Transforming Environments

from the Inside Out

Arthur Lyon Dahl Ph.D.

International Environment Forum (IEF)
http://www.bcca.org/ief
13 August 2009
Exploring the relationship between
our outer and inner environments
the planet and
our soul
science and
spirituality
 The State
of the World
• the apex of human progress?
• wealth undreamed of by our forebears?
• the successful result of economic
development?
• technological solutions to every problem?
• the greatest civilization the world has ever
known?
• economic success proved that the system was
right
OR the State of the World - 2
• Half the world population lives on less than $2/day
• Extremes of wealth and poverty widening
• Asian economic expansion has reduced poverty at
great environmental cost
• Energy challenge / climate change threats
• Growing water shortages
• Loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services
• Food production capacity at risk
• Financial system has imploded
• We are living beyond our means
 Ecological footprint
• Surface needed to supply the needs and absorb the
wastes of an individual, community, or country
• Global average 2.7 ha/person
• USA 9.4 ha/p; Canada 7.1 ha/p.; Mexico 3.4 ha/p.
• EU 4.7 ha/p; Russia 3.7 ha/p.; China 2.1 ha/p.
• Resources available 1.9 ha/person
• We overshot the earth's capacity in 1975
http://www.globalfootprint.org/
http://www.ecologicalfootprint.org/
http://www.myfootprint.org
Human Population Growth
 Human Population
• The world population has tripled in one lifetime,
and is expected by the UN to rise to 9.2 billion
by 2050 before stabilizing
• By some estimates, world resources can only
sustainably support 500 million people
• We seem to be following a classic ecological
pattern of overshoot and collapse
• The planetary carrying capacity depends on
numbers versus standard of living; increasing
one reduces the other
• Science may find ways to increase carrying
capacity, but only at longer time scales
Human Impact on the Carbon Cycle
Extracting and burning fossil fuels is returning to
the atmosphere in two centuries the carbon
dioxide sequestered by hundreds of millions of
years of primitive biological activity
 Climate Change will be
stronger and sooner
• Global carbon dioxide levels due to
emissions from fossil fuels have
accelerated since 2000
• Rise in 1990s 0.7%/yr; 2.9% since 2000
• Three causes: growth in world economy,
rise of coal use in China, weakening of
natural carbon sinks (forests, seas, soils)
• Growth in atmospheric CO2 about 35%
higher than expected a few years ago
 Polar areas are changing fastest
 Half of the permafrost in the Arctic is expected to melt
by 2050 and 90% before 2100, releasing methane
 14% of the permanent ice in the Arctic Ocean melted
in 2005; 23% more in 2007 (worst melting ever);
nearly as much in 2008, opening the North-West
Passage; permanent ice in the Arctic Ocean may be
gone by 2015-2030
 Greenland glaciers have doubled their rate of flow in
the last few years (6km/y 1997, 9km/y 2000, 13km/y
2003), now raising sea level 0.83 mm per year
 Similar melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet is
adding another 0.55 mm per year, and accelerating
 There is little time left to act
 Global temperatures have already risen 0.6°C and will
probably rise a further 3°, or even up to 4.5-5° by 2100
 Ocean temperatures have risen at least 3 km deep
 Glaciers and snow cover have decreased; cold days,
nights and frost have become rarer; hot days, nights
and heat waves more frequent
 Sea level rise has doubled in 150 years to 2 mm/year,
and recent polar melting is adding another 2 mm/year
 Recent surge in CO2 levels from less uptake by plants
We may soon be approaching a tipping point where
runaway climate change would be catastrophic
The most vulnerable areas risking
catastrophic collapse this century
• Arctic Ocean and Greenland ice sheet
• Amazon rain forest
• Northern boreal forests
• El Nino affecting weather in North
America, South-East Asia and Africa
(3°C rise).
• Collapse of West African monsoon
• Erratic Indian summer monsoon
 Climate change
effect on the economy
 The Stern Report estimated the annual cost
of uncontrolled climate change at more than
$660 billion (5 to 20% of global GDP, as
compared to 1% for control measures for
greenhouse gases).
 Climate change represents the greatest
market failure in human history
 The energy challenge
• Industrial economy, agriculture, transportation,
communications, trade, urbanization, consumer
lifestyle all depend on cheap and abundant energy
• Energy demand will grow 50% by 2030, but oil
production is peaking and will decline 75% in 30
years; coal may also peak by then
• Climate change requires a rapid halt to fossil fuel use
• Adaptation will be extremely expensive and the
struggle for diminishing resources globally
destabilizing
• A fossil-fuel-based civilization is unsustainable
 Food Production
• The Green Revolution of the 1970s postponed
food supply as a limit to growth
• Crop production has improved in the last 20
years from 1.8 to 2.5 t/ha. but such intensive
agriculture requires high energy, fertilizer and
petrochemical inputs
• World cereal production per person peaked in
the 1980s and has decreased slowly since
• Feeding the growing world population and
reducing hunger by half will require doubling
world food production by 2050
• Land, water, phosphate, energy are all limiting
Soil degradation
 The coming soil crisis
• Many past civilizations collapsed because
they degraded their soil
• Average global soil loss today is 10 to
100 times the rate of soil formation
• In Indiana, USA, for each ton of grain
harvested, a ton of soil is lost
• Since 1945, erosion has degraded 1.2
billion hectares, equal to China plus India,
38% of global crop land
• Annual soil loss is 75 billion tonnes, with
12 million ha abandoned, 1% of total
 Start of a Global Food Crisis
• In 2007, the price of wheat rose 100%, maize 50%,
rice 20%, increasing staple food prices for the poor
over 10%. By mid-2008 food prices up 78%, soybeans
and rice up 130%
• Global food reserves are lowest for 20 years, with only
57 day grain reserve
• Climate change, drought, floods, soil erosion,
overfishing are reducing food production
• With grain being diverted for biofuel, 800 m motorists
are competing with 2 bn poor
• There are 960 m hungry people, 40 m more in 2008
due to higher food prices
• Food is being priced out of reach for the poor
 Resource Depletion
Many key materials are being exhausted rapidly
(estimated years left: predicted/today's rate)_
• Phosphorus (fertilizer) 142-345
• Antimony (drugs) 15-30
• Copper (wire, coins, pipes) 40-60
• Hafnium, Indium (chips, LCDs) 5-15
• Platinum (catalysts, fuel cells) 15-360
• Silver (jewelry, catalysts) 15-30
• Tantalum (cellphones, cameras) 20-115
• Uranium (weapons, power stations) 30-60
• Zinc (galvanizing) 20-46
The failure of social and economic
development to eliminate poverty
- Development has been our largest collective
undertaking, with humanitarian aims and
enormous material and technological
investment
- While it brought impressive benefits, it failed
to narrow the gap between rich and poor
- The gap has widen into an abyss
(based on Baha'i International Community, 2005).
 Accumulating economic, social
and environmental debt
• Financial crisis debt transferred to
governments
• UK Chief Scientist (19 March 2009): the
world faces a 'perfect storm' of problems
in 2030 as food, energy and water
shortages interact with climate change
to produce public unrest, cross-border
conflicts and mass migrations
 Scenarios
plausible futures
• Business as usual in a
materialistic society
ignoring the future

