The Sunday Mail
FLORA TECKIE
HUMAN beings are custodians of the earth and have the obligation to ensure that nature is protected as part of a divine trust for which humanity is ultimately answerable. Future prosperity and the peaceful co-existence of peoples will greatly depend on access to and conservation of natural resources.
One of the greatest challenges of our time is global climate change. Climate change is now challenging us to rise to the next level of our collective maturity, a maturity which calls us to accept our fundamental unity, the fact that we are all members of one human family, and that we should observe justice when utilising the earth’s resources.
Observing justice implies moving from self-interest that dominates our world today to a mode of sharing and caring for our natural resources. More than 100 years ago Bahá’u’lláh 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”.
Need for a vision for the future based on unity and justice
The search for solutions to climate change has revealed the limits of traditional technological and policy approaches and has raised questions about justice, equity, responsibility and obligation.
It is important that such a search for solutions to the world’s serious environmental problems go beyond technical proposals and address the underlying causes of the crisis.
Genuine solutions, in the Bahá’í view, will require a globally accepted vision for the future, based on unity and willing cooperation among the nations, races, creeds, and classes of the human family.
Wise care of environment will depend on our unity as humanity and justice towards all. It will depend on commitment to a higher moral standard and the development of consultative skills for the effective functioning of society at all levels.
The Bahá’í International Community further states that: “A fundamental component of resolving the climate change challenge will be the cultivation of values, attitudes and skills that give rise to just and sustainable patterns of human interaction with the environment. The engagement of children and youth will be particularly important as this population will be called upon to exercise leadership and address the dramatic and complex challenges of climate change in the decades to come. It is at a young age that new mindsets and habits can be most effectively cultivated”.
In addition, resources must be directed away from those activities and programs that are damaging to both the social and natural environment and instead efforts made towards the creation of systems that foster cooperation and mutualism.
It is important that we preserve order and balance in the nature. The endless acquisition of material goods, resulting from greed, aggravates the destruction of the environment. To have the opportunity for all people to realize their full potential is a basic human right, and all should be concerned with ensuring the same for others.
“The shift to sustainable modes of production and consumption is a further expression of this principle: put simply, to consume more than one’s fair share is to deplete the resources needed by others”.
For feedback please contact:[email protected] or [email protected]
