PROFILE May 14, 1990 Issue

Restoring hope for the environment

with contributions from Glen Lauder

When developers and environmentalists draw battle lines, one of the first casualties may be hope. Answers about how land should be used —or should have been used—seem to diminish as disagreements heat up. Yet New Zealand conservation scientist Glen Lauder finds that prayer can help hope spring up again and can lead to new views of solutions to environmental problems as well as to greater agreement between those on both sides of the debate. Dr. Lauder is a conservancy advisory scientist for the Department of Conservation in Invercargill, New Zealand. Portions of this interview were also broadcast on shortwave by The Herald of Christian Science.

Glen, as a Christian Scientist and as a conservation officer, you must be looking for solutions in unique ways. What's at issue and what's your approach?

Well, at issue as a Christian Scientist is our need to grasp the spiritual nature and order of God's creation. It is understanding and seeing better the good that reflects God. As a conservation officer, my activity is as diverse as I could ever have imagined. I came into conservation from a scientific background in the natural sciences, and as I'm working in it, more and more I see that there is something which I really enjoy about conservation.

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