• Retreating to a fortress
world of old values

• Making a transition to
sustainability
 Scenarios from World 3
(Meadows et al. (1992) Beyond the Limits)_

Business as usual Transition 1995 Transition 2015

 ARE WE
SEEING THE
FIRST SIGNS
OF THE
COLLAPSE
OF
CIVILIZATION?
(image IKONOS – Lang, ESRI 1998)_
End of the growth paradigm

• Is endless growth realistic?

• Everything in nature follows cycles
with optimal sizes
• Economic growth has depended on
population growth, fossil fuel energy
subsidy, resource discoveries and
technological innovation
• The first three all end in this century
• All that is left is our brains and heart
Collapse of the financial system
• The 2007-2008 collapse of the financial system
was due to greed, herd behaviour, and over-
confidence in scientific approaches to risk
management
• Complex statistical models do not work for
extreme events
• Each vulnerability was evaluated
independently
• Future projections were based on past
experience
• There was no evaluation of overall systems
behaviour
Jamison 2008
 Where is the Economy going?
• Origins in American consumer society living beyond
its means, accumulating debt
• UK minister: "worst recession in 100 years"
• The challenge to economic assumptions
• Head of European Central Bank: "We live in non-linear
times: the classic economic models and theories cannot be
applied, and future development cannot be foreseen."
• Derivatives over $500 trillion by 2008 (x4 5y).
• European countries on brink of insolvency
• Warnings of hyperinflation
 CAUSES
AND
BARRIERS

How did we get ourselves into such a

situation?
What is preventing us from solving it?
Compartmentalized
view of the world

The environment is
outside of us

(Mark Tobey, Head of Boy, 1955).

