In a world where climate change has become a fact of life and pollution remains a horrendous global challenge, we have to wonder whether or not the human race can survive its own success as a species—"success" here measured by our ability to proliferate across the face of the Earth (and, quite possibly, beyond the Earth). Sometimes, it feels like we are losing the battle for survival by fouling our planetary nest to the point that it will no longer be able to sustain human life.There are counter trends, however, it seems very possible (likely?) that science, which is the tool we use today to destroy our environment, may also provide us with ways out of our predicament. One example is the article entitled, "Unique Bacteria Fights Man-Made Chemical Mess," written by Ayesha Monga Kravetz of the National Science Foundation. The article describes the development of strains of bacteria that are able to degrade a potent industrial pollutant, polychlorinated biphenyls, more commonly known as PCBs. Although banned for use in the U.S. in 1979, PCBs tend to linger long in the environment, and while there are natural bacteria that do degrade PCBs they do so only very slowly. Researchers have now developed new strains that work much more quickly and effectively on the PCBs, which offers the very real possibility that commercially developed bacteria will eventually be available to clean up PCBs and make our environment just that much less toxic.
Similar research is being conducted to address other forms of pollution, which offers us the hope that "all is not lost." Life on Earth in general—and the human race in particular—can be seen as a grand experiment, testing whether or not "life as we know it" can continue to inhabit this planet. God's gift to us is the possibility of failure (a.k.a. freedom). Let's not make use that gift.
