Use Earth’s resources wisely

EARTH Day on April 22 is a reminder of the urgent need for action to protect Mother Earth and for more appropriate and wise use of our natural resources.

We, as custodians of the Earth, have the obligation to ensure that its resources are protected, as part of a divine trust for which humanity is ultimately answerable. We also need to remember that future prosperity and the peaceful coexistence of peoples will greatly depend on access to, and conservation of, natural resources.

Protecting the Earth and its resources should be viewed not only in technical and economic terms, but also as an ethical and moral issue.

In the Bahá’í view, a fundamental component in the wise use of Earth’s resources, will be the cultivation of values, attitudes, and skills that give rise to just and sustainable patterns of human interaction with the environment.

Furthermore, it is the Bahá’í view 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”, and that, “as long as one group of nations perceives its interests in opposition to another, progress will be limited and short-lived”.

There is need for a world federal system to enable humanity to arrange its economic, material, and social life with justice for everyone, and with reverence towards the Earth.

The Bahá’í Faith foresees that one fruit of the unification of humanity will be the emergence of a federated, integrated system of global governance that will be able to co-ordinate the just distribution of the planet’s resources and enact laws that ensure universal well-being.

We will always need 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.

There is need to observe justice in the use of natural resources, which implies moving from the self-interest motivation that dominates our world today, to a mode of sharing and caring.

Furthermore, resources must be directed away from activities and programmes that are damaging to the natural environment and efforts made towards the creation of systems that foster mutualism and co-operation.

There will be need for global co-operation to eliminate human suffering and to ensure that everyone meets their basic human needs.

The extremes of wealth and poverty, with its clearly adverse impact on the world’s natural resources, must be eliminated. According to the Baháí International Community, “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.”

In one of its statements, the Baháí International Community observes: “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.”