LIGHT FOR
A NEW DAY:
Interfaith Essays
on Energy Ethics
nD
R. ERIN LOTHES BIVIANO
Editor
PRESENTED AT
The twenty-second session of the Conference of the
Parties (COP 22) to the United Nations Framework
on Climate Change Convention
Marrakech, November 2016
GREENFAITH.ORG
INTERFAITHSTATEMENT2016.ORG
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Light for a New Day: Faith and Energy Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Erin Lothes Biviano, Ph.D., United States Catholic theologian
Creational Solidarity Strengthens the Weakest Link: . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Energy Ethics and Climate Change in Sub-Saharan Africa
Fr. Edward Osang Obi, Ph,D, MSP, Nigerian Catholic Ethicist
Awakening our Energy: A Buddhist Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
David R. Loy, Ph.D., United States Buddhist scholar and Zen teacher
Sa-Moana Theology: A ‘Way of Doing Things’ Empowered . . . . . . . .33
by Faith for Humanity and Ecology
Pausa Kaio Thompson, Congregational Christian Church of American Samoa clergy
and environmental advocate
Pentecostalism, Latin America and Eco-theology: . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
A Spirit-Baptized Encounter
Luis Aránguiz Kahn, Chilean Pentecostal scholar
Commentary, Oscar Corvalan-Vasquez, Ph.D. Pentecostal Church of Chile,
Secretary of the Pentecostal Latin American Forum
Jewish Perspectives Toward a Wiser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
and More Ethical Use of Energy
Rabbi Yonatan Neril, Israeli Orthodox Jewish rabbi and Daniel Weber, Ph.D.,
United States Orthodox Jewish scientist
A Tewa Woman’s Reflection on Urgency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75
Beata Tsosie-Pena, Native American GreenFaith convergee
“Indeed the World is Green and Sweet; Walk Softly . . . . . . . . . . . 87
on the Earth”: Towards an Islamic Energy Ethic and Praxis
Saffet Abid Catovic, United States Muslim Environmental Leader
The Wind Flows from the South: Intrinsic Values . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
of Mexican Indigenous Communities:
A Bottom-up Solution for Climate Change
Paulette Laurent Caire, Mexican environmental educator and clean energy developer
iii
What do Hindu Ethical Foundations Teach Us about Energy Policy? . . 115
A New Ecological Interpretation of Ahimsa and Asteya
Mat McDermott, Director of Communications for the Hindu American Foundation
God’s First Commandment: To Be Earthkeepers . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Ncumisa Ukeweva Magadla, South African Anglican environmentalist
Shift the Power: Buddhist Temple Communities for an Energy . . . . . 135
and Social Revolution
Rev. Hidehito Okochi, Chief Priest of Juko-in Temple and Kenju-in Temple,Tokyo,
with Jonathan S. Watts, Executive Committee member of the International Network
of Engaged Buddhists
Towards an Ecumenical and Ecological Spirituality: . . . . . . . . . . . 147
The Faith in a More Biblical Understanding of Salvation
LIGHT FOR
A NEW DAY:
Faith and Energy Ethics
nE
RIN LOTHES BIVIANO
United States Catholic theologian
that Calls Us to Concrete Actions
Claudio de Oliveira Ribeiro, Ph.D., Brazilian Methodist pastor and theologian
Dharma of Sustainability, Sustainability of Dharma: . . . . . . . . . . . 159
A Hindu Energy Ethics
Pankaj Jain, Ph.D., Hindu Scholar of Philosophy, Religion and Anthropology
Climate Change and the Energy-Water-Food Nexus: . . . . . . . . . . 173
(Afro)Faith Responses to the Ethical Imperatives
Teresia M. Hinga, Ph.D., Kenyan Catholic theologian
A Melting Arctic is a Melting Future: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Hope from Spiritual Traditions
Reverend Henrik Grape, World Council of Churches /
Church of Sweden Climate Coordinator
GREENFAITH.ORG I INTERFAITHSTATEMENT2016.ORG
iv
F
ERIN LOTHES is a theologian at the College of Saint Elizabeth,
Morristown, NJ., a researcher in the field of energy ethics, and a
scholar of the faith-based environmental movement. Dr. Lothes
served as an Earth Institute Fellow at Columbia University; her
research analyzing environmental advocacy at diverse American
congregations resulted in her book Inspired Sustainability: Planting
Seeds for Action (Orbis 2016). She is also author of The Paradox of
Christian Sacrifice: The Loss of Self, the Gift of Self (Herder and
Herder, 2007). As an advocate for an interdisciplinary energy ethic
within Catholic and interfaith circles, Dr. Lothes is lead author of
the co-authored “Catholic Moral Traditions and Energy Ethics for
the Twenty-First Century,” Journal of Moral Theology and other
peer-reviewed energy ethics essays. Accessible summaries are
available at https://catholicenergyethics21century.wordpress.com/
Dr. Lothes has advocated for research regarding the moral
dimensions of fossil fuel divestment within the Catholic community
in the United States, and has participated in the activism and
scholarship of the interfaith environmental movement since 2003
through collaborations with groups such as GreenFaith, the Forum
on Religion and Ecology at Yale, the Catholic Climate Covenant,
and the Global Catholic Climate Movement. Dr. Lothes holds a
Ph.D. in systematic Theology from Fordham University, a
Master’s in Theology from Boston College, and an A.B. from
Princeton University.
aith and spiritual communities around the world commit themselves
to protecting life and celebrating the good gifts of the natural world,
the resources of earth that sustain all peoples. Religious festivals and
spiritual values express gratitude for the earth’s abundance and teach the
wise use of all resources. Every day the sun rises and sets over communities
and cultures whose diversity of traditions echo the great diversity of the
world’s ecosystems. Yet in our day the impacts of climate change are now
affecting the wellbeing of all, though, as always, the poor are suffering first
and worst. Already, vulnerable communities are experiencing dramatic food
insecurity, decreased access to clean water, and the de-stabilization of their
traditional livelihoods. Many have lost their homes to storm impacts and
rising sea levels. But while the poor are already suffering, advanced
economies are not exempt from the impacts, as costly payments are already
being made to relocate families and businesses must invest in climate
adaptation, even in the world’s most super developed societies.
Is this our fate? With a growing passion and commitment, the world’s
faith communities reject this conclusion. Inspired by the desire to relieve
present suffering and to protect a future flourishing planet, instead they
point to a new horizon in moral teaching. Committed to living their sacred
values in new times, the world’s faith communities are increasingly bringing
the light of their wisdom to articulate energy ethics. Energy decisions are not
solely technological, economic, and political decisions. Energy decisions are
ethical decisions, because the energy policies that structure our societies
profoundly impact all other persons and living communities, through the
globalized web of relationships that is the modern world.
This collection brings together the voices of faith leaders from the world’s
major religious traditions. In these essays, their traditional values, ancient
wisdom, particular moral teachings, and spiritual insights are brought to
bear on the critical question of energy ethics. How we must transform our
social and economic structures to avoid the devastation of climate change
and to create fair access to clean, sustainable energy available for all persons?
What values in our shared humanity can inspire every person’s conversion
to new ways of life, and commitment to radical action?
As energy is an essential resource that is critical to all dimensions of life,
3
a momentous shift must occur in our social awareness regarding the moral
dimensions of energy supply and production. Even more urgently, a shift
must occur in the pace and scale of change in our collective action to invest in
and build renewable energy systems. Energy must be viewed as an ethical
question that calls for a moral response from everyone. The global impacts
are already evident, and responding to the climate crisis with immediate,
dramatic, globally scaled, and currently available renewable technologies is a
moral obligation. Our authors, from many faith traditions and regions of the
world, here express their visions of those obligations for a new day.
Committed to living their sacred values in
new times, the world’s faith communities
are increasingly bringing the light of their
wisdom to articulate energy ethics.
Fr. Edward Osang Obi, OBI, documents the inequitable and polluting
investments in Nigerian oil infrastructure that exacerbate the extremes of
energy affluence in the global North and dire energy poverty in the global
South, and obstruct the development of clean, renewable and accessible
energy. Instead of the reckless wasting of gas flaring, creational solidarity
calls people to support God’s providential plan of providing for all persons
with the gifts of the earth.