 Economic Thinking:
Disjunction with Reality
• The planet's resources are free for the
taking
• Short term perspective: the quarterly
balance sheet; the next election
• Herd mentality of investors and speculators
• Expectation that things will always get
better (growth).
• In nature, cycles and optimal sizes;
uncontrolled growth is like a cancer
 Disjunction with reality
- Economic thinking is challenged by the
environmental crisis
- It can no longer insist that there is no limit to
nature's capacity to fulfil any demand made on it
- Attaching absolute value to growth, to acquisition,
and to the satisfaction of people's wants is no longer
a realistic guide to policy
- Economic decision-making tools cannot deal with
the fact that most of the major challenges are
global

(based on The Prosperity of Humankind, Bahá'í International Community, Office of

Public Information, Haifa, 1995)
 A self-centred materialism
• The early twentieth century materialistic
interpretation of reality has become the
dominant world faith in the direction of society
• Rational experimentation and discussion are
expected to solve all the issues of human
governance and development
• Dogmatic materialism has captured all
significant centres of power and information at
the global level, ensuring that no competing
voices can challenge projects of world wide
economic exploitation
(based on Bahá'í International Community, One Common Faith, 2005).
The wealthy live unsustainable lifestyles
 The unsustainable consumer culture
- Materialism's vision of human progress produced
today's consumer culture with its ephemeral goals
- For the small minority of people who can afford them,
the benefits it offers are immediate
- The breakdown of traditional morality has led to the
triumph of animal impulses and hedonism
- Selfishness has become a prized commercial
resource; falsehood reinvents itself as public
information; greed, lust, indolence, pride, violence are
broadly accepted and have social and economic value
- Yet it is a culture without meaning
(based on Bahá'í International Community, One Common Faith, 2005, p. 10).
 Barriers to change
• No politician will sacrifice short-term
economic welfare, even while agreeing that
sustainability is essential in the long term
• Deep social divisions within societies and
between countries prevent united action in
the common interest
• Primacy of self interest over solidarity
Business as usual is not an option
but how will we respond to:
• Climate change?
• Changes in energy systems and use?
• Food shortages and price rises?
• Forced migrations of environmental
refugees?
• Reform of the economic system?
 Global land grab
• Wealthy governments and large companies are
buying/leasing large areas of land in poor
countries for food export to ensure their own
food security
• 10 m ha were bought in 2008, 20m in first half
of 2009 (= half all arable land in Europe).
• South Korea 690,000ha and UAE and Egypt
400,000ha each in Sudan; Saudi Arabia
500,000ha in Tanzania; Daewoo 1.3m ha in
Madagascar; Libya 100,000ha in Mali; South
African businesses 8m ha in DR Congo; China
2.8m ha in Congo and 2m ha in Zambia, with 1
m Chinese farm labourers in Africa in 2009
 The main danger
"The main danger we face is... that by late 2009 the
global economy will be perking up again (because the
housing sectors will have bottomed and the unwinding of
commodity prices will boost consumption among oil
importers) and governments will go back to business as
usual, missing a once-in-a-life-time opportunity to
address the serious vulnerabilities in the world’s financial
system which the current crisis has revealed. In that
scenario, the next crisis would find us with little
ammunition left. That is the real danger."

Augusto Lopez Claros, letter to the Financial Times, 4 December 2008

 Denial, Depression or Action?
Do we have a choice?

Can we go and hide on a remote island?

The Transformation of Human Society
(Mark Tobey, The New Day, 1945).
 How do we achieve a
transformation in values?
• Science has no particular competence
• Scientific information does not change
behavior
• Chaos is an opportunity for spiritual and
intellectual leadership
• Evolution with punctuated equilibrium
• Opportunities are opening before us
 Vision in Bahá'í
writings and statements
Integrated
environmental
social
economic
sustainability
 Sustainability
is fundamentally an
Ethical Challenge

egotism versus altruism

me first versus all together
 Oneness of Humankind
Acceptance of the oneness of mankind
is the first fundamental prerequisite for
the reorganization and administration of
the world as one country, the home of
humankind.
(Universal House of Justice, The Promise of World Peace, p. 13-
14)

