Online Reporter
Flora Teckie
WE marked World Environment Day on June 5 and will soon observe the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought on June 17.
These commemorations serve as reminders of the urgent need for lasting solutions to protect and preserve our natural resources.
Our natural world is currently under threat from human-induced dangers such as desertification and drought, deforestation, soil erosion, climate change, and plastic pollution. Global climate change — directly or indirectly linked to human activity that alters the composition of the atmosphere — has become one of the greatest challenges of our time.
It is essential that the search for solutions to these serious environmental issues extends beyond technical proposals. Solutions must address the root causes and seek enduring remedies.
As custodians of the Earth, we bear the responsibility to protect the natural world as part of a divine trust for which humanity is accountable.
More than a century ago, Bahá’u’lláh, the founder of the Bahá’í Faith, 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.”
Understanding nature as an expression of divine will inspires in us a profound respect for the natural world.
Need to preserve order and balance in nature
We will always require material resources to sustain civilisation. As we learn to utilise the Earth’s raw materials for the advancement of society, we must remain mindful of our attitudes towards the source of our sustenance and wealth.
It is vital to ensure that order and balance are maintained in nature. The relentless pursuit of material goods, driven by greed, exacerbates environmental destruction.
Moreover, resources must be redirected away from activities and programmes that harm both the social and natural environment. Instead, efforts should focus on creating systems that promote co-operation and mutual benefit.
Justice must be observed in the use of the Earth’s resources. This means shifting from the self-interest that dominates today’s world to a model of sharing and caring for these resources.
The following excerpt from a statement by the Bahá’í International Community outlines some ethical requirements for a sustainable social order, responsible consumption and production, and the role of justice and unity in enabling humanity to organise its material, economic, and social life with fairness and reverence for the Earth: “Progress at the technical and policy levels now needs to be accompanied by public dialogue — among rural and urban dwellers; among the materially poor and the affluent; among men, women and young persons alike — on the ethical foundations of the necessary systemic change.
A sustainable social order is distinguished, among other things, by an ethic of reciprocity and balance at all levels of human organisation. A relevant analogy is the human body: here, millions of cells collaborate to make human life possible.
The astounding diversity of form and function connects them in a lifelong process of giving and receiving.
It represents the highest expression of unity in diversity. Within such an order, the concept of justice is embodied in the recognition that the interests of the individual and of the wider community are inextricably linked.
The pursuit of justice within the frame of unity (in diversity) provides a guide for collective deliberation and decision-making and offers a means by which unified thought and action can be achieved.”
For humanity to work with a united vision to address today’s environmental challenges, the belief in the oneness of the human family must become a guiding principle.
Need to eradicate the extremes of wealth and poverty
The relationships that bind people to one another have a direct impact on the planet’s physical resources. For instance, there is a strong link between inequality and environmental degradation.
The systems and practices that have left large segments of society in poverty have also impoverished the natural environment. The destructive effects of climate change are intensified by the extremes of wealth and poverty.
“A more balanced attitude toward the environment must therefore address human conditions as consciously as it does natural ones. It must be embodied in social norms and patterns of action characterised by justice and equity. On this foundation can be built an evolving vision of our common future together,” states the Bahá’í International Community in its statement to the Paris Conference, titled “Shared Vision, Shared Volition: Choosing Our Global Future Together”.
Therefore, lasting solutions to protect our natural world must be rooted in a vision for the future — one based on justice, equity, unity, and the willing co-operation of all nations. Crucially, it must also involve the eradication of the extremes of wealth and poverty.
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Website: www.bahai.org
