Online Reporter
Flora Teckie-Bahá’í Perspective
The World Environment Day observed on June 5 and the upcoming World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought on June 17 are reminders that caring for the earth is essential for our shared future.
Addressing challenges, such as climate change, deforestation, soil erosion, water shortages, and plastic pollution requires ethical action in addition to technical considerations.
As custodians of the earth, humanity bears a responsibility to make sure that its natural resources are preserved and protected as part of a divine trust for which we are ultimately accountable.
Bahá’u’lláh, the founder of the Bahá’í Faith, more than 100 years ago, wrote: “Nature in its essence is the embodiment of (God’s) Name, the Maker, the Creator… Nature is God’s Will and is its expression in and through the contingent world”.
Climate change, driven in large part by human activity that alters the balance of the earth’s atmosphere, is one of the most serious challenges of our time. Its effects are increasingly evident through more frequent and severe weather patterns, in droughts, floods, and heatwaves. Rising sea levels continue to threaten millions of people worldwide, placing communities, and livelihood at growing risk.
In a statement titled “One Planet, One Habitation”, the Bahá’í International Community says: “The natural world, in all its wonder and majesty, offers profound insight into the essence of interdependence. From the biosphere as a whole to the smallest micro-organism, it demonstrates how dependent any one life-form is on numerous others—and how imbalances in one system reverberate across an interconnected whole”.
While debate may continue regarding the causes and solutions to climate change, it is evident that protecting our environment should be viewed not only in technical and economic terms, but also as a moral and ethical challenge facing humanity.
Justice must be at the heart of how humanity uses the earth’s resources. Observing justice calls for moving from the narrow pursuit of self-interest, towards a culture of sharing, stewardship, and collective responsibility for our natural resources.
Material resources will always be essential for sustaining and advancing civilisation. Yet as we continue to use the earth’s raw materials to improve human well-being, we must remain mindful of our relationship with the natural world — the source of our sustenance and wealth. There should be a commitment to preserve order and balance in nature, ensuring that it benefits both present and future generations.
In one of its statements, the Bahá’í International Community makes the following observation: “The rapid progress in science and technology that has united the world physically has also greatly accelerated destruction of the biological diversity and rich natural heritage with which the planet has been endowed.
“Material civilisation, driven by the dogmas of consumerism and aggressive individualism and disoriented by the weakening of moral standards and spiritual values, has been carried to excess. Only a comprehensive vision of a global society, supported by universal values and principles, can inspire individuals to take responsibility for the long-term care and protection of the natural environment”.
Unity, essential for addressing environmental challenges
Unity is the key to addressing all our global environmental challenges. The need for individuals, communities, and governments to come together to address our common concerns cannot be over-emphasised.
Genuine solutions to environmental challenges, in the Bahá’í view, require a globally accepted vision for the future, based on unity and willing cooperation among the nations, races, creeds, and classes of our human family.
The Bahá’í International Community states that “for progress on the international stage to be sustainable, it must take place within a framework that promotes the attainment of progressively higher degrees of unity of vision and action among its participants.
“Each forward step—far from representing a momentary triumph of a single person or faction in an environment of competition—becomes part of a collective process of learning by which international institutions, states and civil society advance together in understanding”.
One of humanity’s greatest challenges is finding ways to release the enormous financial, technical, human, and moral resources needed to achieve sustainable development. Too often, these precious resources are tied up for wars and wasteful projects.
In the Bahá’í view, “These resources will be freed up only as the peoples of the world develop a profound sense of responsibility for the fate of the planet and for the well-being of the entire human family” and, “This sense of responsibility can only emerge from the acceptance of the oneness of humanity and will only be sustained by a unifying vision of a peaceful, prosperous world society”.
The acceptance of the oneness of the human family implies that social and economic justice be observed both within and between nations. It implies racial, ethnic, national and religious harmony, and the willingness to sacrifice for the common good.
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