Category — Environment

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

Something like 20,000 blogs contributed to Blog Action Day 2007.

You can read the wrap here.

Technorati Tags: Blog Action Day

We cannot segregate the human heart from the environment outside us and say that once one of these is reformed everything will be improved. Man is organic with the world. His inner life moulds the environment and is itself deeply affected by it. The one acts upon the other and every abiding change in the life of man is the result of these mutual reactions. [From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Baha'i Faith from 1921 to 1957, to an individual]

I have heard Trevor Phillips, Chair of the UK’s new Equality and Human Rights Commission say on a number of occasions that there are two questions we need to answer and answer well in the 21st century:

1. How do we live with each other?

2. How do we live with/on our planet?

We cannot answer these questions separately from each other. And we cannot answer them satisfactorily unless we abandon the illusion that focusing on material needs and resources alone will solve our social and environmental challenges. We must examine ourselves and our spiritual reality:

No matter how far the material world advances, it cannot establish the happiness of mankind. Only when material and spiritual civilization are linked and coordinated will happiness be assured. for in material civilization good and evil advance together and maintain the same pace. [From the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá]

The 1995 Copenhagen Declaration, produced by the UN World Summit for Social Development, contained this ringing call:

We heads of State and Government are committed to a political, economic, ethical and spiritual vision for social development that is based on human dignity, human rights, equality, respect, peace, democracy, mutual responsibility and cooperation, and full respect for the various religious and ethical values and cultural backgrounds of people. Accordingly, we will give the highest priority in national, regional and international policies and actions to the promotion of social progress, justice and the betterment of the human condition, based on full participation by all.

Noble language, but the reality has been rather different. Why?

Our framework for solving the world’s problems right now is largely materialistic - and it has failed us. We need another picture, another world view, another story about who we are and how we relate to ourselves, to our fellow humans, and to the planet we all inhabit.

The Baha’i International Community published a seminal statement for the Copenhagen summit. The Prosperity of Humankind. It’s a document that repays study and it offers us a new frame of reference:

The bedrock of a strategy that can engage the world’s population in assuming responsibility for its collective destiny must be the consciousness of the oneness of humankind. Deceptively simple in popular discourse, the concept that humanity constitutes a single people presents fundamental challenges to the way that most of the institutions of contemporary society carry out their functions.

So what’s the new story? Prosperity tells us how, in a letter to Queen Victoria, Baha’u'llah, the Founder of the Baha’i Faith, compares the world to a human body. This is, according to Prosperity…

…the one model holding convincing promise for the organization of a planetary society… Human society is composed not of a mass of merely differentiated cells but of associations of individuals, each one of whom is endowed with intelligence and will; nevertheless, the modes of operation that characterize man’s biological nature illustrate fundamental principles of existence. Chief among these is that of unity in diversity.

The statement continues:

Justice is the one power that can translate the dawning consciousness of humanity’s oneness into a collective will through which the necessary structures of global community life can be confidently erected…

…justice is the practical expression of awareness that, in the achievement of human progress, the interests of the individual and those of society are inextricably linked…

The implications for social and economic development are profound. Concern for justice protects the task of defining progress from the temptation to sacrifice the well-being of the generality of humankind - and even of the planet itself - to the advantages which technological breakthroughs can make available to privileged minorities.

These, too, are noble words. But what evidence do we have that we can turn them into gritty reality?

Baha’is, along with other faith communities, are getting to grips with the challenges of sustainable development, as this story from One Country magazine illustrates. 2005 saw the launch of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development . Peter Adriance is a board member of the International Environment Forum, a Baha’i-inspired NGO that addresses issues around environment and sustainable development:

“Many faith communities are already well practiced in terms of environmental protection and concern,” said Mr. Adriance, who is also a member of the executive team of the US Partnership for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and also the US Bahá’í community’s NGO liaison. “So now it is a matter of making the transition to the larger question of sustainability — and how to promote it through education.

“Faith communities recognize the moral dimension of the need to achieve sustainability,” Mr. Adriance continued. “The sacred writings of the world’s religions are a powerful source of motivation for many people, and an essential ingredient in making the transition to sustainability.

