I wonder how Mother Earth is feeling about today's "Earth Day" celebrations.
Does she think it's a genuine display of concern or posturing by various groups with various causes?And what is the Earth, anyway? Is it merely a giant dirt clod drifting through space, or is there a spiritual nature to it, as well?
I believe the latter. That means we mistreat the Earth at our own peril. It also means we mistreat each other at even greater peril.
Tomorrow is a rather special day, Easter. It's a time to reflect on the life of Christ. Most people in the United States and many throughout the world believe that God created the heavens and the Earth.
The Earth, therefore, would be very appreciative of her creator. Is it any wonder, then, that when the savior of mankind was crucified, Mother Earth was not pleased? That the earthquakes that resulted were of such magnitude that they changed the face of the earth? We might call it "Earth Rage."
There are various scriptural accounts of wickedness or righteousness bringing about very unfavorable or very favorable conditions. The most famous is the flood in the time of Noah, of which only Noah and his family survived.
The Earth was created to bless her inhabitants. There is sufficient farm land to feed all. There need not be any hunger in the world. And because there is, it is not due to lack of resources on the Earth but to the inability of people to get along.
That fact was reiterated a little over a year ago in a worldwide study by U.N. researchers. It showed that major humanitarian crises result from governments trying to maintain wealth and power in the hands of a few -- not from inadequate resources. The problems are with the distribution of assistance -- not its availability.
That conclusion undermines some popular but illogical notions that such difficulties are caused by eroding environmental conditions and insufficient natural resources to feed and care for people.
The research -- conducted by the U.N. University's World Institute for Development Economics Research -- defined humanitarian emergencies as man-made crises of war, displacement and disease that kill large numbers of people.
Take North Korea, for example. As reported in the Deseret News last year, food shortages and illnesses connected with those shortages have killed hundreds of thousands and possibly more than a million North Koreans in the past three years.
So, all of the government's energy is devoted to providing sustenance for the people, right?
Hardly. Whatever resources North Korea has are going to the development of nuclear weapons and strengthening its military.
That scenario is repeated in too many countries. A madman in Iraq is keeping Iraqis from getting aid they need. A dictator in Cuba has single-handedly stifled the potential of that country for the past 40 years.
And only a NATO force is preventing Serbs and Albanians from exterminating one another in the former Yugoslavia.
Earth's problems can't be adequately dealt with until the ones involving people are.
You want to talk about pollution, how about polluting the earth's soil with more than 100 million land mines? They in turn blow up and pollute people's bodies, often killing them. They are responsible for approximately 25,000 deaths and injuries worldwide annually. Most victims are civilians, including thousands of children.
By all means, let's be kind to the Earth. Let's have clean air and clean water and keep green space green.
But that will all be pointless if we're not kind to one another -- worldwide.
Deseret News editorial writer John Robinson can be reached by e-mail at jrob@desnews.com