resource in the coming weeks. The first is adapted from the Prayer for Global Restoration by Michelle Balek. Let us pray…
May we always walk gently upon this earth,in right relationship, nurtured by your love,
taking only what we need, giving back to the earth in gratitude,
sharing what we have, honouring all in reverence,
reconciling and healing, mindful of those who will come after,
recognizing our proper place as part of,
not apart from, this creation.
And from 4th century theologian, Basil of Caesarea:
O God, enlarge within us the sense of fellowship with all living things,
our brothers the animals to whom thou gavest the earth
as their home in common with us. We remember with shame
that in the past we have exercised the high dominion of man
with ruthless cruelty so that the voice of the earth, which should have gone up to thee in song, has been a groan of travail. May we realize that they live not for us alone but for themselves and for thee, and that they love the sweetness of life.
And, a Hawaiian indigenous prayer:
Let us give thanks for the world around us. Thanks for all the creatures, stones and plants. Let us learn their lessons and seek their truths, so that their path might be ours, and we might live
in harmony, a better life. May the Earth continue to live;
may the heavens above continue to live,
may the rains continue to dampen the land;
may the wet forests continue to grow,
then the flowers shall bloom and we people shall live again. Amen
[1] See https://sdgs.un.org/goals
[2] See https://climatechange.ucdavis.edu/what-can-i-do/18-simple-things-you-can-do-about-climate-change/