This requires a profound reconsideration of every

dimension of our lives and society, including the
environment.
 Transformation must start
at the individual level
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 also 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.
(Letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 17 February 1933,
Compilation on Social and Economic Development, p. 4)
 We must give a higher priority
to the environment
in our community, economy and society
...sustainable environmental
management must come to be seen... as a
fundamental responsibility that must be
shouldered - a pre-requisite for spiritual
development as well as the individual's
physical survival.
(Bahá'í International Community, Valuing Spirituality in Development: Initial Considerations Regarding the Creation of
Spiritually Based Indicators for Development. A concept paper written for the World Faiths and Development
Dialogue, Lambeth Palace, London, 18-19 February 1998)_

Both quotations imply an intimate link between

environment and spirituality
 The
Inside

(Mark Tobey,
Meditative Series No.VIII, 1954).
 Connection between
spirituality and nature

Environmental crisis the result of a spiritual crisis.

We cut ourselves off from our spiritual nature and
from God, and from our roots in the natural world
 No separation of natural environment
and spiritual reality
Nature is God's Will and is its expression in
and through the contingent world.
(Bahá'u'lláh, Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 142)
 Contact with nature

The country is the

world of the soul, the
city is the world of
bodies.

(Bahá'u'lláh, in J. E. Esslemont,
Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era.
Chpt. 3, p. 35)
Study of nature scientific and spiritual
When... thou dost contemplate the innermost essence of
all things, and the individuality of each, thou wilt behold
the signs of thy Lord's mercy in every created thing, and
see the spreading rays of His Names and Attributes
throughout all the realm of being.... Then wilt thou
observe that the universe is a scroll that discloseth His
hidden secrets, which are preserved in the well-guarded
Tablet. And not an atom of all the atoms in existence, not
a creature from amongst the creatures but speaketh His
praise and telleth of His attributes and names, revealeth
the glory of His might and guideth to His oneness and His
mercy.... Look thou upon the trees, upon the blossoms
and fruits, even upon the stones. Here too wilt thou
behold the Sun's rays shed upon them, clearly visible
within them, and manifested by them.
('Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, p. 41-42)
 Individual spiritual effort
to detach ourselves from
the consumer lifestyle

We must avoid "the temptation to

sacrifice the well-being of most
people -- and even of the planet itself
-- to the advantages which
technological breakthroughs can
make available to privileged
minorities."
(based on Baha'i International Community, Prosperity of Humankind)
Detachment from material things

[The true seeker] should be

content with little, and be freed
from all inordinate desire.
(Bahá'u'lláh, Kitáb-i-Iqán, p. 193-194)
 Voluntary Simplicity

Take from this world only to the

measure of your needs, and forego
that which exceedeth them.

(Bahá'u'lláh, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, p. 193).

 Moderation in lifestyle
It is unjust to allow people
"to lay up riches for themselves, to deck their persons,
to embellish their homes, to acquire the things that
are of no benefit to them, and to be numbered with
the extravagant."

None should be allowed to "either suffer want, or be

pampered with luxuries."
…
(Bahá'u'lláh [to the Sultan of Turkey], Gleanings from the Writings of
Bahá'u'lláh, CXIV, pp. 235-236)
 Moderation

Shoghi Effendi called for:

"the exercise of moderation in all that
pertains to dress, language,
amusements, and all artistic and literary
avocations" and "the abandonment of a
frivolous conduct, with its excessive
attachment to trivial and often
misdirected pleasures."
(Shoghi Effendi. The Advent of Divine Justice, p. 30).
The spiritual danger of intellectual pride
• The desire to know everything
• The pride to think we can know everything
through science
• "I think, therefore I am"
• Rationalist/individualist approach
• Individual is final arbiter of right or wrong
• We decide what is true
• Expression of egotism and self-centeredness
• Places us above nature, to exploit and
destroy it
"Opposing our passions"

Desire is a flame that has

reduced to ashes uncounted
lifetime harvests of the learned
('Abdu'l-Bahá, Secret of Divine Civilization, p. 59).
 Transforming the
inner environment

humility to acknowledge
there is an unknowable
essence we must love and
worship, though our minds
cannot grasp it nor our
hearts contain it

(Mark Tobey, Aerial Centers, 1967).