David R. Loy awakens our consciousness to the reality of social dukkha:
suffering that is caused by institutional structures. Climate change is the
ultimate example of this suffering perpetuated by a global fossil fuel power
system resistant to ordinary advocacy: Loy calls for divestment as the
necessary response. Pausa Kaio Thompson witnesses to the pleas of a sinking
Oceania, sharing their prayers for a worldwide response of faith and
conversion to the way of living that will sustain our earth.
Luis Aránguiz Kahn advances a development in Latin American
Pentecostalism theology through the dialogue of Pentecostal origins and
contemporary social conditions. His call for “ecological political holiness”
invites Pentecostals to acknowledge their power in the Spirit and strong
4
presence in society to call for the end of environmental exploitation, clean
energy investments, and access for the millions who lack adequate energy.
Providing an important commentary, Rev. Oscar Corvalan-Vasquez, Ph.D.,
further analyzes the concrete situation of energy in Chile in relation to
Pentecostal theology and community life.
Rabbi Yonatan Neril and Daniel Weber clearly state the religious and
ethical challenge that energy poses in an age when scientist have confirmed
the impacts of an intensifying global warming. As Sabbath wisdom teaches
humanity to moderate its mastery of the world, today’s Jewish communities
must advocate for wise energy policies, and seek 100% renewable energy in
their sanctuaries.
Beata Tsosie-Pena implores all to recover the reverence for mother
earth that inspires care for all our relatives with thankful concern, and
preserves the earth and the waters that give life.
Paulette Laurent Caire urges that the UN sustainable development
goals be met through cooperative energy development solutions that have
social impact, include indigenous communities as co-investors, and ensure
an energy transition is fair, democratic, and preserves ancestral values of
conservation and community.
Mat McDermott’s ecological interpretation of Hindu ethics shows how
profiting from fossil fuels contributes to great harm, thus contradicting the
principles of ahimsa and asteya, which support the conditions for well-being
for all living beings. Free choice, despite the constraints of past choices and
entrenched power structures, must accept that our consumption has limits
and that, as a result, most fossil reserves must be left in the ground.
Recalling that God’s first commandment is that we be earthkeepers,
Ncumisa Ukeweva Magadla highlights creation ministry as one of the
marks of mission for the Anglican Church. The witness of the Anglican
Church of Southern Africa’s divestment from fossil fuels calls all religious
communities to pressure national governments to rapidly transition away
from fossil fuels. She affirms that such investments are not investments in
our well-being, and do not better our children, but rob from their futures.
Rev. Hidehito Okochi opposes the myth that Japan lacks natural resources
to supply its energy needs through his experience as a socially engaged
5
Buddhist priest. His response to consumerist lifestyles and globalized
environmental and economic exploitation is a present-day vision of pure
land Buddhism that empowers the marginalized to create eco-communities.
Rev. Claudio de Oliveira Ribeiro’s pastoral reflections on ecological
spirituality connect powerfully with a critique of societies marked by
individualism, exclusion, and conflict. Out of concern for the concrete
implications of climate change for poor people and families, ecumenical
and ecological coalitions need to monitor governments in the transition to
100% renewable energy, and increase their policy ambitions beyond their
commitments in the Paris Agreement.
Pankaj Jain reveals the massive levels of hidden emissions from the meat
industry, and urges vegetarians and all others to call for transparent,
governmental-level documentation of all emissions, to promote policies the
counter the deadly air pollution choking cities worldwide, and invites and
invites all to embrace the Dharma of sustainable, simple lifestyles.
Teresia Hinga articulates the impact of energy on food and water access
in Africa, calling for an Afro-theo-ethics and a social ministry of the granary.
She analyzes both the complex interrelation of these crisis, and offers a rich
set of concrete and pragmatic approaches to finding solutions rooted in
African wisdom, Catholic social teaching, and critical poverty studies.
Rev. Henrik Grape speaks for the Arctic peoples, sharing their appeal to
halt the melting of the Arctic. By drawing on our ancient spiritual sources
and hope in the transcendent, we can find the inspiration to take action and
respond to the climate challenge: “the challenge to make peace with each
other and with the Creation.”
As energy is an essential resource
that is critical to all dimensions of life,
a momentous shift must occur in our
social awareness regarding the moral
dimensions of energy supply and
production.
6
All the authors from these diverse religious traditions perceive energy
decisions as a means of advocating for the poor, protecting vulnerable
communities, caring for God’s creation, and moving toward a sustainable
and healthy society.
In certain ways, looking at energy decisions as ethical decisions is new.
But its relative novelty does not in any way reduce its urgency. Indeed many
have watched the storms brewing for a long time. Some have striven through
their personal life decisions, advocacy, and community leadership to light a
new way. Others - particularly the fossil fuel industry and the elected
officials and scholars whose careers it has substantially bankrolled - have
already given many years and major resources to misinformation, obstruction,
and resistance, to protect the fossil fuel infrastructure and their vested interest
in it.
In response, religious and spiritual leaders are calling for climate action!
Many religious, spiritual, and environmental leaders gathered for COP 22
in Morocco affirm these necessary policy actions, as stated in the Interfaith
Statement on Climate Change, calling for:
n
States to rapidly increase pledges to reduce emissions, in line with the
1.5°C goal;
n
A collective shift by sovereign wealth funds and public sector pension
funds away from fossil fuels into renewables and other climate solutions;
nAn
increase in global financial flows to end energy poverty with
renewable energy and to provide for greater human and ecological
adaptation, particularly to compensate for loss and damage, technology
transfer and capacity building;
nEnsuring
that commitments related to human rights are upheld
effectively, including the rights of indigenous peoples, gender equality, a
just transition, food security, intergenerational equity and the integrity of
all ecosystems;
n Stricter
controls on the dispute mechanisms within trade agreements
that utilize extrajudicial tribunals to challenge government policies;
7
n
Within our own faith communities, for more commitments to divest
-invest from fossil fuels into renewable energy and targeted engagement
with companies on climate change; grounding this work in pursuing a
just transition to renewable energy.1
We cannot deny the moral nature of our decisions in the energy sphere.
It is increasingly impossible to cite ignorance of our implication in the
structures from which we benefit, and which we perpetuate, or to protest a
lack of viable options. Partnerships like Sustainable Energy For All advance
solutions, strategies, technologies, and capacity in multiple sectors globally.2
A moral response is obligatory by all ethical standards because there is no
community which permits a person or group to persist in harming others
by their actions, without warning, censure, or restriction. In the contemporary
reality of moral globalization, all are increasingly recognized as responsible
for the harm that is caused by their participation in social structures. Moral
communities do not authorize harm to others or to the future, and they
positively call upon us to choose life, in all of their voices, traditions, and
profound expressions of insight. The essays are intended to offer a light for
the path forward, and inspire our common resolve to take strong action to
build a new energy future.
CREATIONAL
SOLIDARITY
STRENGTHENS
THE WEAKEST LINK:
Energy Ethics and Climate Change
in Sub-Saharan Africa
nF
R. EDWARD OSANG OBI, MSP
Nigerian Catholic Ethicist
Even more urgently, a shift must occur
in the pace and scale of change in our
collective action to invest in and build
renewable energy systems.
1 Interfaith Statement on Climate Change
2 Sustainable Energy for All
GREENFAITH.ORG I INTERFAITHSTATEMENT2016.ORG
8
Introduction: The Metaphor of the Weakest Link
FR. EDWARD OBI, MSP, Ph.D, is a Catholic Priest and
social ethicist from Nigeria, who advocates for good
governance, safe environments, and secure livelihoods. In
addition to teaching Moral Theology at the Catholic
Institute of West Africa (CIWA), he is National
Coordinator of a coalition of environmental NGOs
working for peace and curbing violence in communities
in the Niger Delta region. Fr. Obi runs a technical agency
for the Niger Delta Catholic Bishops’ Forum (NDCBF),
known as Gas Alert for Sustainable Initiative (GASIN).
This agency is dedicated to following and, possibly,
influencing developments in the gas sector in Nigeria, to
ensure that less harmful technologies are used in the
inherently dangerous processes of dehydrating and
utilizing natural gas as an interim fuel.