“Without the spiritual principles brought by religion, how are we going to generate the political will to make the necessary changes in behavior? Religion has a key role to play in motivating people to contribute to the ongoing well-being of humanity, instead of just to their own immediate comfort,” said Mr. Adriance.

According to Mr. Adriance and others, recent efforts by faith-based organizations to respond to the Decade include a wide range of efforts by religious groups to begin to incorporate education for sustainable development in their curricula, outreach, and other activities.

Education is crucial, but we will need to do much more to ensure a sustainable future for humankind. And to do the much more we will need to understand that we are in a time of transition from our collective childhood to our collective adulthood. As the human race passes through its coming of age, we face a time of unprecedented turmoil and danger. As Prosperity says:

A world is passing away and a new one is struggling to be born… What is required of the peoples of the world is a measure of faith and resolve to match the enormous energies with which the Creator of all things has endowed this spiritual springtime of the race.

Technorati Tags: Blog Action Day, Baha’i, Bahai, sustainable development, environment, unity in diversity, justice, spirituality

Barnabas Quotidianus has signed up to support Blog Action Day.

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone

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Well, the damage caused by yesterday’s London tornado has been severe enough to required the demolition of several of the houses, as you can read in this BBC story. You can also read some of the personal stories on the BBC news website.

Of course the severity of this weather is not great, compared with what happens in other parts of the world, but it must be awful for those families whose homes have been damaged or destroyed.

Technorati Tags: London, tornado, weather

The UK is the top twister country in Europe. Some London streets got hit around 11 o’clock this morning, as this BBC story recounts. You can see pictures here and here.

As the tornado hit these north London streets, I was on a District Line underground train, heading westwards out of Hammersmith. I could see black clouds to the north west (the underground actually runs overground once it leaves Earls Court, heading west). And then suddenly they dumped tons and tons of water onto the streets, the railway, everywhere. I thought I heard a crack of thunder.

By the time I got to Richmond, the weather had cleared and the sun was shining.

Technorati Tags: UK, twister, London, tornado, District Line, Hammersmith, thunder, Richmond, weather

It seems that there’s a Baha’i in the list of the top 100 green campaigners, according to an article in today’s Guardian newspaper.

Richard St Barbe Baker, founder of Men of the Trees (now known as the International Tree Foundation) appears at number 66 on the UK’s Environment Agency list, drawn up by experts:

To help celebrate its tenth anniversary, a panel of experts listed its 100 greatest eco-heroes of all time. And it does mean all time: St Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) is there, as is Siddartha Gautama Buddha, who died in 483BC.

Top of the list is Rachel Carson, a US scientist whose 1962 book, Silent Spring, is credited by many with kick-starting the modern environmental movement. Her account of the damage caused by the unrestrained industrial use of pesticides provoked controversy and fury in equal measures. Barbara Young, the Environment Agency’s chief executive, said: “She started many of us off on the road to environmental protection.”

The “Small is Beautiful” economist E F Schumacher is second, followed at third place by Jonathan Porrit, head of the Sustainable Development Commission. The world-famous broadcaster David Attenborough is fourth.

It’s good that there’s a Baha’i somewhere on the list, even though luminaries like London Mayor Ken Livingstone are placed ahead of him.

I once had the honour of meeting St Barbe, when I was a Baha’i youth. I was at a summer school in Ireland when he came through. He swept up a crowd of people, including me, to do various things for him. There was no question of not doing what he wanted. He was an old-school British Empire character who did not take no for an answer.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, St Barbe Baker, St Francis of Assisi, Buddha, environment

Signs of autumn: berries on a tree in next door’s garden.

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This story on the BBC News website highlights a report by WWF that claims that by 2050 we’ll need two planets to meet global demand at current levels.

Current global consumption levels could result in a large-scale eco-s ystem collapse by the middle of the century, environmental group WWF has warned.

The group’s biannual Living Planet Report said the natural world was being degraded “at a rate unprecedented in human history”.

Terrestrial species had declined by 31% between 1970-2003, the findings showed.

It warned that if demand continued at the current rate, two planets would be needed to meet global demand by 2050.

The biodiversity loss was a result of resources being consumed faster than the planet could replace them, the authors said.

