Sustainable use of earth’s resources
THE sustainable use of our natural resources is a moral obligation that rests with each one of us. The Earth Day we observed on April 22, and World Environment Day we will be marking on June 5, are global calls for action for protecting the earth's resources – bearing in mind that the future prosperity and the peaceful co-existence of people will greatly depend on access to, and conservation of, natural resources.
“Setting humanity on a more sustainable path to the future” in the Bahá'í view “involves transformation in attitudes and actions”. It will depend on our unity as humanity. A globally accepted vision for the future, based on unity and co-operation among the nations, races, creeds, and classes is necessary, because as long as one group of nations perceives its interests in opposition to another, progress will be limited and short-lived.
The current trends that focus mainly on the material aspects of environmental challenges, while ignoring its moral and ethical dimensions, are counter-productive to humanity's long-term well-being. Instead of exploiting the earth's resources without due regard to sustainability, we should be asking how to live with an ethic of respect, care and justice towards all life and nature.
“In order to progress beyond a world community driven by a largely economic and utilitarian calculus, to one of shared responsibility for the prosperity of all nations”, says the Bahá'í International Community, the principle of oneness of humanity “must take root in the conscience of the individual”, and that “as consciousness of the oneness of humankind increases, so too does the recognition that the wealth and wonders of the earth are the common heritage of all people, who deserve just and equitable access to its resources”.
The cultivation of values, attitudes and skills, that give rise to a just and sustainable patterns of interaction with the earth's resources, is a major component of resolving environmental challenges. Furthermore, there is need to observe the principles of economic justice, equality between the races, equal rights and opportunities for men and women, and provision of a balanced, universal education.
The relationships that link people to one another have a direct impact on the earth's resources. There is a close relation, for example, between inequality and environmental degradation. The current systems and practices that have resulted in large segments of society facing poverty, have similarly impoverished the natural environment. According to the Bahá'í 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.”
It is 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. As trustees of the earth's vast resources and biological diversity, we have to protect the “heritage of future generations”, approach the earth – the source of material bounties – with humility and moderation, and be guided by the fundamental spiritual truth of our age: the oneness of humanity.