Conventional wisdom teaches that a chain, however strong, is broken at
its weakest link. Ecologically speaking, nature can be likened to a strong
chain in which every link is connected to the one before and the one after
it, in a coordinated, consistent, mutual reinforcement of life. Christian
religious wisdom too recognizes and upholds “a solidarity among all creatures
arising from the fact that all have the same Creator and are all ordered to his
glory”.1 This solidarity is preserved by divine providence, as all creation is in
a ‘state of journeying’ (in statu viae) toward an ultimate perfection yet to be
attained, that to which God has destined it.2 Human beings do not stand
outside of, but are fully integrated with and sustained by this awesome array
of natural processes.3 Whereas human activity should protect and sustain this
ever provident planet, the brazen pursuit of so-called growth and progress,
and the accompanying consumerist attitude and behavior in the last two
centuries of our existence, has in fact severely weakened several links in this
ecological chain-of-being. So weakened is it that the entire chain is in
danger of breaking up.
I believe that humanity can still rise to the occasion and exercise our
natural human instinct to protect earth’s ecological resources. To do this
successfully, we must acknowledge climate change as the human problem
that it is, change our present patterns of consumption, and adopt new ways
of living that are consistent with the desire to avert this impending
catastrophe. Now more than ever before, human beings must begin to see
themselves as part of the planetary ecosystem, and “learn to live within these
systems rather than falsely see ourselves as exceptional in relation to the rest
of the natural world.”4 In practical terms the responsibilities cannot be
uniform. It may require that people in some regions of the world like North
America, Europe and parts of Oceania must consider reducing consumption
1 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Catechism of the Catholic Church (Vatican City Dublin: Liberia Editrice Vaticana - Veritas, 1995), No. 344. Emphasis original.
2 Ibid., No. 302.
3 See Pope Francis, Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home
(Vatican City: Liberia Editrice Vaticana, 24 May 2015), No. 138.
4 Whitney A. Bauman, “Developing a Planetary Ethic: Religion, Ethics and the Environment,” in
Religious and Ethical Perspectives for the Twenty-First Century, ed. Paul O. Myhre
(Winona, MN: Anselm Academic, 2013), p. 228.
11
in favor of impoverished people around the planet.5 The new lifestyle we
adopt must be based on a shift to, and an appropriate utilization of, renewable
energy resources.
The scourge of Climate Change and the Call
to Ecological Conversion
Our present experience of the external manifestations of climate change
include unusual events like rising sea levels and persistent floods, expanding
deserts and decreasing productive land, exploding human populations/
habitations in urban and semi-urban areas, which put a strain on amenities
and resources like potable water. Plastic pollution and untreated sewage in
waterways exacerbate these impacts. While different parts of the world are
impacted differently, the global impact is unmistakable. In Africa, for instance,
we are increasingly seeing violent conflicts between hitherto peaceful
neighboring communities and between pastoralists and farmers, all generated
and/or sustained by the anxieties associated with scarcity of natural resources,
anxieties induced by climate change.6 These trends warn in the sternest way
yet that the interconnected web of nature is crying out for reprieve against the
absolute independence and dominion of human beings.7
This crisis that has brought planet earth to the brink of disaster has been
brought about, at least partly, by human activity and human choices,8 and it
portends a tragedy of immeasurable proportions, not merely because of
what our species stands to lose, but because humanity itself has so far failed
to rise to the occasion and do what is natural to it. It is in our nature to care
for and tend the earth, to make it more bounteous and more provident to
all earth’s inhabitants.9 This moral failure is a negation of our humanity,
which calls for conversion, for there is no limit to the incalculable workings
5 Cf. Ibid., p. 223.
6 See William Tsuma, “Climate Change-Conflict Nexus: Framework for Policy-Oriented
Action,” Conflict Trends, no. 2 (2011). http://accord.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/
ACCORD-Conflict-Trends-2011-2.pdf [accessed 24/10/2016].
7 Pope Francis, No. 117.
8 Cf. Brian Stiltner, Toward Thriving Communities:Virtue Ethics as Social Ethics (
Winona, MN: Anselm Academic, 2016), p. 112.
9 See Anthony J. Kelly, Laudato Si’: An Integral Ecology and the Catholic Vision (Adelaide, SA: ATF
Theology, 2016), p. 30.
12
of grace in our hearts. Kelly sums this up well when he writes, “[E]cological
conversion, whether it occurs from above by the grace of God or grows
from below by renewed efforts to explore and act, is the basis for a new
lifestyle capable of carrying its convictions to the political, economic and
social world.”10 This will certainly not be easy for those who are used to
affluent lifestyles. Ecological conversion must be embarked upon as a mark
of the solidarity of all humanity. Solidarity, as Pope Francis unequivocally
states, “presumes the creation of a new mindset which thinks in terms of
community and the priority of the life of all over the appropriation of
goods by a few.”11 He further says, “[T]he dignity of the human person and
the common good rank higher than the comfort of those who refuse to
renounce their privileges.”12 Structures and systems that uphold and support
this individualist or group socio-economic one-upmanship are unjust and
unethical. Every Christian should denounce these structures not because
people with privilege and security are bad, but because in their group-think
and collective action they become blind to the needs of others, and thereby
constrain flourishing and stifle the common good.13
It is in our nature to care for and tend the
earth, to make it more bounteous and
more provident to all earth’s inhabitants.
This moral failure is a negation of our
humanity, which calls for conversion,
for there is no limit to the incalculable
workings of grace in our hearts.
10 Ibid., p. 14.
11 Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium: On the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s World (Vatican City:
Liberia Editrice Vaticana, Nov. 2013), No. 188.
12 Ibid., No. 217.
13 Cf. Stiltner, p. 112.
13
Two Worlds Apart: The Scandal of Energy Poverty
in the Global South
Energy poverty in Sub-saharan Africa is a typical example of how large
groups can become blind or insensitive to the needs of others. The ‘two
worlds’ that Ramanathan describes inhabit the same planet and share the
same biogeophysical realities, yet could never be farther apart in terms of
privilege and security. The world of the bottom 3 billion (B3B), unlike that
of the top 4 billion (T4B), is starved of even the basic energy to lift them
out of poverty, yet it is least prepared for, and stands to suffer, the worst
effects of climate change! With regard to global emissions, “the entire B3B
world contributes only 6% of fossil CO2 emissions while about 2.5 billion
in T4B contributed as much as 85%.”14 The burdens and privileges are,
therefore, not equitably shared, and the problem of energy poverty has direct
link with what has finally been recognized as the problem of global
inequalities. Jim Yong Kim, President,World Bank Group says, “inequality is
constraining national economies and destabilizing global collaboration in
ways that put humanity’s most critical achievements and aspirations at
risk.”15 Thus, where people stand on the global poverty-affluence ladder
also determines their access to energy. Taking into consideration that more
than half of the entire world’s extremely poor people live in Sub-saharan
Africa (an estimated 389 million of them), it easy to see that they are also
the worst affected by energy poverty.
For certain demographics like women and girl children in Africa, for
instance, the impact of the lack of access to needed good energy for basic
household use can be the difference between achieving their full potentiality
and remaining in the poverty trap. Chores like gathering dry wood for
cooking and heating are usually left to this segment of society, and the
number of hours per day spent on these chores subtracts from the time they
can give to other self-enhancement goals like education, healthy habits and
better living standards. They are, therefore, inadvertently rendered even
poorer and placed further down the poverty pile than their males
counterparts. This has implications for the assertion of women’s human
rights to full flourishing and equal treatment as dignified persons.
Energy Corporations’ Profit Motive and Human Need in Africa
The present energy poverty in Sub-saharan Africa is needless, yet it is the
result of a combination of factors that include corporate insensitivity to the
needs of the poor and poor leadership. The sheer absence of extensive
investment in clean renewable energy sources, of which Africa has abundance,
comes from a well orchestrated corporate strategy to keep this region
dependent on fossil fuels.This is evinced in the intensification of investments
by oil and gas companies in Exploration and Production (E&P), mostly
offshore,16 as against the present scanty investments in renewable sources.
This is upsetting when compared to the yearly amounts of investments
required to fully achieve an African renewable energy roadmap by 2030.17
In the last ten years, for instance, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda have become
important players in oil and gas, thanks to foreign investments in E&P. The
poor, however, have not yet been positively impacted by this expanding
fossil fuel industry. According to the Africa Progress Panel, “Africa’s energy
systems are inefficient and inequitable. They generate high-cost electricity
(around eight times the unit cost of countries in East Asia) through grids
that mainly serve national elites. Africa’s rich get subsidized energy. The
poor get to collect firewood, burn bio-mass and purchase charcoal.”18 The
Panel noted that Africa has an opportunity to skip the carbon-intensive
energy pathway followed by rich countries and emerging countries alike. Its
preference was clearly for renewable technologies that provide a low-cost
alternative. Sadly, however, “current investment plans and energy policies
14 Veerabhadran Ramanathan, “The Two Worlds Approach for Mitigating Air Pollution and Climate
Change,” Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Extra Series, no. 41 (May, 2014): 1.
