ABSTRACT
Since time immemorial, natural events were interpreted as punishments by the gods or portents of disasters such as wars. In the Bible, human beings, having free will, reward and punishment, are guilty of practically all ecological disasters, including earthquake, fire, storm, hail, flood, drought, and plague. Immorality threatens apocalypse—‘They who sow the wind reap the whirlwind’. In the story of Noah, the Flood is a moral judgment on human wickedness. Greek and Roman literature agree that human beings bring disaster upon themselves. Modern literature, similarly, condemns human damage to the environment and warns of extinction. The writing of poets such as Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Clare, Keats and Hopkins, and many others, as well as naturalists such as Gilbert White and Thomas Bewick, is a moral judgment of humanity for threatening or destroying the natural world.
