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A Baha’i Perspective Flora Teckie
We just celebrated World Environment Day on June 5, and June 17 is World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought.  This is a period to stimulate greater action, remembering that the future prosperity and the peaceful co-existence of peoples will greatly depend on conservation and responsible use of natural resources.

Global climate change and other serious environmental crises such as increase in the number of floods, droughts, food and water shortages are amongst the greatest challenges of our time.

For example, we can now see the impact of climate change through increasingly severe weather patterns.  According to a report from UNDP, the consequences of even a 2-degree Celsius increase in global temperature will include: coastal flooding displacing 180-230 million people; water shortages affecting 1,8 billion people; and will put 220-400 million people at risk of contracting malaria.

Wise use of our natural resources, in the Bahá’í view, will require a globally-accepted vision for the future, based on unity, justice and willing cooperation among the nations, races, creeds, and classes of the human family. Furthermore, commitment to a higher moral standard will be essential.

It is becoming more and more 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. Rather than asking how to exploit the earth’s resources without due regard to its environment, we should be asking how to live with an ethic of respect, care and justice towards all life and                                                  nature.

Human beings are the custodians of the earth

We are the custodians of the earth and have the obligation to ensure that nature is respected and protected as part of a divine trust, for which humanity is ultimately answerable.

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.”

A global action for sustainable development, in the Bahá’í view, must be rooted in spiritual values and principles in addition to technical and economic considerations. There is need for justice in 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.

There will always be need for material resources to sustain civilisation. As we learn how best to use the earth’s raw materials for the advancement of civilisation, we must be conscious of our attitudes towards the source of our sustenance and wealth. It is important that we preserve order and balance in nature.

Our world order today, based mainly on materialistic values and standards, has not been able to protect the environment from ruinous damage. There is a need for dynamic coherence between the material, value-based and the spiritual dimensions of sustainable consumption and production. Similarly such coherence needs to be applied in the exploring and implementing of, not only the policy and technical aspects, but the values that influence attitudes and transform behaviours.

Justice in utilising our natural resources

Justice in utilising the earth’s resources means moving from the self-interest that dominates our world today to a mode of sharing and caring for our natural resources. It also implies the need to address the extremes of wealth and poverty, with its clearly adverse impact on the world’s natural resources.

The Bahá’í International Community in one of its statements assert: “Wealth needs to be acquired and expended by nations in a way that enables all the people of the world to prosper. Structures and systems that permit a few to have inordinate riches while the masses remain impoverished must be replaced by arrangements that foster the generation of wealth in a way that promotes justice.”

Furthermore, in the Bahá’í view, there is need for a world federal system to enable mankind to arrange its economic, material and social life with justice for all peoples and reverence towards the earth.

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”.

A global action for environmental conservation, therefore, will require commitment to higher moral standards and a vision for the future, based on unity, justice and willing cooperation among the people of all nations in addition to technical and economic considerations.

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