15 The World Bank, Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2016:Taking on Inequality (Washington, DC, 2016), p.
ix.
16 See KPMG, Oil and Gas in Africa (Cape Town: KPMG, 2015). This Report states that about 57% of
all exports from Africa are based on hydrocarbons!
17 See IRENA, Africa 2030: Roadmap for a Renewable Energy Future (Abu Dhabi: International Renewable Energy Agency, 2015), P. 7. The authors are clear that in order to bring this transformation
about, “it would require on average USD 70 billion per year of investment between 2015 and
2030. Within that total, about USD 45 billion would be for generation capacity. The balance of
USD 25 billion would be for transmission and distribution infrastructure,” p. 7.
18 Andrew Johnston, Climate Change: An African Agenda for Green, Low-Carbon Development (Geneva:
Africa Progress Panel Expert Meeting, 2014), p. 12.
14
15
have set the region on a high-carbon pathway of dependence on coal and
oil. Charting a new course will require a fundamental rethink in approaches
to energy investment.”19
The sheer absence of extensive
investment in clean renewable energy
sources, of which Africa has abundance,
comes from a well orchestrated corporate
strategy to keep this region dependent on
fossil fuels.
It is well known that African governments lack the independent financial
and technological capacity to make and follow through with investment
decisions that would take a different course.Thus, foreign investors are once
again calling the shots, even in life-and-death matter of access to energy.
Because almost all the energy companies, their multinational oil and gas
collaborators and majority shareholding originate from the global North,
Africans have a good reason to believe that the energy companies are
Northward bound in their operational agenda, namely that of exploiting
natural resources from the South and supplying the rich markets of the
North.This may make good global business sense, but without an appropriate
concern for, or commensurate development of the regions whose land,
water and air are impacted by these industrial activities, it amounts to what
Pope Francis calls indifference at a globalized scale.20
This way of thinking and doing business, as observed repeatedly in the
present wave of globalization, inevitably disadvantages Africa and its people,
19Ibid.
20 Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, No. 54. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain
enthusiasm for that selfish ideal, a globalization of indifference has developed. Almost without
being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor,
weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone
else’s responsibility and not our own.
16
and once again African thinkers disavow “[T]he foreign investor [who] has
assumed all the characteristics of the former slave trader and colonialist,
aiming at getting the highest profits possible with minimum or no social
responsibilities whatsoever.”21 In the run-up to COP21, it was not surprising,
therefore, to hear an insistent voice urging that “African leaders should
[must] ensure that a global climate deal acknowledges the historical and
moral responsibility of the developed world to help poorer regions adapt to
climate effects. They should [must] also insist on Africa’s need to grow,
develop, create jobs and improve its people’s lives—notably by boosting
access to energy and transforming agriculture—even as it plays its own part
in moving towards a low-carbon future.”22 Today, it is all the more imperative
for all individual and corporate investors to insist that the so-called ‘double
zero’ ambition of eliminating poverty while decarbonizing energy systems
is factored into their investment decisions.This makes not only good ethical
business sense, but is also the pathway to a sustainable planet, for us and for
future generations.
Environmental Pollution and Energy Wastage:
The Example of Gas Flaring in Nigeria
The activities of multinational oil and gas companies in Nigeria over the
last fifty years have affected the environment in tragic ways. Incessant oil
spills due to a combination of human error, equipment failure and, more
recently, sabotage and illegal refining of crude oil by aggrieved local residents
and criminal gangs have blighted the landscape in many parts of Nigeria’s
Niger Delta region.23 Paradoxically, while shareholders of corporations like
ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, Total and Agip, mostly investors based in
Europe and North America, received huge dividends from their investments
21 John Mary Waliggo, “A Call for Prophetic Action,” in Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church:
The Plenary Papers from the First Cross-Cultural Conference on Catholic Theological Ethics., ed. James
Keenan (London: The Continuum Publishing Group, 2007), p. 257. Emphasis original.
22 Johnston, p. 18.
23 See Edward Osang Obi, “The Exploitation of Natural Resources: Reconfiguring Economic
Relations toward a Community-of-Interests Perspective,” in Just Sustainability:Technology, Ecology
and Resource Extraction, ed. Christiana Z Peppard and Andrea Vicini (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books,
2015); and Stakeholder Democracy Network, Communities Not Criminals: Illegal Oil Refining in the
Niger Delta (London and Port Harcourt: SDN, 2013).
17
in these companies, ecosystems were being irreparably damaged in the
Niger Delta region. The oil and gas industry has effectively destroyed the
livelihoods of ordinary residents in this region. Taking into consideration
that government presence is completely absent in many of these areas, the
operations of the industry have rendered residents more dependent on
irregular and inadequate corporate handouts (in the name of Corporate
Social Responsibility) that often lead to conflict among the people.
International investors and ethical investor bodies that have the capacity to
change the lot of those who suffer under the impact of their funds, should
be in a position to fact-check some of the information they receive from
the glossy pages of the Annual Reports rendered by their managers, lest they
be inadvertently complicit in the human rights abuses committed by the
companies they invest in.
The so-called ‘double zero’ ambition
of eliminating poverty while decarbonizing
energy systems in investment decisions
makes not only good ethical business
sense, but is also the pathway to a
sustainable planet, for us and for future
generations.
The case of gas flaring is pathetic. Natural gas flaring not only deliberately
wastes gas that is a by-product of oil exploration when the complex
infrastructure for capturing natural gas does not exist, it is also an important
source of emissions.24 In the midst of plenty Nigeria suffers some of the
worst energy poverty in Africa.25 Paradoxically, Nigeria still flares gas fifty
24 See Ansem O. Ajugwo, “Negative Effects of Gas Flaring: The Nigerian Experience,” Journal of
Environment Pollution and Human Health 1, no. 1 (2013): 7. Flared gas contains in the main Carbon
dioxide and Methane, apart from particulate matter that remains suspended in the atmosphere.
Together, these two gases make up 80% of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming.
25 Electricity generation and transmission in Nigeria has never topped 5,000 MW for any length of
time. In fact, it has often dropped to as low as 1,000 MW or less, for a national population of ap18
years after the oil and gas industry took off. According to the NNPC’s
Annual Statistical Bulletin, 2014, a total of 289.6 billion standard cubic feet,
SCF, of gas, representing 11.47 per cent of the total gas produced in the
country in that year was flared, with only marginal reduction reported in
the 2015 edition of the Bulletin.26 From that Bulletin it was also clear that
the Joint Venture companies “comprising the multinational oil companies
were the worst offenders in terms of quantity, as they flared 211.836 billion
SCF of gas, representing 11.2 per cent of their total gas production of 2.11
trillion SCF.”27 However, the Gas Flare Tracker, a GIS tracking system
developed conjointly by Civil Society and the Ministry of Environment in
Nigeria, warns that these figures are “calculated from incomplete data and
calibrated to other available statistics by multiplying yearly totals by 6”! This
facility also states that during the first ten months of 2016 Nigeria flared
559,805,544.11 Mscf,28 which translates to financial losses of about $1.9
trillion at an average cost price of $3.23 per standard cubic feet.29 This loss
is huge by any standards, but for a poor and developing nation that is
grappling with major gaps in energy and other infrastructure, amidst a
recessed economy, this is scandalous, to say the least.
Obviously, in the quest for competitive profit margins, the business
managers have calculated that it is cheaper to flare than to invest in the
infrastructure to capture the gas and use it to generate electricity for the
Nigerian people.This abuse of nature and its resources happens only because
the multinational oil and gas companies are in a business partnership with
the Nigerian government, in which the Nigerian National Oil Corporation
proximately 180 million people! In June 2016 generation was said to have stagnated at 3,032 MW
as against a National Peak Demand of 17,720 MW.
26 See Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, “2015 Annual Statistical Bulletin,” Annual Statistical
Bulletin (2015). http://www.nnpcgroup.com/Portals/0/Monthly%20Performance/2015%20
ASB%201st%20edition.pdf [accessed 29/10/2016].
