The Creation account in Gen­esis 1 ends on the sixth day with God creating humans: “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the Earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth” (vs. 27-28).

In this passage, the original Hebrew words for “subdue” and “dominion” mean to rule over and subjugate. Many take this to mean that God wants people to force the natural environment to their will. Humans have conquered nations and peoples, denuded landscapes, polluted waters and made the land toxic to power the evolution of human civilization.

Genesis 2 provides a deeper examination of God creating man. God planted a garden and then put Adam in it to dress and keep it (vs. 8, 15). The Hebrew words translated “dress” and “keep” respectively can mean to work in and protect.

These two passages seem to have competing directives. On the one hand, God tasked us with multiplying and exercising dominion over the natural world. On the other, He also said we should care for and protect Creation.

How has mankind done?

We can find the answer by looking at how civilizations have produced energy throughout the centuries. Cut off from true wisdom, knowledge and understanding, humanity has struggled to understand the natural world and use its resources sustainably. Time and again, attempts to solve problems have led to unintended consequences, often causing even greater harm to the environment.

Today, the debate centers around conventional energy sources, such as coal and oil, versus green energy, such as windmills and solar panels. Can we learn from the mistakes of history to finally keep Creation, while also exercising dominion over it?

Natural Power

Power comes from converting fuel into energy that can be used to do work. The easiest way is to burn fuel. From Adam and Eve to the 17th century AD, we primarily used naturally occurring power to build our world. Yet, even working in and with nature, we created more problems than we solved.

Fire was mankind’s first power source, seen indirectly through Abel’s offering in Genesis 4:4. Later in the same chapter, Tubalcain became “an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron” (vs. 22). Metalwork requires a forge to heat and shape the metal.

Fire powered the explosion of population throughout the known world before Noah’s Flood and again after it. Controlling the power of fire gave humanity the means to create the civilization we live in today. As mankind’s civilization has evolved and expanded, the search for effective energy use has grown from burning fallen sticks to industrial electricity generation.

Imagine a world without fire. How would our ancestors have eaten without it? Without fire, the bronze, iron and steel that led to the modern world could not have been smelted out of the rocks to become the skeletons of giant buildings, the reinforcement of our roads, the cars, trains, boats and planes we use to move people and goods from one part of the world to another. Steam engines required fire to produce the steam that drove them. The internal combustion engine uses fire to drive the pistons in the engines that move most to work daily.

Fire is fundamental to our lives. It is also straightforward: Fire burns until the fuel runs out.

The most common fuel for fire is wood or dried vegetation, but it can also come from “burning rocks” of coal that the Chinese were mining as early as 1000 BC. Both sources produce smoke and require the removal of natural resources that are not easily replaced. Trees take a long time to grow, and once coal is removed from the ground, it never returns.

The usefulness of fire comes with an inherent danger: most of what we live in and around also burns. Since fire burns until the fuel runs out, mankind needed to harness other power sources. We domesticated animals, developed watermills and windmills and put sails on boats to do our work for us.

Domesticated animals are dirty and can require as much or more food, water, shelter and waste facilities as people. Proverbs 14:4 notes the productivity of oxen is worth the mess they cause. Animal power enabled more work, a concept we still honor with the term horsepower.

However, animals come with significant problems. Animals must rest and be sheltered. They also have size and strength limits. Adding more animals to a task faces diminishing returns, which limits their usefulness on an industrial scale.

Animals must also be fed enough to do the required work. The more animals used, the more food they require. The more food they eat, the more waste they create. Too great a density of animals can pollute water supplies and make a foul stench, not to mention disposing of carcasses.

As cities grew, their architecture changed to address the number of animals in the street. The famous brownstones of New York City, with their distinctive stoops, were designed to raise the living area above the overflow of human and animal waste. Balancing animal power with human settlements never really worked. Most cities were cesspools until the automobile finally replaced horses on city streets.

Wind power is another powerful natural energy source that comes with limitations. Ships that relied on wind were often left vulnerable in storms and in calm conditions like the doldrums, where shipments were delayed indefinitely and supplies dwindled.

Windmills also harness regular breezes to drive machinery, with their use documented as far back as AD 500 in Persia, with cruder methods used earlier. This technology tended to be built where the wind blew often. But often is not always, and without a steady wind to drive them, the power they could generate was limited.

Waterwheels had a relatively stable power supply from the river flowing strongly enough to turn the wheel, and they were in use far back into antiquity. In many places, artificial dams provided consistency for waterwheels but impacted fish movement upstream and downstream.

Natural power originally comes from the largest fire in our solar system—the sun. Our star provides the light plants need to grow and feed the animals we use. The sun also powers the movement of winds and the hydrological cycle that keeps the rivers flowing. It grew the wood that was burned or became coal.

