Who Will Clean Up Our Earth?

“I PREDICT that by the year 2025 the word ‘pollution’ will have largely disappeared from our nation’s vocabulary as far as our industry is concerned.” That was the recent prediction made by a chemical corporation president. Do you believe that it will happen? If so, how will it be accomplished?

It is the desire for profits that often pushes unsafe products onto store shelves. For example, trade secrecy laws allow pesticide companies to keep certain profitable formulas secret by labeling their ingredients as “inert,” a term easily interpreted as “harmless.” Yet, “at least 394 inert ingredients have been used as active pesticides,” reports the magazine Chemical Week. Of these ingredients, 209 are hazardous pollutants, 21 are officially classified as carcinogens, and 127 are occupational hazards!

True, safety controls by governments have often been beneficial. But the prime concerns of governments, says one writer, are “economic growth and industrial profitability.” Thus, they are constantly faced with a trade-off—risks versus benefits. Essentially, the result is ‘regulated pollution.’

So where do we turn for answers? One of Jehovah’s Witnesses posed this question to a friendly householder. Expressing trust in human leaders and scientists, the person replied: “They will fix things up one day.”

“But who are they?” asked the Witness. “Are they not people like you and me? They may be more educated, but they have their limitations, their weaknesses. They make mistakes.” Add to this the enormity of the problems that confront them as well as the greed and corruption in human society.

Do you also believe that they will fix things up? The long history of human failure to do so does not inspire confidence. The magazine Outdoor Life said: “Scientists and their agencies are infinitely better at studying pollution problems than curing them.” What prospects are there that humans can solve this serious problem?

Can Humans Do It by Themselves?

Controlling chemical pollution is not simply a problem for local authorities. This is because chemicals used in one country affect people in neighboring countries, even people earth wide! And humans have been unsuccessful in cooperating to solve such world problems. The Bible indicates why when it states: “Man has dominated man to his injury.” (Ecclesiastes 8:9) Why are humans unsuccessful in governing themselves? Again, the Bible explains: “It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step.” (Jeremiah 10:23) What does that mean?

It means that humans were never meant to rule themselves independent of God’s direction. True, humans have done remarkable things—they have built marvelous residences, made ingenious gadgets, even traveled to the moon—yet they are incapable of governing themselves without divine guidance. That is what the Bible teaches, and history proves the Bible’s accuracy.

A Cleansed Earth—By What Means?

Our Creator, Jehovah God, has always been concerned about humankind and this earth, which he prepared for man. After he created humans, he directed that they care for the earth and life upon it. (Genesis 1:27, 28; 2:15) Later, after the first couple disobeyed his directions, he gave instructions to the nation of ancient Israel about caring for the land, including the requirement that it lie fallow for a full year every seven years. This allowed it to rejuvenate. (Exodus 23:11; Leviticus 25:4-6) But the people got greedy and disobeyed God. They and the land suffered.

Of course, chemical pollution such as we have today was not possible back then. Yet, the land became ruined because the Israelites failed to let it rest according to God’s purpose, and innocent people suffered. So God permitted the Babylonians to conquer Israel and take the nation into exile to Babylon for 70 years. This punishment also allowed the land to rest so that it could recuperate.—Leviticus 26:27, 28, 34, 35, 43; 2 Chronicles 36:20, 21.

This history teaches us that God holds humans accountable for what they do to the earth. (Romans 15:4) In fact, God promises that he will “bring to ruin those ruining the earth.” (Revelation 11:18) Significantly, the Bible paints a portrait of the kind of people who are contributing to this “ruining.” Their predominant traits, as listed in the Bible at 2 Timothy 3:1-5, include a preoccupation with money and self to the point of caring little for God and, by extension, for his creation, including fellow humans.

So these two Bible texts—2 Timothy 3:1-5 and Revelation 11:18—point to two solid conclusions. First, polluted minds lead to a polluted earth. And second, God will intervene to save this planet and God-fearing humans when both forms of pollution become full-blown. How will God intervene?

Through his prophet Daniel, God foretold: “In the days of those kings [evidently referring to governments today] the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that . . . will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite.” (Daniel 2:44) That Kingdom is a real world government. Jesus Christ taught his followers to pray for that government when he said: “You must pray, then, this way: ‘Our Father in the heavens, . . . let your kingdom come. Let your will take place, as in heaven, also upon earth.”—Matthew 6:9, 10.

Under the loving oversight of God’s Kingdom, earth’s tenants will enjoy the exquisite privilege of making the whole planet a paradise. The air will be sweet, streams will run pure, and the soil will burst with uncontaminated life. (Psalm 72:16; Isaiah 35:1-10; Luke 23:43) Thereafter, the Bible promises: “The former things [today’s sicknesses, suffering, pollution, and the many other woes] will not be called to mind, neither will they come up into the heart.”—Isaiah 65:17.

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A cleansed earth—will you live to see it?