27 Michael Eboh, “Nigeria Loses N174bn to Gas Flaring - N N P C,” The Vanguard Newspaper
(2015). http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/07/nigeria-loses-n174bn-to-gas-flaring-nnpc/ [accessed 23/10/2016].
28 Nigerian Ministry of Environment, “Nigerian Gas Flare Tracker”, FMoE and SDN http://gasflaretracker.ng/ (accessed 13/10/2016). The figures are conservative and based on limited satelite data.
The authors suggest these could be multiplied by a factor of 5 to bring them closer to figures from
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)
29 Average price of gas per cubic meter was computed from U.S. Natural Gas Industrial Price (January-July, 2016), at U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Natural Gas Industrial Price”, Department of Energy https://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/n3035us3m.htm (accessed 13/10/2016).
19
(NNPC) is majority shareholder. The companies thrive on a regulatory
structure that is scant on enforcement, and lobby to perpetuate this structure
so that their business benefits from it. Naomi Klein, who is aware of the
negative impact of this 50 year old practice, asserts, “[T]he practice is
responsible for about 40 percent of Nigeria’s total CO2 [sic] emissions.”30
Neither morality nor ecological concern should permit such recklessness,
especially in the face of the two extremes of energy affluence in the global
North and abject energy poverty in the South. All persons around the world
can call for transparency in emissions counting, demand that subsidies for
fossil fuels end, and advocate for national contributions to the Green
Climate Fund that will support the essential investments into renewable
energy structures instead of the inequitable and polluting extraction that is
the scourge of Nigeria.All individual and corporate investors can additionally
take positive action to mobilize capital and increase funding for clean energy
access. Initiatives like 1 for All, which invites partners to invest 1% of assets
to scale up funding for energy access, and Sustainable Energy for All, an
international forum to advance strategic investment, offer global-scale
opportunities for positive and transformative action that individuals can and
should support.31 More specifically, International Finance Institutions (IFIs)
should not do business with countries like Nigeria that waste energy
resources, and donor nations should not fund energy projects in these
countries, that leave no pathway to a renewable future.
Conclusion: A New Ethical Awakening
It is well known that in the last two centuries industrial-scale development,
growth and advancement in Europe and North America caused our species
to lose its common touch with the rest of creation, while entertaining
‘misconceived notions of greatness and agency’.32 This attitude to creation’s
30 Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs.The Climate (Toronto, Canada: Alfred A. Knoff,
2014), p. 264.
31 See See4All Forum, “Going Further, Faster - Together”, Sustainable Energy for All http://www.
se4all.org/forum (accessed 31/10/2016).
32 See Kevin Glauber Ahern, “Magnanimity: A Prophetic Virtue for the Anthropocene,” in Turning to
the Heavens and the Earth:Theological Reflections on Cosmological Conversion, ed. Julia Brumbaugh and
Natalia Imperatori-Lee (Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2016), p. 106.
20
others has so diminished life prospects in our common home that it pleads,
even now, that we ‘take another course’.33 Pope Francis’s call is a poignant
example of the voice of religion intervening in the public sphere, seeking and
forming new transformative partnerships between the secular and the
theological for the preservation of all that we hold dear. Beyond econometrics,
the religious injunction ’Thou shalt not kill’, according to Pope Francis, “sets
a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have
to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality.”34 Thus,
bridging the yawning gap between the over-supply of energy in the global
North and the problem of access to basic energy in the global South makes
not only econometric sense, but also fulfills religious obligation of solidarity
to eradicate extreme global poverty as a whole. Creational solidarity in the
sense in which The Catechism teaches that the Creator God not only gives
being and existence to His creatures, but also, and at every moment, upholds
and sustains them in being, while also enabling them to act and bringing them
to their final end,35 is eminently consistent with the African relational ethic of
responsibility for the earth and preservation of life. Living life to the full as a
creature, and giving life in its fullness to creation as a whole is at the centre of
this ethic. Laurenti Magesa, a leading thinker in this ethical framework, opines
that whatever gives or promotes life is considered good, just ethical, desirable,
and even divine. In the same way, whatever diminishes it is wrong, bad,
unethical, unjust, and detestable.36
Therefore, individuals and groups in whose favor the balance of the scales
of prosperity is tipped, whether by merit of their personal effort or by the
accident of birth place, have a corresponding moral responsibility to ensure
equity in the distribution of these goods. Thinking ethically, they must
realize that their use or ab-use of natural resources like fossil fuels for
amassing energy wealth always increases the energy deficit and living
standards of poorer people. Similarly, good or positive actions in this regard
can go a long way to easing the sufferings of many others elsewhere. All
33 See Pope Francis, Laudato Si’, No. 53.
34 Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, No. 54.
35 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, No. 301.
36 See Laurenti Magesa, African Religion:The Moral Traditions of Abundant Life (Nairobi: Daughters of
St. Paul, 1998), p. 77; Waliggo, p. 255. Emphasis original.
21
people must, therefore, “act with integrity and recognize the global impacts
of their personal and collective actions.”37 Goodwill that stretches out in
solidarity from the global North will surely be met with a commensurate
effort by ordinary Africans to make the shift necessary to a renewable future
for the common good. On the other hand, if Africa remains in poverty,
energy-wise and otherwise, this continent will constitute an unfortunate
weakest link in the planetary ecological chain, and humanity as a whole will
have to pay the price for this moral fault.
Bridging the yawning gap between
the over-supply of energy in the global
North and the problem of access to
basic energy in the global South makes
not only econometric sense, but also
fulfills religious obligation of solidarity to
eradicate extreme global poverty as
a whole.
37 Erin Lothes Biviano and others, “Catholic Moral Traditions and Energy Ethics for the Twenty-First
Century,” Journal of Moral Theology 5, no. 2 (2016): 2.
22
AWAKENING
OUR ENERGY:
A Buddhist Perspective
nD
AVID R. LOY, PH.D.
United States Buddhist scholar and Zen teacher
GREENFAITH.ORG I INTERFAITHSTATEMENT2016.ORG
T
DAVID ROBERT LOY is a professor of Buddhist and
comparative philosophy, writer, and Zen teacher in the
Sanbo Kyodan tradition of Japanese Zen Buddhism. His
essays and books have been translated into many
languages and his articles appear regularly in major
Buddhist and scholarly journals.
David lectures nationally and internationally on
various topics, focusing primarily on the encounter
between Buddhism and modernity: what each can learn
from the other. He is especially concerned about social
and ecological issues, and identifies an important parallel
between what Buddhism says about our personal
predicament and our collective predicament today in
relation to the rest of the biosphere.
oday no issue is more important than climate change, which is the
most urgent aspect of an ecological crisis that threatens civilization
as we know it, and perhaps even our survival as a species. Reliable
scientific research has determined that between two-thirds and four-fifths
of the fossil fuels (oil, coal, and natural gas) already available to us cannot be
used without catastrophic results. At the recent COP21 Paris conference,
governments acknowledged that most of those fuels must remain in the
ground, unburned, if we are to avoid global temperature increases that will
far exceed the 1.5C limited endorsed by that agreement. As the Bank of
England governor, Mark Carney, declared: “the vast majority of reserves are
unburnable.” At present, however, most of the energy we consume is
produced by fossil fuels, and the powerful corporations that market and use
those polluting fuels are working hard to keep it that way.
What does Buddhism offer that might help us understand this situation
and respond to it?
Needless to say, global warming is not a topic addressed in traditional
Buddhist texts or practices, because Buddhism originated and developed in
pre-modern Asian cultures where that was not an issue. Nevertheless,
Buddhism includes many teachings that are quite relevaant, because they
have implications that can be applied to our new predicament. When we
understand the basic teachings shared by all Buddhist traditions, we can see
how they support the importance and urgency of switching from fossil fuels
to renewable sources of energy such as solar, wind, and hydrothermal.
We are not “in” nature, we are nature, one
of its many mutually dependent species
The most important concept in Buddhism is dukkha, usually translated as
“suffering.” Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha who lived about 2400 years
ago, emphasized that what he had to teach was dukkha and how to end it.
