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pie is that "withou t vtston, the
people perish" ( Prov. 29: 18). The
idea is that you should try to
fore–
see
the long- range effects of your
own actions. Putting acidic sludge
into a barre! and seal ing it may not
be a good idea if, years d0wn the
road , the s ludge eat s through the
barre! and finds its way into the
ground and water system.
But noti ce- because man has
had limits set on him, he may be
unable
to know, today,
that other–
wise proper disposal methods won't
work.
lt
may be years, for example,
before he knows that the barre! will
leak!
Compounding the problem is
mankind's basically selfish huma n
nature.
People don't dump t heir garbage
into their
own
swimming pools. Yet
they have been known, in the clas–
sic instance, to dump their garbage
over their neighbor's fence. There
is no immediate tragedy when a
chemical company buys its own
land and proper ly uses itas a dump.
The tragedy comes when the dump
léaks a nd pollutes t he air that
someone else
breathes or t he water
t hat
someone else
drinks.
To use a common example, why
is it that most
privat e
yards are
much cleaner than most public
parks? lt is human natu re to " look
after one's own things," and not the
things of others (see Phill ipians
2:4). l t is all too human to be self–
oriented; to be unconcerned for the
other person.
When property is held in com–
mon, it is human nature to Jet it
deteriorate. No one feels
responsi–
ble
for it because no one fee ls he
really owns it. Ranchers often over–
graze publ ic lands, keeping their
own land lush. In West Africa the
absence of prívate property rights
led to overgrazing, which in turn
was one of the reasons for the even–
tual denuding of vegetat ion that Jed
to famine.
When human governmcnt is the
owner of land , it may be better
managed than if no one owns it , yet
the lack of feeling of personal long–
term responsibility for that land
sti ll may lead to bad management.
Polí tica! pressures may force deci–
sions whose long-term effects
for
the land
are harmful. For example,
one of t he recent administrations in
January 1982
Washington, trying to cut the costs
of housing (and who can quibble
with that objective?) stepped up
lumbering in national forests.
It
may or may not have been a wise
decision: the point is that it was a
political
decision.
And yet the same factors that
may make huma n governments
inadequate managers of land can
apply to prívate corporat ions. The
whole idea of a corporation is lim–
ited liability. T he owners aren't on
the hook for any more than they
invested in the first place. Like
governments, there isn't t he ele–
ment of personal responsibility in
land management.
While sorne antipollution Jaws
do indeed personally penalize indi–
vidual corporation cxecut ives who
cause pollution usually on ly the
corporation itself suffers when it
is caught pollu ting. T he execu–
tives may lose t heir jobs if the
corporation goes ba nkrupt, but
their persona l assets are n 't
touched.
And yet in this world, who would
undertake to make plast ic or any of
the hundreds of goods that make
life easier (or at least more conve–
nient) without the benefit of sorne
limitations on his liability?
And if the key to curbing pollu–
t ion in this world is
individual
prí–
vate responsibi lity and ownershp,
the problem of limits makes itself
felt in t his area as well. How can
courts enforce property rights in
air ?
If
you live in Canada, for
example, the acid raiD that falls on
your property and gradually pol–
lutes it may have come from a fac–
tory hundreds of miles away in the
United States!
The good news of the Kingdom
of God, whic h we announce in
The Plain Truth ,
is th a t t he
na ture of the world and man's
own " huma n nature" wi ll be
changed after Chris t retu rns to
this ear t h to set up His govern–
ment. Even the nature of animals
will be changed! Poisonous ani–
mals and those with vio lent
natures will be transformed by
God into nonpoisonous and non–
violent crcatures ( lsa. 11 :6-9) .
I t will also be a time of "rest itu–
tion of all t hings" (Acts 3:21 ) ,
when the "groanings" that afflict
the natural creation ( Rom. 8:22)
will cease.
While the Bibl e doesn't explicit–
ly say so, the time of God's King–
dom will probably be an era when
the very nature of certain physical
processes will be transformed by
new a nd surpri si ng knowl edge.
Abundance can be possible without
terrible, toxic, deadly wastes that
t hreaten birth defects and cancer.
But man will have to begin to live
in contact with God and in harmo–
ny with God's law.
lf
there is no really sat isfactory
solution for this world, there is one
promised for the World Tomor–
row. o
"We're not dumping it anywhere. Ma 'am. We're just going ro keep driving
ít
around."
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