What were the steps involved in your decision to use less energy in your home, and who or what influenced these decisions?

My mum has always shown me the way – not to waste food, turn off appliances when not in use, keep the last run of water from the washing machine for cleaning the toilet, etc. This was way before green issues gained traction. Limited family finance was probably the prime motivation. Things are certainly better now and creature comforts have been gradually added over the years. But somehow we never found the need for air-conditioning. There were days when the weather was really warm and the solution was simply to go and take another shower (without using the heater, of course). Several years ago, I came across an article on standby power taking up a significant proportion of the electrical bill. Then I realized many appliances at home were on standby and were not frequently used. Why allow electricity to leak? I decided to turn them off. My mum has always been at it, I was the one who needed reform.

I had a friend who once remarked, “Live simply, and you will simply live.” I also found out years ago that I had a rare eye condition that could have been triggered by stress. Taken together, it got me asking myself: “Could life be made simpler?” So it was more than just trying to be green, it was part of a bigger question of “removing baggage” and being a work-in-progress steward. Some days I succeeded, some days I failed. But I felt I must at least grapple or struggle with it.

How would you describe your lifestyle?

There are still a lot of areas that I am grappling with. I am only learning to be aware of the impact of my actions. My current lifestyle is simple but not spartan. Thankfully, my workplace is near home and so it makes owning a car far less compelling. And that opens up a lot of possibilities to do more significant things. I still do enjoy little pleasures from time to time – traveling is one. The general rule I try to abide by is: Live a little below my means, and then a little more, if I can afford it.

What keeps you motivated when some days you feel like giving up?

Actually there have been some days I simply gave up! Over time, I found that altruism alone does not last very long for me. What seems more motivating is to resolve ironies and generate two or more benefits from them. Several months ago, I had wanted to increase my frequency of physical exercise but just could not find time for it. Then it dawned upon me that I could take the stairs instead of using the lift. So that’s one less demand on a public facility and one more routine for a healthy heart.

Explain the theology behind your beliefs or in other words, how has the Bible informed your worldview?

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it (Ps 24:1). Let God not find it in ruins on the day of reckoning. And I suspect it reflects the collective spiritual condition as well. When God put Adam in the Garden the intent was for him to cultivate it and keep it (Gen 2:15). I understand the Hebrew word for “keep,” i.e. “shamar,” has the notion of “keep, watch, preserve.” I take it to mean caring for it in a sustainable way. So by extension, I believe the Greater Eden should similarly be shamar-ed. How do we then shamar the earth? When the Israelites collected the manna, they were instructed to take what they needed. Feedback was immediate for those who tried to push the envelope – in the form of bad food infested with maggots (Ex 16:20). The difference today is that the consequence of our actions is imperceptible and removed from us (both in time and distance). We do not see how our individual actions could collectively bring about unintended consequences. But nature is not keeping silent. I am afraid when it does fight back it might come fast and furious. And then ironically, the land will finally enjoy its Sabbath rest (Lev 26:34, 35).

What are some other things you would like to do but haven’t been able to so far?

Some time ago, I read The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan and it inspired a thought: I would like to have a small plot to grow my own greens. This is not aimed at self-sufficiency. But I think it would be fun to appreciate the process of converting the sun’s energy into food. I’d like to know what I eat is not an outcome of a transaction but someone has put in effort to bring it to the table. I had a taste of it when I grew my own rice not long ago. By the way, it was not much of a harvest, not even a spoonful, but for me it was deeply satisfying.

How did your family and friends react toward your conservation efforts?

I am mainly experimenting. So I seldom talk about it with friends. Some have expressed surprise that there is such a community that gives things away such as SgFreeCycle. Others have wanted to do something similar but did not know the resource. But at home, this has been a fun conversation topic with my mum.

Share a story with us from your environmental endeavors over the last few years.

When I first signed up with Bookmooch, an online book exchange platform, I was quite skeptical. Even though there were some safeguards built-in, there were still ways to beat the system. And so I thought, “Why would anybody send a book to a stranger halfway round the globe?” “What if the sender shortchanged me?” Quite unexpectedly, it became an instructive exercise that surfaced some deep-seated stereotypes, even faultlines. It’s just books, one may say, don’t take it too hard. But I think better to have them surfaced in little things, rather than big ones. I do not know to what extent did I save the earth, I think being more self-aware is already a big plus.

