The Rev. Robert “Bud” Grant lives what he teaches students in his classes at St. Ambrose University, Davenport.
His environmental awareness spills out in choices, such as using a cloth bag to carry goods to judiciously deciding when to get behind the wheel and planting native flowers and greenery in his gardens.
Earlier this year, he received an Education Eddy Award from River Action Inc. for his role in educating people to be aware of how their decisions impact the environment.
In 1994, he joined the faculty of St. Ambrose University, where he is an associate professor and program coordinator.
“I try to impress on my students there are no disasters in nature. What happens in nature is what’s supposed to happen,” he said.
Becoming an environmental-issues consultant was a gradual process that began with growing up in the Midwest to studying American Indian cultures as an adult.
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“It wasn’t a single epiphany. I’m sure it was the way I was raised,” he said.
He lives on acreage near Stockton, Iowa, where he has native planting areas and two quarter horses, Pete and Duke. He does not ride his horses to school, although the thought has crossed his mind, he said.
“I’m very pleased that gas prices are rising so high because that will help make us more aware of the need for alternatives,” he said. “Certainly, we need to drive less.”
Unfortunately, most people are not going to be motivated to drive or consume less out of sheer altruistic compassion for the environment, he said. Two factors play critical roles in environmental crises: over-consumption and over-population. Typically, over-population is a concern in developing communities, he said.
Grant tries to make decisions based on his understanding that everything people do makes an impact. He always can’t ride his bike, especially when faced with riding 15 miles in the dark during winter conditions, but he has taken steps to lessen his environmental footprint.
It makes sense for him, or anyone living in the country, to wait until they have several things to do in town and map out a route for maximum efficiency, he said.
He has sworn off fast-food restaurants, he said. Using Styrofoam containers, plastic or paper sacks is not part of his daily practices. Grant brings his own cloth bag to carry groceries and other goods home from the store. “I’ve had young kids stop and thank me for not using bags,” he said.
Grant’s passion and that of his students’ for the environment is visible in green patches of native plantings on St. Ambrose’s campus. Campus personnel are developing a green consciousness with practices like collecting rainwater in underground cisterns. Rainwater is used to water the grounds, he said.
In 2001, Grant was honored by the Scott County Soil and Water Conservation District for outstanding accomplishments in soil and water conservation and good land uses in the district.
He led an effort to get a $40,000 Riverboat Development Authority grant. That money helped in developing a solution to flooding problems in the Cosgrove Hall parking lot on campus,
If everyone made changes in their daily routines, it would help — but changes need to happen on a far greater level in order to address issues like the causes of global warming, clean air and water, he said.
Rabbi: Conservation lessons found in Genesis
By Mary Louise Speer | Quad-City Times
Conservation and stewardship are principles found in the Bible, especially in the book of Genesis, said Rabbi Michael Samuel of Tri-City Jewish Center, Rock Island.
He is the author of “Birth and Rebirth Through Genesis: A Post-Modern Traditional Commentary,” which will be published later this year.
He sums up the admonition given to humanity to care for the earth with a statement included in the commentary.
“When the Holy One, blessed be he, created the first human being, he took him and led him around the trees in the Garden of Eden and said to him: ‘Behold how beautiful they are. Take heed that you do not corrupt and destroy my world. If you do there is nobody after to fix it,’ ” Samuel said.
Humankind was created to have a special bond with creation and care for it, he said. “We call this stewardship. Creation is not entrusted to us willy nilly,” he said.
But lay people, educators and religious scholars sometimes disagree on the matter of “dominion.”
“If God gives man dominion over creation, does that mean people can treat nature any way they wish?” he asked.
In a pastoral sense, having dominion over the earth does not entitle people to exploit nature. “Stewardship recognizes the interconnectedness, the interdependence of all entities that inhabit the earth with humanity,” he said.
The Torah, which composes the five books of Moses — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy — contains examples of people being urged to allow the land to rest for what is called a Sabbatical year and admonitions to curtail human violence against the earth.
The Sabbatical year is defined as a seven-year agricultural cycle that allows the fields and vineyards to rest in the seventh year according to Leviticus 25:4.
Jewish dietary laws contain stipulations not to co-mingle milk and meat dishes. “We don’t eat cheeseburgers because we are aware of the special bond between a mother and its young. To make the young calf taste more delicious to the human consumer denotes a hardness of heart,” Samuel said. ”It indicates a certain callousness toward life and the bond of a mother and its young.”
In the end, “we have to look after the world and it’s better to err on the side of caution and create technologies that do not pollute and make sure the endangered species are protected,” Samuel said.
Conservation and Creation Care
Richard Cizik is vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals, or NAE, and he is a national spokesman on issues of importance to evangelical Christians.
The issue of stewardship and creation care, meaning awareness of the environment, is nothing new, he said. He became convinced of the problems of global warming during a conference on climate control at Oxford University, he said. At that conference, speaker Sir John Houghton, an evangelical scientist, presented evidence of global warming.
“I tend to be a bit of an activist type. If I’m persuaded of the reality of what is a real threat to humanity the record shows I’ve gotten involved,” he said. “It’s the acting on it that has gotten me into trouble.”
Conservation has not always been at the forefront of evangelical consciousness and some leaders believe human life and the sanctity are the most important concerns. “It’s a great debate in the evangelical movement what ought to be our priorities on these varying issues,” he said.
But in 2004, the NAE issued An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility, he said.
In brief, the document urges Christians to get involved in a range of issues. Included in the document is a call to realizing that people are the stewards of the earth and not owners
“Because clean air, pure water, and adequate resources are crucial to public health and civic order, government has an obligation to protect its citizens from the effects of environmental degradation,” the NAE leaders said in the “Call to Civic Responsibility.”
The Evangelical Climate Initiative released the “Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action” manifesto in 2006, he said. Climate Change advocates people of faith to recognize “that human-induced climate change is a serious Christian issue requiring action now.”
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