God’s Hazardous Waste Experts

Job 12:7-8
“But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; and the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; and the fish of the sea will explain to you.”

The environment naturally produces hazardous waste without human help. Ashes from a wood fire can contain enough naturally occurring radioactivity to merit a hazardous waste classification. Uranium and other radioactive elements occur naturally in the environment and can be dissolved in ground water. Chloro fluorocarbons, manufactured for refrigeration, are also spewed from volcanoes. Also called CFCs, these chemicals are thought by some scientists to degrade the Earth’s ozone layer. The fact is, nature produces more hazardous waste than man does.

Since hazardous waste is a natural part of the creation, one might expect a well designed creation to have the ability to process hazardous materials into harmless substances. Science is beginning to discover how the Creator has designed the creation to deal with this problem.

Scientists have learned how several bacteria decontaminate water that carries dissolved uranium. One species of bacterium combines the phosphate in the water with the uranium to make uranium phosphate crystals. These crystals are stored harmlessly in the bacterium. Another species uses enzymes to make uranium ore that then settles harmlessly out of the water. Another species has been discovered that breaks down CFCs.

The creation is indeed well designed. In fact, the Creator’s solutions to hazardous waste will help us learn how to clean up the messes we make.

Prayer:
I thank You, dear Lord, both for the wisdom and the love with which You have designed the creation. Help modern science to learn more about Your solutions to hazardous waste so that we may take better care of the creation You have lent to us for temporary use during our lives. Amen.

Notes:
“Chemistry of uranium eating microbes.” Science News, v. 142, Aug. 15, 1992. p. 107. Image: Ozone Layer: Levels of ozone at various altitudes, and related blocking of several types of ultraviolet radiation. (PD)