They added that if the world’s population shared the UK’s lifestyle, three planets would be needed to support their needs.

If that’s correct, by the time my eldest grandchild, currently in infant school, is 45 or thereabouts Earth will not be able to support him or his children. Or, indeed, the rest of the world’s current population level.

The report’s authors warn that if we are going to move towards a sustainable society, significant action is required now.

It seems to me that this report brings Baha’u'llah’s stark prophetic admonition closer to reality:

The world is in travail, and its agitation waxeth day by day. Its face is turned towards waywardness and unbelief. Such shall be its plight, that to disclose it now would not be meet and seemly. Its perversity will long continue. And when the appointed hour is come, there shall suddenly appear that which shall cause the limbs of mankind to quake. Then, and only then, will the Divine Standard be unfurled, and the Nightingale of Paradise warble its melody.

But we must not feel helpless - as bleak as the outlook is. The answer lies in religion. As Baha’u'llah says:

The Great Being saith: O ye children of men! The fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race, and to foster the spirit of love and fellowship amongst men. Suffer it not to become a source of dissension and discord, of hate and enmity. This is the straight Path, the fixed and immovable foundation. Whatsoever is raised on this foundation, the changes and chances of the world can never impair its strength, nor will the revolution of countless centuries undermine its structure. Our hope is that the world’s religious leaders and the rulers thereof will unitedly arise for the reformation of this age and the rehabilitation of its fortunes. Let them, after meditating on its needs, take counsel together and, through anxious and full deliberation, administer to a diseased and sorely-afflicted world the remedy it requireth….

[Note: I apologize for the odd word split in "eco-s ystem". For some reason, my webhosting provider has blocked the words "sistem" (as usually spelt with a "y" rather than an "i") and "exyt" (as normally spelt with an "i" rather than a "y"). I just cannot include either of these words in any of my blog postings!]

Technorati Tags: WWF, environment, planet, biodiversity, Baha’u'llah

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How justified are we in thinking that raised levels of CO2 in the atmosphere cause climate change? Here’s a thought-provoking piece reporting an experiment whose results suggest that variations in the bombardment of cosmic radiation could be responsible for changes in cloudiness and thus in atmospheric temperatures:

A team at the Danish National Space Center has discovered how cosmic rays from exploding stars can help to make clouds in the atmosphere. The results support the theory that cosmic rays influence Earth?s climate.

An essential role for remote stars in everyday weather on Earth has been revealed by an experiment at the Danish National Space Center in Copenhagen. It is already well-established that when cosmic rays, which are high-speed atomic particles originating in exploded stars far away in the Milky Way, penetrate Earth?s atmosphere they produce substantial amounts of ions and release free electrons. Now, results from the Danish experiment show that the released electrons significantly promote the formation of building blocks for cloud condensation nuclei on which water vapour condenses to make clouds. Hence, a causal mechanism by which cosmic rays can facilitate the production of clouds in Earth?s atmosphere has been experimentally identified for the first time.

As Professor Stott comments:

The experiment ties in beautifully with the brilliant work of geochemist, Professor J?n Veizer of the Ruhr University at Bochum, Germany, and the University of Ottawa in Canada, and Dr. Nir Shaviv, an astrophysicist at the Racah Institute of Physics in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who for some time have been implicating cosmic rays and water vapour, rather than carbon dioxide, as the main drivers of climate change. Indeed, they have put down 75% of climate change to these drivers.

Cosmic rays are known to boost cloud formation - and, in turn, reduce temperatures on Earth - by creating ions that cause water droplets to condense. J?n Veizer and Nir Shaviv calculated temperature changes at the Earth’s surface by studying oxygen isotopes trapped in rocks formed by ancient marine fossils. They then compared these with variations in cosmic-ray activity, determined by looking at how cosmic rays have affected iron isotopes in meteorites.

Their results suggest that temperature fluctuations over the past 550 million years are more likely to relate to cosmic-ray activity than to CO2. By contrast, they found no correlation between temperature variation and the changing patterns of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Watch this space, as Professor Stott says.

Technorati Tags: CO2, atmosphere, climate change, cosmic rays, clouds, Earth