Citizen Contributions | Education & Youth | Faith & Spirituality | Arts & Culture | Nature | New Haven Climate Movement
Jayla Anderson Photo.
The following citizen contribution comes from Jayla Anderson, who is a rising sophomore studying dance at Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School. In May, this essay won third place in the Climate Health Education Project's essay contest. The Arts Paper is running essays by the winners this summer, as a celebration of youth voices. Read the first place winner here.
Genesis 1:4, 1:10; 1:18, 1:21, 1:25, and many other verses, all have one specific thing in common. Other than being scripture, all actions presented in the text are described as “good.” Other verses mixed in use phrases like “and it was so,” but the phrase “good” highlights something completely different.
The Oxford Dictionary defines the term good as “of high quality or an acceptable standard.” So ultimately the question is if a world is created by an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God, then why do we as human beings treat it so poorly? To fully understand what climate justice means, we need to know what we are rectifying.
Whether you believe in a higher power or not, it is clear that the beautiful Earth mankind calls home is being destroyed and it is our fault. Since the creation of man, human beings have caused destruction. Most world religions are centered around the idea that people are bad and need to be saved from themselves essentially. So in this case climate justice is bringing things back to where they used to be. When the Earth was simply called “good.”
The book of Genesis begins with creation. The creation of the Earth, the light, the water, the air, and everything else you can possibly imagine. Genesis 1:10 speaks about the goodness in the land. The soil we walk on is forgotten and unappreciated.
The land’s significance has been forgotten because civilization has covered it in landfills and miles and miles of buildings, born out of greed and selfishness. A thing that was once made out of love and sheer goodness has been used for the opposite purposes. The light in the night sky we call stars, which was once called good, is now overpowered by cities and light pollution.
The seas that were once called good are now not safe enough for aquatic organisms to survive healthily. The air that was once created to sustain us and separate the heavens from the Earth is now barely breathable.
The key to climate justice and sustainability is being selfless. Everything that the world has become has come out of greed, so in order to fix the problem, we must take action from a different perspective. To get back to when the environment was only “good” we must remember the goodness and intent behind it.