The Green Bible

A couple of months ago, Harper Collins published what it calls The Green Bible, an edition of the New Revised Standard Version in which more than a thousand passages that deal with the earth — like these — are printed in green.

“But ask the animals, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you; ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being.”
Job 12:7-10

“You shall not pollute the land in which you live…you shall not defile the land in which you live, in which I also dwell; for I the Lord dwell among the Israelites.”
Numbers 35:33-34

It’s a nice idea, the book looks attractively produced, and Harper Collins has lined up some impressive support from the likes of Bishop Tutu and the Sierra Club.

On the other hand, Harper doesn’t say much about the paper it’s printed on — a very serious matter to a lot of environmentalists. The paper is recycled, they say, but according to a press kit that means “10% recycled.” There’s no apparent reference to postconsumer content, and I don’t see anything about certification by the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council), which is the gold standard. In the video on the website, a Harper executive talks about the binding and paper being “recyclable,” which is an extremely low standard.

This was also not the first “green” Bible. Thomas Nelson published one last year, and that one was FSC-certified.