Wiping out environmental woes
- Apr 25, 2007 - 2
Singer and environmental activist Sheryl Crow—in her quest to save the planet—has now decided the fate of the globe might hang on toilet paper. Perhaps that is overstating her view, but Crow recently lamented the amount of toilet tissue Americans use.
“I propose a limitation be put on how many squares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting,” Crowe said, suggesting Americans are “industrious enough” to use just one square per bathroom seating.
Her beef with toilet paper is that the trees needed to make the tissue take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. (By the way, most grocery stores carry at least one brand of “recycled” toilet paper.)
According to press reports, Crow—who was also in the news this weekend after accosting presidential advisor Karl Rove at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner—also took aim at paper napkins as the “height of wastefulness.” To those similarly offended by paper napkins, Crow has a clothing line that includes a detachable “dining sleeve.” Anything to save Mother Earth, we suppose.
Whether Crow was joking about the toilet paper rationing or not, her two-week “Global Warming Tour” to colleges ended in style on Earth Day 2007.
The first Earth Day—established in 1969 by Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D-Wis.)—was a response to an increasing awareness of oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, toxic waste dumps, and heavy use of pesticides in the nation.
Gaylord said he wanted “to shake up the political establishment and force [these issues] onto the national agenda.” Many believe Congress’s passage of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act was prompted by the outcry channeled by Earth Day’s focus on environmental issues.
In a stop at the University of Alabama at Birmingham during her tour, Crow said, “I feel this is the most important Earth Day that will take place in our lives.” She said the date marked a “real turning point.”
Crow said the issue is “dire” and that “it should be above all other issues.” Her tour mate, activist Laurie David, predicted the 2008 presidential election would focus on three issues: jobs, terrorism and temperature.
With concern over global warming reaching a feverish pitch, particularly among younger Americans, the ERLC’s Richard Land offered a timely warning.
“God holds us accountable for our stewardship of the creation,” said Land, president of the SBC’s entity for moral and public policy issues.
“We have a responsibility to inform our young people of both the problems and of the biblical principles that should inform our response. In doing so, we can further perform our duties as Christians and parents by inoculating them against the false, anti-biblical teaching that so heavily suffuses so much of the modern, secular environmental movement,” he continued.
“The Bible’s strong teaching of human preeminence and dominion in the created order is balanced by God’s instructions to carefully manage land and animals, Land said. “As stewards of His property, we are responsible to develop it and bring forth its fruit and increase, but to not desecrate or dissipate it.”
If Crow’s tour has done nothing else, your next visit to the bathroom might include some reflection on the size of your “carbon footprint.” More on that in next week’s FFV.
Lucretia Goddard contributed to this report.
Further Learning
Learn more about: Citizenship, Science, Environment
2 comments (post your own) feed
1 On Apr 26th, 2007, at 10:29am, kathy wrote:
I wish as Christians we’d be careful not to put out “scandoulous/untruthful” headlines about a topic just to get people to read it. The author of the article should have done her research and saw that the whole use a square was a joke from the beginning. It was an off the cuff remark made by Mrs. David, stemming from an episode of Seinfeld that her husband had written about using only a square of toliet paper. It was never intended to be an statement of how she or Ms. Crow wanted us to cut back. Ms. Crow’s original comment was that we needed to cut back on our use of paper goods. I know the secular media ran with the story but I would like to think we could expect more from a christian article. I just think you missed the mark for behaving like a christian and not leading people astray through subterfuge. Lying is lying as my mother used to say even if all you do is lead someone to believe an untruth.
2 On Apr 26th, 2007, at 3:47pm, steve wrote:
Hey Kathy - lighten up. The author was simply trying to be humorous. Personally I didn’t find the stuff about Sheryl Crow that funny (I’ve never been a fan of lavatory humor) but you’ve got to admit the quotes accredited to Richard Land were hilarious.