What are the biggest challenges you think Singapore and the greater global village face?

In the past when societies were organized around agriculture, there was a certain awareness that what sustained us was dependent on natural cycles and the elements. It was encoded in our culture – in the form of harvest celebrations, rituals to ask for rain, etc. Today, especially in the cities, we are less sensitive to these factors. The ability to get what we want is (perceived) to hinge on only how much money we have. Perhaps this has sent us in the wrong direction.

I think a lot of products are not priced correctly. There seems to be no effective way to account for the externalities like pollution and irreversible damages on the place of origin. But many are beginning to be more aware and there are some promising new technologies on the horizon. We will have to encourage more people to make good choices rather than the proverbial cynic who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing (Oscar Wilde).

Tan Chee Leong is a research engineer and worships at Covenant Evangelical Free Church. He enjoys reading, tending to his small collection of herbs, diving, and traveling to rural locations for hikes or walks. His pet peeves include second-hand smoke and the phrase “at the end of the day.”

The New American Standard Bible has been referenced.

We read more news on climate change, global warming, increase in sea levels, and species extinctions today than we did just five years ago. Environmental consciousness is at an all-time high. What used to be the politely tolerated doomsday views of scientists in their ivory towers have now become accepted facts and mainstream beliefs.

Former US Vice-President Al Gore has probably gained more international prominence than any other ex-Vice-President in history through his documentary An Inconvenient Truth, highlighting global environmental issues which have captured unprecedented attention. Nature and environmental issues are also gaining significance in international forums outside traditional international environmental meetings – environmental issues are discussed at global platforms like the World Trade Organization and the International Maritime Organization. In politics, Green Parties exist in many European countries and America. The German Green Party was the first in the world to achieve national prominence; that party was even part of the federal coalition government of Germany from 1998 to 2005.

Christians and the Environment

There have always been Christians who identify with nature and environmental causes. The term “creation care” is used in some circles to describe such causes from a Christian perspective. It was coined to emphasize the fact that nature and the environment are actually integral parts of Creation, and caring for them is caring for what God had created.

Though it is currently not of priority on the average evangelical agenda, the number of Christians interested in the environment, and organizations that provide platforms to translate this interest into action is not insignificant. The Evangelical Environmental Network (www.creationcare.org) provides information for Christians interested in caring for the environment; they also publish a quarterly magazine Creation Care, providing insightful articles on Christian perspectives on the environment. Christian conviction in response to environmental concerns has also gone beyond providing information resources – A Rocha is an international conservation organization that bases its existence and activities on Christian values like love, obedience, justice, and hope. It supports conservation projects, with a presence in at least 19 countries worldwide.

Christians are also joining other like-minded people to escalate the global environmental agenda. In 2006, Fortune reported on a coalition of evangelical Christians, Fortune 500 executives, and environmentalists who issued a joint “call to action” for the US to do more to curb global warming. Author of The Purpose-driven Life, Rick Warren, together with leaders of World Vision, and the Salvation Army in the US were among Christians who identified with this coalition.

Biblical Basis

Is this just the “flavor of the week” for international and local media? What should a Christian do? In the first place, should a Christian do anything at all about all this? Just because Christians elsewhere are doing it, should this be the reason for us to jump in? Is this an issue that we should politely look at, but not get too involved in?

What are the biblical foundations for a Christian response to global issues related to nature and the environment? How biblical is this idea of caring for the environment, anyway? I will not attempt anything remotely close to a biblical treatise on this topic, but will only highlight a few passages to illustrate some reference points for a creation care conviction.

It’s always good to start at the beginning and Genesis 1:1 tells us, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” God is the Creator – not just of humans but also of every living and non-living thing on the earth. Just as loving a person necessitates at least a caring respect for things he or she makes, loving God requires an aspect that respects and cares for His creation.

The Psalmist fills the 104th Psalm with poetic descriptions of God’s creation – indeed it expresses the tangible delight that God has as He directs and controls all that He has created. In his vision of heaven, John described the worship of the living creatures who express the fact that God created all things as a conscious act of His will (Rev 4:11). He created them because He wanted to.