The earliest Buddhist texts distinguish different types of dukkha, but at the
core of our suffering is the common delusion that I am separate from other
people and from the rest of the world—which implies the further delusion
25
that my well-being is separate from the well-being of other people and the
rest of the world. Thus this teaching also emphasizes our interdependence,
that all of us are not only interconnected but actually dependent on each
other for our very existence. “We are here to overcome the illusion of our
separateness,” according to the influential Vietnamese teacher Thich Nhat
Hanh. That means realizing not only our intrinsic relationship with other
people, but also our nonduality with the ecosystems of the earth. The
biosphere is not just an environment (where we happen to live) but a living
organism that we are part of. We are not “in” nature, we are nature, one of
its many mutually dependent species.
Institutions such as churches and private
schools should not continue to profit from
the use of fossil fuels.
This means that we cannot damage the earth’s intricate web of life
without injuring ourselves—which is exactly what we are doing. Climate
change is only part of a larger ecological challenge that our species is
responsible for, including the extinction of many plant and animal species,
but it is an essential part of that crisis -- the most urgent aspect of it -- and
already causing vast amounts of suffering. To cite only a few examples:
increasing carbon in the atmosphere has already melted enough polar ice to
swamp low-lying Pacific islands and force their residents to abandon their
homes; warmer ocean water is producing more destructive storms, as well
as damaging coral reefs; weather patterns are becoming destabilized, causing
more extreme droughts and floods.All the world’s coastal cities are threatened
by higher sea levels.The number of “climate refugees” is rapidly increasing….
And these problems will continue to worsen as long as we remain dependent
on fossil fuels.
In Buddhist terms, all of this involves a massive increase in dukkha—not
only for humanity, but for many other species and ecosystems as well. What
do Buddhist teachings say about the causes and the end of suffering? And
are those teachings applicable to this burgeoning, now global issue?
26
In addition to the problem of delusion, mentioned above, the earliest
Buddhist texts emphasize the role of tanha “craving”—in other words, our
desires. Traditionally, these have been understood in individual terms: one’s
personal sense of being a separate self, and the insatiable desires of such a
self, end up causing suffering. In accordance with this, until quite recently
Buddhist institutions and practitioners in Asia seldom engaged in movements
for social justice or environmental preservation.This restriction was probably
unavoidable: no pre-modern Buddhist society was democratic, and Buddhists
had to mind their own business to avoid authoritarian repression. Today,
however, the globalization of Buddhism, along with modern developments
in many Buddhist nations, have opened up new possibilities for the tradition,
and such transformations are consistent with Buddhism’s emphasis that
everything (including Buddhism!) is impermanent and change is inevitable.
These include the development of a more socially engaged Buddhism that
is more aware of what might be called social dukkha: the suffering caused
not by one’s individual karma but by social institutions. There is no better
example of that than the ecological crisis, and most urgently the challenge
of climate change.
Today, however, the globalization
of Buddhism has opened up new
possibilities, including what might be
called social dukkha: the suffering caused
not by one’s individual karma but by social
institutions. There is no better example of
that than the ecological crisis, and most
urgently the challenge of climate change.
An increasing number of Buddhist teachers now acknowledge that
delusion and craving also function collectively, and have even become
institutionalized. Our species has created a global civilization that feels
27
increasingly separate from the natural world, treating it as little more than a
collection of resources to be exploited for our own benefit. Craving, in
particular, has been institutionalized into a ravenous consumerism where
individuals never consume enough, and the economy is never big enough.
Why is more and more always better, if it can never be enough? From a
Buddhist perspective, these are the root of the ecological crisis, as well as at
the heart of modern discontent and anxiety. But these issues cannot be
addressed without finding ways to alleviate the most urgent issue of all: the
still-increasing levels of carbon in the atmosphere, largely due to the
continued use of fossil fuels.
Given these basic Buddhist principles, it is not difficult to derive perspectives
on energy conversion that can be translated into policy recommendations.
The following suggestions are not the only ones possible, but they are
consistent with the broad Buddhist concern to minimize the suffering of
individuals, groups, and the other species of our interdependent biosphere:
Due to the various types of suffering caused by the present use of fossil
fuels, and the vast increase in suffering that will occur if we continue to
burn them, we must convert to clean, renewable sources of energy, as quickly
as possible.
Amazingly, the governments of many nations, including the United States,
still subsidize the extraction of fossil fuels, despite the fact that fossil fuel
corporations are among the most profitable in human history. Such benefits
should be immediately repealed, and in their place subsidies should be
provided to aid our transformation to an economy that runs on clean energy.
A study released in June 2015 by Stanford engineering professor Mark
Jacobson demonstrated that we already have the technologies needed to
completely convert all 50 of the United States to 80% renewable energy by
2030, and to 100% by 2050. Since atmospheric carbon levels are already
very high—the highest they have been since at least 800,000 years ago -- it
is important that this conversion become one of our highest priorities, and
be fully completed by 2050.
As an important intermediary to support this transformation, governments
should impose a carbon tax, which could be gradually increased as cleaner
sources of energy become more readily available. Fossil fuels should be taxed
at source, and, to minimize the burden that this would impose on workingclass and middle-class families, tax refunds should be provided to families
that earn below a certain threshold.
Although the issue of how much global temperatures should be allowed
to rise is controversial, the 2015 Paris Agreement acknowledges that a 2
degree C. increase (since 1951-1980) is too high, given the disastrous effects
of the smaller increases that have already happened. Participating nations
agreed to aim at a maximum increase of 1.5 degrees C—which may soon
be impossible, given the amount of carbon already in the atmosphere—and
it is important to support efforts that aim at that limit.
There is also the issue of employment losses that will occur with the
conversion to clean energy. New policies should take account of this by
providing job retraining and other programs to improve economic
conditions for those who may be adversely affected.
Historically, modern developed nations such as the US and Western
Europe have emitted the most carbon into the atmosphere, and in the
process have benefited the most economically. Ironically, poorer nations in
Africa and south Asia have emitted the least carbon, but some of them are
presently suffering more from climate change, and stringent limits on their
future emissions threaten the economic development that their populations
naturally seek. This means that wealthier nations such as the United States
have a responsibility to aid them, financially and technologically, not only to
help them achieve carbon-emission limits, but also to assist in development
projects that promote their health and well-being—and, not incidentally,
the well-being of their ecosystems.
28
29
It is essential to emphasize that this
disinvestment is a crucial moral issue
as well as an economic one, in order to
“delegitimize” continued reliance on
polluting sources of energy.
The fossil fuel industry remains extremely
profitable and extraordinarily powerful; its
ability to influence our political institutions
is enormous.
To promote these changes, institutions such as churches and private
schools should divest themselves from all investments in fossil fuel
corporations, and invest instead in clean energy sources such as solar, wind,
and hydrothermal. The fossil fuel industry remains extremely profitable and
extraordinarily powerful; its ability to influence our political institutions is
enormous, and we cannot naively expect that the usual political channels
available to concerned citizens—for example, voting, writing letters to
elected representatives, and so forth—will be sufficient to bring about the
change of direction that is needed. It is essential to emphasize that this
disinvestment is a crucial moral issue as well as an economic one, in order
to “delegitimize” continued reliance on polluting sources of energy.
Institutions such as churches and private schools should not continue to
profit from the use of fossil fuels. Whether or not this has much effect on
the share prices of such companies, it is important as part of an educational
process that focuses on how crucial the issue of energy conversion is.
Other nonviolent measures may become necessary and, in my opinion,
they are compatible with Buddhist teachings: for example, resistance
movements such as that against the Keystone pipeline, and more recently
the Standing Rock encampment protesting the Dakota pipeline.
In such ways, the primary concern of Buddhist teachings and practice—
to understand and alleviate dukkha suffering—can be applied to understand
and respond to the greatest challenge of our time.
SA-MOANA
THEOLOGY:
‘A Way of Doing Things’
Empowered by Faith
for Humanity and Ecology
nP
AUSA KAIO THOMPSON
Congregational Christian Church of American Samoa
clergy and environmental advocate
GREENFAITH.ORG I INTERFAITHSTATEMENT2016.ORG
30
Oceania is vast, Oceania is expanding,
Oceania is hospitable and generous,
Oceania is humanity rising from the
depths of brine and regions of fire deeper
still, Oceania is us. We are the sea; we are
the ocean….”
Epeli Hau’ofa, We are the Ocean; selected works.
Introduction
PAUSA KAIO THOMPSON, Clergy
Member of the Congregational Christian
Church of American Samoa. Graduate of the
Kanana Fou Theological Seminary (Bachelor
of Divinity ’15). Currently an MA (2017)
candidate at Union Theological Seminary in
the city of New York. Actively involved with
The Center for Earth Ethics and Climate
Justice initiatives at Union.