 Humility and Environment
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. There can
be no doubt that whoever is cognizant of this
truth, is cleansed and sanctified from all pride,
arrogance, and vainglory....
Bahá'u'lláh
 Science for Everyone
The expansion of scientific and technological activity...
must cease to be the patrimony of advantaged
segments of society, and must be so organised as to
permit people everywhere to participate in such
activity on the basis of capacity. Apart from the
creation of programmes that make the required
education available to all who are able to benefit from
it, such reorganisation will require the establishment of
viable centres of learning throughout the world,
institutions that will enhance the capability of the
world's peoples to participate in the generation and
application of knowledge.
(Baha'i International Community, Prosperity of Humankind).
Transforming Communities
(Mark Tobey, Coliseum, 1942).
 The Community
The basic unit of social organization
• Material needs
• Economic and educational activities
• Social and spiritual life
• Relationship with local environment
• Balance of local autonomy and larger
integration
 The challenges for
communities
• ...assisting in endeavours to
conserve the environment in ways
which blend with the rhythm of life
of our community...
Universal House of Justice

• responding to the increasing mixing

of the peoples of the world by
rebuilding human communities in
all their diversity
 Building unity in communities

This is exactly what Baha'i communities are

developing through the institute process and the core
activities of devotional meetings, group study,
children's classes and pre-adolescent activities.

"The ultimate testimony that the Bahá’í community

can summon in vindication of His mission is the
example of unity that His teachings have produced."
(Bahá'í International Community, One Common Faith, p. 43).
 Convincing leaders of thought of
the power of spiritual change

A fair-minded observer is compelled to entertain at

least the possibility that the phenomenon may
represent the operation of influences entirely
different in nature from the familiar ones—influences
that can properly be described only as
spiritual—capable of eliciting extraordinary feats of
sacrifice and understanding from ordinary people of
every background.
(Bahá'í International Community, One Common Faith, p. 44).
Self-organizing transformation based
on contact with the creative Word
The culture of systematic growth taking root in the
Bahá’í community would seem... by far the most
effective response the friends can make to the
challenge discussed in these pages. The experience
of an intense and ongoing immersion in the Creative
Word progressively frees one from the grip of the
materialistic assumptions... that pervade society and
paralyze impulses for change. It develops in one a
capacity to assist the yearning for unity on the part
of friends and acquaintances to find mature and
intelligent expression.
(Bahá'í International Community, One Common Faith, p. 51).
 Responding to the world's
environmental problems
...the parallel efforts of promoting the
betterment of society and of teaching the
Bahá'í Faith are not activities competing for
attention. Rather, are they reciprocal features
of one coherent global programme.... The
obligation of the Bahá'í community is to do
everything in its power to assist all stages of
humanity's universal movement towards
reunion with God.
(Bahá'í International Community, One Common Faith, p. 51-52).
 Extending the process of
systematic learning
As you continue to labour in your clusters, you
will be drawn further and further into the life of
the society around you and will be challenged
to extend the process of systematic learning
in which you are engaged to encompass a
growing range of human endeavours. In the
approaches you take, the methods you adopt,
and the instruments you employ, you will
need to achieve the same degree of
coherence that characterizes the pattern of
growth presently under way.
Universal House of Justice, Ridvan 2008
 This is
transformation
from the inside
out

coherence
between words
and actions

(Mark Tobey, New Genesis, 1958)

Addressing the
challenges of
the outer
environment

(Mark Tobey, Urban Renewal, 1964)