Israel: An Illustration of Creation

I gained a new perspective on the value God places on nature when I visited Israel recently. We know that God unilaterally chose Israel to call His own among all the nations of the earth. He did this even though Israel was by no means among the most powerful or influential nations in the world or even the region – it was not blessed with a large population that could easily overrun other nations militarily; neither was it a technological or political force internationally.

While not simplistically suggesting that this was the reason God chose Israel, it is a fact that within its very small geographical boundaries (less than 21,000km2 in area – for comparison, peninsular Malaysia has an area of more than 131,000km2), it possesses natural habitats ranging from arid deserts to lush wetlands, coral reefs to snow-capped mountains. Indeed, Israel illustrates creation – it is a veritable demonstration site for the biological and habitat diversity of the world!

Environmental Stewardship

Francis Schaeffer in his 1970 book Pollution and the Death of Man writes, “… nature: it is not our own. It belongs to God, and we are to exercise our dominion over these things not as though entitled to exploit them, but as things borrowed or held in trust. We are to use them realizing they are not ours intrinsically. Man’s dominion is under God’s dominion.”

This concept of stewardship carries with it a responsibility for the welfare of what has been placed in trust, and an accountability of the steward to the Master in the discharge of his duty. It is probably not too far-fetched to apply the account of the servant left in charge of his master’s possessions in Matthew 24:45-46 to the relationship of Man – who has been granted dominion over all other species (Gen 1:28-29) and everything else in creation.

Respect for Creation

Related to the attitude of environmental stewardship is that of recognizing that God values the whole world, including the environment because it is His creation. Francis Schaeffer, in the same book, writes, “The man who believes things are there only by chance cannot give things a real intrinsic value. But for the Christian, there is an intrinsic value. The value of a thing is not in itself autonomously, but because God made it. It deserves this respect as something which was created by God, as Man himself has been created by God.”

A detail that is not often noticed in the covenant God initiated with Noah after the Flood is that the covenant also included “every living creature” (Gen 9:12). In case we dismiss it as an extraneous oversight on God’s part, the inclusion of “all living creatures of every kind” as beneficiaries of the covenant was reiterated in verse 15. If God so chooses to honor these creatures, who are we to decide that they are not worthy of our respect? What are the implications to us if we knowingly destroy the world that God has sworn not to harm?

Apathy, Activism, Action

Given the situation, we should respond with action, not apathy. Most responses to environmental concerns we read of are expressed in activism. However, action need not be exclusively manifested as activism. Neither should a lack of activism for environmental causes be construed as apathy towards our stewardship obligations to creation or disrespect for the work of the Creator. Conversely, activism by itself is also not evidence of a lack of apathy. The adrenaline, allure, and acclaim of activism itself can corrupt the pure concern for nature and the environment as motivators for action.

What Can We Do?

Do something, however small and insignificant you may think it is – it does count. Some in Singapore think that since we are so small and have so little nature in comparison with what the rest of the world has, it does not matter what we do or not do. While this presumption is not based on fact and can be refuted (even though we are small, we do have a significant number of plant and animal species, and diverse natural habitats), what is more important is that this thinking may be akin to that of the last servant in the parable of the talents (Mt 25:18, 24-27). Five loaves and two fish have been shown to feed five thousand; not offering those five loaves and two fish could have meant that more than five thousand went hungry (Mt 14:14-21).

Live with an attitude of contentment in your purchasing decisions. Many global environmental problems are related to pollution and excessive use of energy resources; these in turn are directly linked to our own demand for goods. Many of the goods we have are necessary, but quite a few we purchase are more in response to values of the world like greed, lust, hoarding, and selfishness than we would care to admit.

Learn to appreciate the natural world. There are many opportunities for this, even within an urban context like Singapore. Visit a nature reserve, a park, your own backyard or even just take a closer look at one of the many trees in the city. Recognize the design, insight and creative molding that went into each plant and animal, habitat and natural landscape that we see around us and remind yourself that it was God the Creator who personally made these with His own Hands.

Nigel is a marine biologist by training and currently deals with marine conservation policy issues in Singapore. Together with his wife Christina, they worship at Bethesda Cathedral, Singapore.

The New International Version of the Bible has been referenced.