In Oceania, certain unnatural manifestations have impacted the way faith
communities are responding to the reality of climate change.These unnatural
manifestations pose great danger to the Oceanic people, threatening the
existence of our culture, lands, and the ocean; all that sustains and informs
us of our place in the world. In other words, the oceans have become angry,
the land disgruntled, the people it once entrusted to keep the balance have
abandoned them. The tipping point of catastrophic climate change is upon
Oceania; it is upon the world.
In Search of Home: Exile in the Pacific
Despite this reality of climate change, the people of Oceania refuse to
remain silent. We are responding by fighting the extraction of natural
resources and its effects on the ocean and land on many fronts. For example,
the continuous subjugation, displacement, and cultural genocide of the
indigenous people and land of West Papua New Guinea by the government
of Indonesia is an example of 21st century colonialism, something the
Pacific people of Oceania struggle to overcome still today.1 This particular
fight, the West Papuan struggle, has cultural and ecological implications that
1 See Carmel Budiardjo and Soei Liong, West Papua:The Obliteration of a People (Surrey: TAPOL,
1988).
33
are the result of western corporate interests (under the watch of the
Indonesian military) in natural resources. According to a recent article from
the online source World Energy News;“There are currently 63 uncommitted
cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNGLF) (LNG) for 2017 delivery from
Indonesia’s Tangguh and Bontang projects…[said] the country’s Director
General of Oil and Gas.” Furthermore, “The 63 cargoes is the equivalent of
about 6.99 million tons of LNG, based on Reuters calculations…Despite
the inability to use the gas domestically and falling demand abroad, Indonesia
has approved an expansion of the Tangguh LNG project in the country’s
West Papua province that will boost annual LNG production capacity by 50
percent.”2 It is the exploitation of fossil fuel resources like LNG, copper,
gold, and logging that have kept our brothers and sisters from West Papua in
an often times violent struggle for full autonomy from Indonesia. The
oppression of native West Papuan people is a direct result of foreign interests
in the resources of the land, pushing the people further to the margins,
especially due to the Indonesian Governments Transmigration program that
has resettled over three quarters of a million native Indonesians to huge
mining sights along the Indonesia/PNG border. Such programs are a direct
attempt to force indigenous people to lower altitudes away from prospective
mining zones.The plight of West Papua has prompted great concern within
the faith communities to look closely at how the exploitation of these
resources through colonial systems and power structures are directly
affecting indigenous communities.3 Recently, a statement from the Catholic
Women of West Papua was released expressing the urgency of the conditions
West Papuan’s face daily: “We want you to know that we are not free. We
are confined in a situation that is full of violence. Because of the Indonesian
police and military we do not feel safe in our own land.”4
2 Wilda Asmarini, “7 Million Tonnes of Indonesian LNG Uncommitted for 2017 Delivery,”
World Energy News (2016): accessed Oct 24, 2016, URL:http://www.worldenergynews.com/news/
million-tonnes-indonesian-lng-uncommitted-for-2017-652605.
3 Australia West Papua Association, Sydney: accessed Oct 26, 2016, URL: https://www.cs.utexas.
edu/users/cline/papua/core.htm.
4 Statement of the Catholic Women of West Papua in Response to the Visit of the Bishops’ Conference of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands to the Diocese of Jayapura, Papua (2016), accessed Oct 26, 2016, URL: https://cjpcbrisbane.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/2016-09-04_statement-of-the-catholic-women.pdf
34
This lens of Sa-Moana theology calls the
people of Samoa to action. How should
we go about doing Sa-Moana theology;
how do we go about doing a Sa-Moana
theology that promotes an energy ethic
for all of creation?
In addition, rising sea levels have impacted all islands of the Pacific. However,
they are more visible on islands like Tuvalu, with the average height of the
islands only 2 meters (6.6 ft.) above sea level. Low-lying islands like Tuvalu are
the most vulnerable to rising-sea levels. “According to the UN
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s assessment, we’re in for at least
one to three feet of sea level rise by the end of the century.” Some, like NASA
scientist James Hansen and other climate researchers warn that sea level is
rising much faster than expected, with the possibility of “as much as a 10-foot
sea-level rise in as little as 50 years.”5 One Tuvaluan pastor relayed to me in
2015, “the people are moving further inland because of coastal villages being
uninhabitable due to the salt water–which usually finds its way up to the front
door–overwhelming the soil used to grow food.” Another person, a seminary
student, stated, “most of my family are either already in Australia or merely
awaiting to be relocated to other Pacific islands.”
It is the testimony and lived experiences of the people that has compelled
faith leaders to become more proactive in their fight against climate change.
Especially, given the fact that climate change has given rise to a new
humanitarian crisis in the making, namely, climate refugees. With more and
more people displaced, either by unnatural manifestations, or simply because
they are no longer able to tend to their lands as their ancestors did, exile is
their only hope for survival. These issues, amongst others, have been given
great priority in the Pacific by local villagers, governments, and faith leaders
5 Cole Melino, “Meet the World’s First Climate Change Refugees,” Eco Watch (2016), accessed Oct
26, 2016, URL: http://www.ecowatch.com/meet-the-worlds-first-climate-refugees-1882143026.
html.
35
because they are the most imminent threat to our people, cultures, and
ecosystems that shape the anatomy of Oceania. In this regard, climate change
poses the greatest threat to humanity because its destructive power has yet
to reach its full potential. If the local struggles for justice from places like
Tuvalu and West Papua are continuously ignored by so-called developed
countries who promote unbridled energy consumption for capital gain, the
likelihood of climate change becoming irreversible is inevitable.
There can be no compromise, for it
is compromise that has led us to this
disturbing reality, endangering our
future generations, as well as the life
of our planet.
God’s Agency in the World
What can we do? How can our small islands impact climate change?
These are the types of questions many Pacific people are asking themselves.
Speaking from my own faith tradition of the Congregational Christian
Church of American Samoa (CCCAS), and the cultural lens of the Fa’a
Samoa,6 Samoans are accustomed to applying traditional concepts to new
actions that illumine the indigenous wisdom of those concepts. Fittingly, a
response to the very present danger of climate change merits a holistic
understanding of the traditional terms of Tiute or Faiva, as used by Ioelu
Onesemo in his co-authored book with CCCAS General Secretary and
theologian Ama’amalele Tofaeono, Constructing SA-Moana Contextual
Theology. Onesemo uses the two terms, tiute and faiva, to articulate the active
role of Sa-Moana theology. He states:
To really bring out the full sense of the word tiute or task in the
vernacular of Sa-Moana, and to distinguish it from nature and
purpose, a consideration of the term faiva fit in well here. Faiva
initially refers to a fishing activity. In conceptual terms it is a
process that is actively in progress. It also means specialty, skills,
crafts, expedition and exploration…. Tiute speaks of task as
process and method of a Sa-Moana theology. In some sense, tiute
speaks of duty, skills, expertise, responsibility, crafts and expedition.
Ultimately, it comes down to tiute as to how we should go about
doing Sa-Moana theology.7
This lens of Sa-Moana theology calls the people of Samoa to action, both
in relation to their cultural and Christian identities. Here, tiute can also
inform the Samoan-Christian of his/her duty in righting the brokenness
caused by humanity with nature. The question posited above; how should
we go about doing Sa-Moana theology, can be extended by asking; how do
we go about doing a Sa-Moana theology that promotes an energy ethic for
all of creation? Asking this question can help Pacific people understand
their own tasks, responsibilities, and duty in preserving our common home.
Fundamental Christian teachings of love, fellowship, communion, and unity
were pivotal in Samoan people accepting the Gospel of the early missionaries.
Although first shared not without a high degree of Eurocentric superiority
that overpowered indigenous wisdom and traditions central to Samoan
culture, these universal truths of the Gospel were embraced because they
pre-existed the arrival of missionaries. For example, the confession of sins
against God and creation is fundamental in Samoan culture. Samoan people
view confession not necessarily as an act coerced by shame or guilt, or
incited by wickedness; rather, confession on behalf of the individual for the
community clears the pathway for newness, it incites new thought and right
thinking. In adapting a more sustainable energy ethic, Samoan people, and
all inhabitants of Oceania must cast off life threatening acts that are hurting
our oceans, earth, and all living organisms. Confession can be seen as the
7 Ama’amalele Tofaeono, Ioelu Onesemo, Constructing SA-Moana Contextual Theology (Pago Pago:
Taumainu’u mau Publishing Ltd., 2016), 65-66.
