On the 13th May the world woke up to discover that Victor Vescovo, a retired naval officer, had broken the world record for the deepest dive ever made by a human being inside a submarine by descending nearly 6.8 miles (35,853 feet/10,928 meters) in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench. Naturally Vescovo was very excited and pleased with his achievement, “This submarine and it’s mother ship, along with the extraordinarily talented expedition team, took marine technology to a ridiculously higher new level by diving – rapidly and repeatedly – into the deepest, harshest, area of the ocean.” he says. The extreme pressure at such a depth would be the equivalent of 50 Jumbo Jets standing on top of one another said the BBC. Along with the new technological achievement, Victor Vescovo and his team were delighted to discover previously undiscovered sea life at the bottom of the ocean ranging from shrimp-like anthropods with long legs and antennae to translucent “sea pigs” similar to sea cucumbers. However, one disappointing feature alongside the discovery of new sea creatures was the discovering of plastic and other human contamination at the bottom of the ocean. Finding plastic at such depths highlighted and confirmed the fears of scientists across the world that plastic waste had reached epidemic proportions in the world’s oceans with the United Nations estimating that 100 millions tonnes had been dumped there to date. The consequences and repercussions of such a desperate discovery have heightened calls for greater and more urgent action by the world’s authorities to conserve the environment.
This is a call which will resonate with many people around the world and especially Christians who will recall the fact that theologically speaking when God placed Adam in the ‘Garden of Eden’ he made him responsible for not only working the land but for the taking care of it. In fact, God trusts us to take care of the environment and doing so for the long term and future generations is not only good stewardship but is the epitome of loving God and one’s neighbour as oneself. Yes, it may be true that even at the bottom of the ocean ‘our sins will find us out’ (Numbers 32.22) but it’s not too late to resolve things. If we have the brains, intellect and technological skills to even get to such incredible depths, surely we have the capacity to find the means by which we can clean our oceans and the environment, and transform the way we use and recycle plastics to our common good. We just need to have the will and determination to do so. A children’s chorus describes God’s love as being as ‘high as the highest mountain and as deep as the deepest sea’, let us all reflect this truth with the deepest love and concern that we can muster for the world in which we live and the people we share it with.
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may …. grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. Ephesians 3.17-18
Stephen Thorp 