Liberation Theologian Leonardo Boff,  on ecosystem:

That is why I am extending the intuitions of liberation theology and demonstrating their validity and applicability for the questions enveloping the Earth, our bountiful mother.

– Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor (Ecology & Justice) (Kindle Locations 167-168). Orbis Books. Kindle Edition.

This speaks to me in my quest to express ecotheological concerns in the context of an “Occupy Theology”.  I am “extending the intuitions” of Occupy Theology into the apprehension of the ecological crisis we have wrought.  It is ,  as liberation theology is for Boff,  able to see the crisis through the lens of the oppressed,  which also includes the physical ecosystem as victim of the “tamed and subjected” paradigm,  which runs counter to the Biblical message and which has been distorted and re-interpreted by the colonial and now post-colonial mind-set.  To “have dominion” is interpreted as “use as you will and let the ‘have nots’ deal with the consequences” (which will wind up proving false,  since the consequences disproportionately  fall initially upon the poor and the “forgotten places of empire” but will eventually become “unhidable”.)  There are only so many rugs under which to sweep the waste product and their consequences.  The ecosystem has always operated under the expectation that “dominion” is exercised with the care that comes with the knowledge that we are , indeed, systemic.  Our economies and ecology are interdependent.  Our global village now has the reach ,  not only in communications,  but in the technological impact,  to affect EVERYONE and EVERYTHING.

Just as the Occupy movement has recognized the spiraling out of control of global elites which has built up massive inequality (and this has been accelerating at the pace of that technology),  it also sees the consequences that it has been decrying in the economic system also impacting the ecological system.  But as Naomi Klein points out in her marvelous book “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs The Climate”,  the cumulative effects of Climate Change are not as reversible as the economy.  We can change unjust systems through reform and revolution,  but the sustainability of the habitat we share is an ecological system that has already begun to diminish in its system of renewal (ie. Ice melting,reducing sun reflection and increased sea levels).  We’ve already “locked in” certain degradations,  and seem poised to heap more upon that,  if we refuse to heed the warning signs.  Just as we have seen the impact of empires upon the poor and non-rich,  we are also being directed economically toward ever more unsustainable environmental impacts.  The narrative of the world’s empires have resulted in the economic injustices that the Occupy movement has brought to the public awareness,  and that same empire narrative leads to the exploitation of the natural world at levels inconceivable in prior human history.  So Occupy Theology not only sees the need to “Occupy” the various seats of power in the economic world,  but also has begun to see the need to stand between the exploitative processes and the environment that needs protecting.

The Biblical paradigm is one at odds with this “over things” version;  the “being with them” is the Biblical paradigm.  Or like Hagar discovered,  God is “the one who sees”;  Sees the outcast and sees ALL as within the relational balance which is the ecosystem;  the ecosystem is God’s incarnate theology.