Lord Avebury (right) with Bemma Donkoh, representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Lord Avebury has posted his speech at the Blomfield Award reception on 17 October on his blog.

Let me say without qualification that there’s no honour I would sooner have received that the Blomfield award, established in memory of Sara Louisa Ryan, Lady Blomfield, one of the most remarkable women born in the second half of the 19th century.

Do read the speech. It will give you a deeper understanding of a very special man.

Technorati Tags: Lord Avebury, Lady Blomfield, human rights

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Does it matter whether we agree that global climate change is happening or not? Does it matter whether or not we take action to ameliorate the effects of global climate change, even if it isn’t happening? These are the questions that this video sets out to answer.

It seems to me to make a compelling case for action to prevent or ameliorate the effects of climate change, even if no climate change is taking place. If climate change is happening, the cost of doing nothing is global catastrophe. If, on the other hand, climate isn’t happening, the costs of needless action may be a severe economic depression, but that would actually be less of a cost than global catastrophe.

We should act in a precautionary manner in our own best interests.

The argument that the video puts forward makes it completely unnecessary to decide whether climate change, if it is happening, is caused by human behaviour or by cosmic factors, such as changes in the sun’s output.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDsIFspVzfI]

Whatever we think about the video, whatever we think about climate change - Is it happening or not? If it is, what are the causes and what can/should we do about it? - it seems clear to me that each of us has a responsibility to act as stewards of our planet and all its species. The sacred writings of the Baha’i Faith elevate this question of stewardship to a moral and spiritual level, thus taking it beyond mere self-interest:

Every man of discernment, while walking upon the earth, feeleth indeed abashed, inasmuch as he is fully aware that the thing which is the source of his prosperity, his wealth, his might, his exaltation, his advancement and power is, as ordained by God, the very earth which is trodden beneath the feet of all men. [Bahá’u'lláh, Bahá’í writings]

Technorati Tags: climate change, global warming, stewardship, Baha’i, Bahai