Endangered species & humans I

  • Sumo

I’ve enjoyed a couple of episodes of Last Chance To See. These are documentaries about endangered animals and the efforts to give them space to live. As described by ABC TV Australia:

Stephen Fry goes wild as he teams up with naturalist Mark Carwardine in search of some of the most endangered animals on the planet.

Last Chance to See originally started as a radio program and book from Carwardine and author Douglas Adams back in 1990. Twenty years on, and after the death of Douglas Adams, Stephen Fry and Carwardine retrace the vision of the original journey. (From here.)

It made me think about the nature of humanity. The theological nature, that is.

Thought #1 – humans have, and display, dominion over nature.

We don’t expect cats and rats to make an effort to protect New Zealand’s kakapo. But the immense effort and resources people put into this effort express one small part of Genesis 1:28

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (esv)

Across all the cultures we meet in the series – in NZ, Mexico, Madagascar, Uganda, Indonesia, Brazil – this human reality is a constant.

Though not the only constant, of course …