Is Earth Worth Dying For? A Reflection on the Earth Martyrs

I’m worried when I read about Luiz Alberto Araújo, a government official in Brazil’s environmental office who was murdered this past October.  He had exposed a deforestation operation that used slave laborers; reported the operators of a hydroelectric dam responsible for the death of 16.2 tons of fish. Not to mention his efforts to help shut down a gold mine that was leaking “mercury and other pollutants into the river Curuá, poisoning the food chain of the Kayapó indigenous tribe,” (Matt Sandy, “Murder of Brazil official marks new low in war on Amazon environmentalists,” The Guardian, October 24, 2016).  Araújo was doing a hero’s work. And those efforts of exposing corruption and fighting rapacious environmental negligence resulted in his murder.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/ecopreacher/2017/04/is-earth-worth-dying-for-earth-martyrs/