I was struck by how the 'care of the earth' that we read about in early Genesis is like becoming directors of a company: we are given delegated authority by God, but we need to know the Values and Objectives of the organisation (the whole of creation!) as set out by the Owner (God) in order to exercise that authority correctly.
Following on from this, much of today's "environmental agenda" is no more or less than caring for the whole of creation so that the earth can be frutful and beneficial for all of God's creatures including humankind.
I've never thought of caring for the earth in the structured way you have described here Martin.
I found it insightful and helpful.
I've been thinking about this a lot. I'm struck by the thought that we are all part of God's creation, and that no part is less or more important. Each fish, tree, mountain, ice floe, is exactly where it is meant to be, serving the puropose God has given it, and we are called to serve and protect. We have not been doing a very good job as caretakers, but whilst none of us solve this problem on our own, we all have our part to play in being part of the solution.
In Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 - 28 God gave man dominion over the earth and everything on it. That good stewardship of his creation didn't last long, since Adams fall, it has been a downward spiral of mans abuse of what God created, resulting in what we are living through today, the planet God gave us lies in ruins.
As Gods people, we must recognise this and do everything in our power to reverse this decline and try and return the earth to how God intended it. How we achieve this may be too big a problem for our little forum to sort out, but we must all be prepared to do our bit to help.
Recognizing our role as stewards of Gods creation is key - not just taking the pure joy we all get from living in our world (or even worse exploiting it for material gain), but protecting & nurturing it - ensuring, especially now, that we leave it in a better shape than we found it for the next generations