On-Demand Power

Thomas Newcomen and his assistant John Cally invented the first usable steam engine in 1712. Later advances would create steam engines that were safe, stable, portable and on-demand. The unpredictability of natural power was replaced with engines that an operator could control by changing the heat of the fire under a boiler that generated steam to drive the machine.

By the late 1700s, mobile steam engines began providing mechanical power to move people and goods across oceans, up and down rivers and across entire continents faster and safer than natural means. Steam-powered equipment allowed farms and factories to industrialize, creating more output per hour worked and allowing people to move to the cities. Steam generation in town even heated homes and offices, meaning more opportunities for people leaving the farms to live and work in cities.

Steam engines allowed people to go places and do seemingly impossible things. Perhaps the most outstanding examples of mankind subduing the Earth during the steam age are the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal.

The Suez Canal, built partly with steam-powered shovels, allowed steamships to travel faster and cut significant distances from major trade routes.

Construction on the Panama Canal ran from 1903 to 1914. Bucyrus steam shovels ran 24 hours a day, filling trains with soil every one and a half minutes. Steam locomotives pulled these trains to empty their cargo and brought in fresh men, supplies, equipment and everything else needed to build the canal.

These canals still serve the world. They handled over 34,000 vessel crossings in 2023. This accounted for about 18 percent of all the world’s maritime shipping.

But the human and environmental toll of building these canals is staggering. Including the failed French attempt, around 30,000 people died building the Panama Canal, about 40 percent of the workforce! An estimated 120,000 workers died building the Suez Canal.

Steam power needs a fuel source to boil water. Coal burns hotter and more efficiently than wood, so it has become the preferred fuel for most large steam engines. People used it to heat their homes as well.

The result? Cities became covered in coal dust and soot. The sulfur in the coal released in the smoke began to acidify the rain that fell in and around cities. Urban air quality became horrible.

Smog became endemic to cities. Industrial and residential coal use would even lead to the Great Smog of London, which killed between 4,000 and 12,000 people in just five days.

Thick, polluted air has another side effect. Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork.” When people can no longer see the stars and the immensity of God’s Creation, they begin to lose their sense of awe. A 2021 article from Big Think titled “The Awesome Power of Awe: How This Neglected Emotion Can Change Lives” discussed studies that showed how awe improves health and makes people feel more connected. Not protecting the environment hides God from people and contributes to poorer health and less connection.

Subduing the Earth includes both the surface resources and the mineral wealth. In the Old Testament, God described the land that He gave the Israelites this way: “A land wherein you shall eat bread without scarceness, you shall not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you may dig brass” (Deut. 8:9).

This verse shows that God supports the responsible use of the Earth’s resources, including mining. However, when greed drives these activities, the results are devastating. Landscapes are scarred, ecosystems disrupted and miners suffer dangerous conditions.

Even today, coal produces over a third of the world’s power, more than any other single source, according to Our World in Data. While the environmental impacts of coal use have reduced considerably over the last 150 years, they cannot be fully eliminated. So-called clean coal generators lessen the harmful effects of coal but cannot remove them entirely.

Coal mining impacts the lives of millions. About 16 percent of miners alive today suffer from black lung disease caused by breathing coal dust. Mining is loud and destroys natural habitats. Some mining techniques cause significant changes to the topography of a landscape through subsidence and erosion. Water in coal mines can contaminate ground and surface water.

Coal can even burn underground for decades. A coal mine fire in Centralia, Pennsylvania, started in 1962 and still burns over 60 years later. A coal basin in France burned for about three centuries, while a coal seam fire in Dudweiler, Germany, ignited around 1668 and is still burning. Mount Wingen in New South Wales, Australia, has an active coal seam fire that scientists estimate has smoldered for 5,500 years.

Steam power and the coal that powered it changed the world, but not always for the better. Thousands have died due to steam power, and environments have been destroyed. Work continues to clean up and repair the damage done by coal mining and its use.

Remote Power

Despite its problems, coal-generated steam remained the most common energy source for industry and individuals until the late 18th century with the advent of electricity. What began as a curiosity quickly became widespread during the Industrial Revolution.

Unlike steam power, which had to be used where it was generated, electricity generated in one place could travel hundreds of miles to be used. In addition, batteries allow electricity to be stored for use days, weeks or months after production.

These two properties allowed mankind to extend its dominance over the natural world.

Electricity allowed for the most outstanding achievements of the 19th, 20th, and (so far) 21st centuries. Steam locomotives were replaced by diesel-electric hybrids. Cities began expanding their electrical grids to rural areas, connecting and tying people together.