 Environmental impacts
must be reduced
at the global level
in each country
in every community
by each individual
through a balance of
material and spiritual
approaches
 Preservation of Nature
Bahá'í Scriptures describe nature as a reflection
of the sacred. They teach that nature should be
valued and respected, but not worshipped; rather,
it should serve humanity's efforts to carry forward
an ever-advancing civilization. However, in light of
the interdependence of all parts of nature, and
the importance of evolution and diversity "to the
beauty, efficiency and perfection of the whole,"
every effort should be made to preserve as
much as possible the earth's bio-diversity and
natural order.
(Bahá'í International Community, Valuing Spirituality in Development: Initial Considerations
Regarding the Creation of Spiritually Based Indicators for Development. A concept paper written for
the World Faiths and Development Dialogue, Lambeth Palace, London, 18-19 February 1998)
The spiritual principle: environmental
sustainability is a fundamental
responsibility
As trustees, or stewards, of the planet's vast resources and biological
diversity, humanity must learn to make use of the earth's natural
resources, both renewable and non-renewable, in a manner that
ensures sustainability and equity into the distant reaches of time.
This attitude of stewardship will require full consideration of the
potential environmental consequences of all development activities. It
will compel humanity to temper its actions with moderation and
humility, realizing that the true value of nature cannot be expressed in
economic terms. It will also require a deep understanding of the
natural world and its role in humanity's collective development both
material and spiritual. Therefore, sustainable environmental
management must come to be seen not as a discretionary
commitment mankind can weigh against other competing interests,
but rather as a fundamental responsibility that must be shouldered a
pre-requisite for spiritual development as well as the individual's
physical survival.
(Bahá'í International Community, Valuing Spirituality in Development: Initial Considerations Regarding the Creation of
Spiritually Based Indicators for Development. A concept paper written for the World Faiths and Development
Dialogue, Lambeth Palace, London, 18-19 February 1998)
 A new vision of economics
The ultimate function of economic
systems should be to equip the peoples
and institutions of the world with the
means to achieve the real purpose of
development: that is, the cultivation of
the limitless potentialities latent in human
consciousness.
(Bahá'í International Community, Valuing Spirituality in Development: Initial
Considerations Regarding the Creation of Spiritually Based Indicators for
Development. A concept paper written for the World Faiths and Development
Dialogue, Lambeth Palace, London, 18-19 February 1998).
 New economic models
... furthering a dynamic, just and
thriving social order. Such economic
systems will be strongly altruistic and
cooperative in nature; they will
provide meaningful employment and
will help to eradicate poverty in the
world.
(Bahá'í International Community, Valuing Spirituality in Development: Initial
Considerations Regarding the Creation of Spiritually Based Indicators for
Development. A concept paper written for the World Faiths and Development
Dialogue, Lambeth Palace, London, 18-19 February 1998)
Rehabilitating the Reputation
of Religion
A global intelligensia, its prescription largely
shaped by materialistic misconceptions of reality,
clings tenaciously to the hope that imaginative
social engineering, supported by political
compromise, may indefinitely postpone the
potential disasters that few deny loom over
humanity's future.... As unity is the remedy for the
world's ills, its one certain source lies in the
restoration of religion's influence in human affairs.

(Bahá'í International Community, One Common Faith, p. 42-43 )

 Global Governance
framework of laws
environmental and social standards
replacement of national sovereignty
addressing climate change
global management of resources
equitable distribution
 Action in Civil Society
Academic and Research Institutions
 UN Decade of Education for Sustainable
Development: UNESCOcat International Expert
Meeting of Faith-based organizations, March 2007
http://www.bcca.org/ief/mtg/UNESCOcatESD07.pdf

 US Partnership for DESD http://www.uspartnership.org/

 European Consumer Citizenship Network (CCN)

and its successor, the Partnership for Education
and Research for Responsible Living (PERL)
http://www.hihm.no/concit/

 Values-based Indicators of Education for

Sustainable Development http://www.ESDinds.eu/
 Something fundmental is missing
the pace and scale of change
possible only with spiritual transformation
in an accelerating process of organic change
(Mark Tobey, Lovers of Light, 1960)
 The only solution...
the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh
Until such time as the nations of the world
understand and follow the admonitions of
Bahá'u'lláh to whole-heartedly work together
in looking after the best interests of all
humankind, and unite in the search for ways
and means to meet the many environmental
problems besetting our planet, ...little
progress will be made towards their
solution....
Universal House of Justice
 Conclusions
• We must overcome:
• - narrow perspectives
• - materialism
• We must encourage:
• - spirituality
• - balance
• - moderation
• - consultation
 We need generalists -
Whole systems specialists
'Abdu'l-Baha described how in the future the
Learned required "knowledge of the sacred
Scriptures and the entire field of divine and
natural science, of religious jurisprudence and the
arts of government and the varied learning of the
time and the great events of history" in order to
meet "the necessary qualification of
comprehensive knowledge."

('Abdu'l-Baha, Secret of Divine Civilization, p. 35-36)

 The challenge to us all
• Become leaders in the transformation of
society and its relationship to the environment
• Use spiritual principles to guide us
• Lay new intellectual foundations for social
change from the inside out
• Pioneer in building new economic and social
systems and institutions
• Bring us back into balance with a sustainable
environment
• Lay a solid foundation for an ever-advancing
civilization
 Transforming environments
is only possible
from the inside out

The years ahead will be difficult,

but there is reason for hope
 Thank you

The planet will thank you too