My email today brought me this poignant note from a sensitive, caring evangelical proponent of creation care:
Grace and peace to you in Christ. Thank you for your note.
I hear in it the voice of one crying out in sorrow at the suffering of others, and I share that sorrow. I share your anguish at the deaths in both instances, and at the ecological damage done in them. Both are tragic. They make me, as I’m sure they make you, long for the eschaton, when—and only then—“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4), and “There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:3-5). Until then, because of our sin and God’s righteous curse, we continue to live in a world in which “it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). And we shall not all die peacefully, or even in mental torment, of old age (as did my father-in-law, who went through years of confusion and often terror as Alzheimer’s disease, little by little, robbed him of his mind, and nothing we could do in taking care of him, when he lived with us through his last four years, could spare him from it). Many of us shall die well before that, from illness or injury, accidentally or as victims of wickedness. As one much wiser than I put it, “He who digs a pit may fall into it, and a serpent may bite him who breaks through a wall. He who quarries stones may be hurt by them, and he who splits logs may be endangered by them” (Ecclesiastes 10:8-9). Risk is woven into the warp and woof of our world, post-Fall.
In 2006 (the latest year for which I quickly found data), 27.7 million Americans visited emergency rooms because of accidental injuries. Of those, 121,599 died from those accidental injuries—20,823 from accidental falls, 43,664 from vehicle accidents, 27,531 from accidental poisoning. In the year 2000, 341 Americans died from drowning or submersion while in or falling into their bathtubs. According to Department of Labor statistics,
Total deaths in all types of U.S. mining, which had averaged 1,500 or more during earlier decades, decreased on average during the 1990’s, to under 100 and reached a record low of 55 in 2004. There were 65 mining fatalities in 2007. The average annual injuries to miners have also decreased steadily. Where annual coal mining deaths had numbered more than 1,000 a year in the early part of the 20th century, they decreased to an average of about 451 annual fatalities in the 1950s, and to 141 in the 1970s. The yearly average in coal mining decreased to 30 fatalities from 2001-2005. Less dramatic yet still impressive have been the safety gains in metal and nonmetal mining. There was an average of 233 deaths yearly in the 1930s, compared to 32 fatalities from 2001-2005.
That is, fewer now die in all mining accidents each year, on average, than in accidents in bathtubs. Shall we campaign to ban bathtubs? But, personal hygiene being important to health, perhaps the number of premature deaths from disease prevented by our use of bathtubs outweighs the number of premature deaths caused—or, to put it more technically, perhaps bathing adds more human life years than tub accidents take away. Likewise, abundant and affordable energy being necessary to produce, process, transport, market, and cook food and provide clothing, shelter, transportation, etc., may we not ask whether coal (or oil or natural gas) production adds more human life years than it takes away? How many human life years have been saved by the affordable electricity generated from the coal those and thousands of other miners extract? The miners risk their health and lives to extract that coal—as policemen risk their health and life patrolling our streets and apprehending criminals. Perhaps we should ban police work, which in 1976-1998 led to an average of 78 officers’ deaths per year. But, police work being effective at reducing death rates from crime, perhaps police work saves more human life years than it takes away.
I grieve with you at those miners’ and oil rig workers’ deaths. I grieve at all death. Jesus grieved at Lazarus’s death. Until we’ve figured out a way to eliminate every risk, however, we shall always live in a world of risks, and we must do our best to manage them. Surely we should celebrate, though, the remarkable achievements we’ve made in reducing them over the last two centuries or so, during which average life expectancy at birth worldwide has risen from around 27 or 28 years to over 65 years, even in less-developed countries, and in highly developed countries, to nearly 80 years.
“He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming quickly.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).