Communications speed increased through the telegraph wire, then the telephone and now modern data transfer systems like fiberoptics, all powered by electricity.

Electricity powered the modernization of the world, from household appliances to refrigeration and air-conditioning. Large swathes of the world would be unlivable without electricity to power the cooling systems needed to keep food and medicine from going bad and people from dying.

Electromagnetism is one of the four fundamental forces of the universe. Harnessing electricity is arguably the most important scientific and engineering feat in mankind’s history.

As with the other forms of power, electricity comes with a cost.

The primary source of electrical generation comes from steam passing through turbines, a set of blades mounted on a rotor shaft connected to a generator. Coal, oil, natural gas and biomass generators burn fuel to boil water into steam. Geothermal plants use either natural steam or pump water into the ground to let the Earth convert it to steam. The radioactive decay of nuclear fuel produces the needed heat to create steam. Natural gas generators may also use the gasses released from combustion to directly spin the turbines.

Coal, as mentioned earlier, has significant drawbacks, as does natural gas. Hydropower typically involves changing the environment to build massive lakes that can drive the generators. Nuclear power extracts radioactive materials from underground and creates impossible to dispose of radioactive waste.

The continued environmental degradation and risk from these sources ultimately fall short of “keeping” the planet God gave us.

In response, many see green energy technologies as the only path forward.

Solar power uses photovoltaic cells, which release electrons when they absorb light. These cells get chained together to produce the needed electrical current. Windmills use the movement of air to turn a turbine. Hydropower uses water moving downhill.

Solar, wind and hydropower all aim to use the same natural power sources that mankind used before the Industrial Revolution. In theory, these ought to be able to reverse the harmful effects of previous power generation.

But even these have significant harmful effects. Windmill blades are usually made of fiberglass, which cannot be recycled and end up in landfills. Most other green techs use rare earth elements that cannot yet be recycled. The mines for these are predominantly in China, which has very lax environmental controls.

Bautou, in Inner Mongolia, houses the Baoganag Steel and Rare Earth complex, an industrial facility the size of a city. Next to the compound lies a lake full of black, toxic sludge. A BBC article from 2015 called it “hell on Earth.” China produces around two-thirds of the world’s supply of rare earth elements, many of which go into wind turbines, solar panels and batteries for everything from smartphones to electric cars.

Power generators also have an impact on local environments. Combustion-based generation expels smoke and noxious fumes. Solar farms require large areas of land to collect the sunlight that no longer hits the ground where plants can use it. Large-scale hydropower requires damming rivers and creating lakes that destroy habitats and even entire towns and interrupt migratory fish’s movement. Windmills require significant and near-constant wind movement, which birds also rely on. The spinning blades can wreak havoc on bird populations as they use the same air currents.

Modern green technologies make people feel like our power generation does not destroy the Earth. Instead, we are often just moving the worst destruction away from the view of rich people and wealthy nations.

In this world, every method to generate electricity negatively impacts the Earth. No matter what we have tried, we have only made this worse. We have failed to properly exploit and protect the planet God gave us.

Future Energy

But there is hope. The Bible reveals a future where mankind’s efforts to manage the Earth will no longer fall short. In this coming age, the perfect balance between dominion and stewardship will be achieved under the guidance of a world-ruling government led by Jesus Christ. This is the Kingdom of God, the time when all things will be restored to their proper order.

Isaiah describes this world-ruling government: “And it shall come to pass…that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it” (2:2). Here, the “mountains” represent large nations and the “hills” smaller ones—showing a world united under righteous leadership.

When this Kingdom comes, all people will learn the correct way to live, “for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (vs. 3).

God’s Law will show humanity how to harness Earth’s resources without destruction, and this will include rules for clean and sustainable energy. Unlike today, where every form of power generation carries harmful effects, this future will bring solutions we can only imagine now.

Twice in Isaiah, God declares that no one “shall hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain” (11:9; 65:25). This promise extends even to the generation of power—it will neither harm people nor the planet.

So what might this future look like? While the Bible does not specify the methods of energy production, it does tell us that mankind will once again be connected with God, the Creator of all things. Through that connection, new knowledge and understanding will be revealed. Will there be revolutionary breakthroughs, ways of harnessing the natural world we have yet to dream of? Will ancient, untapped forces of nature be used in ways we have never considered? It is possible that energy will come from sources beyond what we know today.

God’s Word points to an exciting future where awesome innovation and progress occur under His guidance.

At that time, energy will be abundant, clean and in perfect harmony with the environment and humanity. Only in God’s Kingdom will power generation truly be green—ushering in a new age where energy and life flourish together in a way we can now only imagine.