EARTHKEEPING NEWS A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY Volume Nine, Number Five July/August 2000 A MEDITATION ON THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE "God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do.... There will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt. After them there will arise seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land.... Let Pharaoh proceed to appoint overseers over the land, and take one fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven plenteous years, and lay up grain under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities.... That food shall be a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine that are to befall the land of Egypt." (Genesis 41: 25-36) Imagine what it must have been like at the time of Pharaoh when Joseph was asked to interpret a dream that indicated seven years of climate change, namely drought and famine was on the way after seven more good years to prepare for the situation. I am sure there were skeptics of that period of time as well, for after all, dream interpretation is not really an exact science but maybe the best they had at the time. Pharaoh decided to act on the precautionary principle and begin an intense national conservation program (20%) in order to best be prepared for the climate change predictions, and to be able to feed not only the people of his nation but the world. We have a choice today to act on the precautionary principle regarding climate change or to use the excuse that science is not exact enough and therefore risk dire consequences for future generations in order to continue the path we are on. Interestingly though when it comes to energy conservation, it really is a win/win situation for the economy, the environment, and our quality of life. From: David Randle, WHALE Center, 9844 Glendover Way, Sandy UT 84092; WHALE444@aol.com Home     Table of Contents