The pagan "never worries about [the world's] fate because he believes in its eternity."

"The [ancient] pagan regards the world as sacred because it is penetrated by divine presence; he therefore respects it to the point of worshipping it and does no damage to it.  But he never worries about its fate because he believes in its eternity.  He is also unaware of any need for transformation of nature or transcendence of its limitations; the world is good as it stands and possesses in its nature all that is necessary for its survival.
". . . The Christian regards the world as sacred because it stands in dialectical relationship with God; thus he respects it (without worshipping it, since it has no divine presence in its nature), but he regards the human being as the only possible link between God and creation, a link that can either bring nature in communion with God and thus sanctify it; or condemn it to the state of a 'thing', the meaning and purpose of which are exhausted with the satisfaction of man.
     "Paganism sees man as part of the world; the Christian way sees him as the crucial link between the world and God, as the only person in creation that can lead it to survival.  It is the second one that attaches to man responsibility for the fate of creation.  Unless we decide to return to paganism, this second way would appear to be the only way to respect again the sacrality of nature and grapple with the ecological crisis."

     John Zizioulas, "Priest of creation," chap. 24 in Environmental stewardship:  critical perspectives — past and present, ed. R. J. Berry (London:  T & T Clark, 2006):  289-290 (273-290).  The whole essay builds to this summation.  From p. 281:

A Christian who wishes to have both his or her doctrine of creatio ex nihilo and a faith that the world possesses in its nature some kind of means for eternal survival is bound to be logically inconsistent.

On the other "person[s] in creation", i.e. the angels, see p. 277, but especially 286, where only "man, unlike the angels . . . , forms an organic part of the material world, being the highest point in its evolution."