6Literally, the Samoan way of doing things.
36
37
individual act of Pacific people for the betterment of the global community.
If it is true that humanity has ruptured the great balance of life, then, it is
humanity that must make even greater strides to restore that balance. This
entails a total rejection of harmful consumer ethics that quenches our want
for over consumption.We, the people of Oceania, confess that interchanging
our complicit wants for a more life sustaining need based consumption is
vital in moving forward, a return to the indigenous ways of existing and
embracing simplicity again. Erin Lothes highlights this point well by
stressing that “the value of simplicity can easily become lost and inefficient.”8
Furthermore, simplicity is often compromised depending on class values.
This denigration of class values is one example of how capitalism infringes
ancient traditional values of simplicity.
result of consumerism–were sources of contamination affecting the earth
and already deteriorating underground water storage tanks, especially
during high levels of rainfall. Furthermore, the report addressed the need to
strategize in light of these alarming results:
Freshwater resource managers in American Samoa are facing
climate change issues. A projected increase in frequency and
intensity of extreme rainfall events, rising sea level, and rising air
temperature are among these climate-related dynamics. This
affirms the need for effective climate change adaptation strategies,
particularly with respect to protecting water quality.9
The class divide plays a significant role in who is most affected by climate
change in tropical settings like Samoa/American Samoa. Samoans who are
at or below the poverty line rely heavily on the natural resources of the
islands. Fresh groundwater resources have begun to diminish with the lower
classes obviously feeling the brunt of this reality. According to a recent study
conducted by the Pacific Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments
team (Pacific RISA), the American Samoa Environmental Protection
Agency (ASEPA) tested samples of ground water during 2002-2014
confirming that poor surface water quality is an ongoing problem in my
homeland of American Samoa. These testings’ produced alarming results
like impaired streams or watersheds; a significant decline in stream water
quality impacting aquatic life; and numerous beaches classified as “not
supporting” public swimming. Pacific RISA also reported that landfills–the
Amongst other public reports, these findings express the imminent
danger tropical ecosystems face due to climate change, affecting all forms of
life on the island. There is a dire need for Pacific people to adapt new ways
of life that can help secure the future of generations to come. Pope Francis,
in his recent Encyclical on the environmental crisis Laudato Si, calls for a
radical transformation of cultural, social, political, environmental, economic
and religious practices that are hurting all of creation. For Samoa and the
Pacific, some of these changes must involve investment in long term
rainwater and groundwater conservation. There is a huge problem with the
waste generated from plastic water bottles on small islands that are then
dumped into landfills further contaminating the earth. Reducing consumer
complacency would require public trust in the water systems available for
consumption, i.e. tap water, private and public. This, of course, is one small
step towards sustainability, but nonetheless equally significant at the local
level in making a global impact.
Therefore, on a much larger scale, the move towards renewable energy
would be extremely beneficial for people living on such small land masses
like the Pacific islands. As is, our reliance on corporate controlled sources of
energy (coal, natural gas, oil, etc.) paralyzes our ethical sensibilities towards
the earth. And although we must hold those who carry the ‘greater sin’
accountable, by no means does it extricate us of our own sins against the
8 Erin Lothes Biviano, Inspired Sustainability (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2016), 88-90.
9 Pacific RISA, “Fresh Water and Drought in American Samoa (2016), accessed Oct 26, 2016, URL:
http://www.pacificrisa.org/?s=American+Samoa&submit=Go.
The island people of Oceania are doing
our part. We call upon the world to take
similar actions by investing in renewable
energy that will secure all our futures.
38
39
earth. In Matthew’s rendering of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus asked the
masses: “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not
notice the log that is in your own eye?”To be agents of God’s love and grace
in the world commands radical renewal, self-reflection, and accountability.
We petition the spirit of God to enter the
hearts and minds of those nations leading
in CO2 emissions to help make climate
change be a solvable problem of the
21st century.
Sustainable Energy: A Hope for The Future
The island people of Oceania are doing our part. We confess that we are
accountable for the future survival of our biological and natural kin, the
ocean and land. However, in the spirit of community, we call upon the
world to take similar actions by investing in renewable energy that will
secure all our futures. We petition the spirit of God to enter the hearts and
minds of those nations leading in CO2 emissions to help make climate
change be a soluble problem of the 21st century. Investing in eco-friendly
sources of energy like; Biofuel, Biomass, Geothermal, Hydro and Tidal power,
Solar, Wave, and Wind power are all feasible options that can lead to real
progress. To realistically consider these sources of energy for the future, the
present day corporate manipulation of fossil fuel prices must be scrutinized
from all angles. According to Oil Change International, an online journal that
exposes the systemic ways fossil fuels are internationally priced to appeal to
consumers, a fossil fuel subsidy is “any government action that lowers the
cost of fossil fuel energy production, raises the price received by energy
producers, or lowers the price paid by energy consumers. Essentially, it’s
anything that rigs the game in favor of fossil fuels compared to other energy
sources.”10 Furthermore:
10 Oil Change International, “Fossil Fuel Subsidies: An Overview,” (2016), accessed Oct 28, 2016,
40
One of the most urgent reasons to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies
is the rapidly dwindling carbon budget—the remaining amount
of greenhouse gases we are able to emit while having a hope of
staying below the temperature warming limits agreed to by
world leaders. Simply put, we can only afford to burn less than a
quarter of known fossil fuel reserves. In this context, putting
public money towards finding and burning more fossil fuels just
doesn’t make sense.11
We realize that this transformation entails a radical break away from
dependence on fossil fuels, especially considering that the “G20
governments—which includes many of the world’s most developed
countries…are providing support to oil, gas, and coal companies to the tune
of $444 billion per year, between direct national subsidies, domestic and
international finance, and state-owned enterprise investment.”12 Nonetheless,
these are difficult but necessary actions towards sustainability. Said otherwise,
it is time to halt fossil fuel funding and invest in clean energy.
The science clearly supports what people in the Pacific are experiencing;
climate change is real! However, the corporate entities that profit from the
denigration of our common home continue to deny the findings of scientists
concerning the imminent destruction of our planet. Regarding this point,
it is vital that faith and scientific communities reconcile their differences and
begin a process of healing to hold fossil fuel corporations accountable for
their actions, and preserve the divine and natural gift of life central to both
science and religion. As Pacific people of God, faith communities of the
world are invited to stand with us, to take on tiute in their own distinct ways.
It is no longer enough to just recycle and go-green. Rather, the visible trajectory
towards ecological decay in the 21st century demands that leaders of faith
communities find their voices to advocate for large scale change.This means
that faith communities must be inclusive in their ministries. In other words,
the Gospel to the disenfranchised, subjugated, poor, and down-trodden is
not solely a ministry referring to humanity; rather, it is a universal, cosmic,
URL: http://priceofoil.org/fossil-fuel-subsidies/.
11Ibid.
12Ibid.
41
and holistic Gospel of compassion towards nature as well. If the earth is in
peril, it is our responsibility as Christians, and kin, to heal, nurture, and
protect her.
In the Pacific, faith and spirituality is a fundamental truth of our identity.
Our actions are strengthened by our prayers for God to guide us on this
journey towards sustainability, and we invite the so-called developed world
to take part in this journey towards sustenance. As previously mentioned, we
the people of Oceania have chosen to be God’s agency in our part of the
world concerning climate change. Koreti Tiumalu, 350.org Pacific
Coordinator, recently stated during a week-long prayer initiative to raise
awareness in the Pacific: “We cannot build a Pacific Climate Movement
without engaging our faith communities. Faith is pivotal to our people, and
like the ocean, it connects us. In the face of the climate crisis, we need
prayer to carry our people and faith to build resilience.”13 We ask that faith
communities, governments, and people worldwide pray for us. More
importantly, our hope is that your prayers for the Pacific are compelled by
serious interests to fight climate change in your own countries by investing
in renewable energy.There can be no compromise, for it is compromise that
has led us to this disturbing reality, endangering our future generations, as
well as the life of our planet.
To Touch the Face of God: An Invitation
Customarily, in Samoa, it is only fitting that I bid Soifua (farewell) in the
manner of which I greeted you Talofa (greetings), with the words of the
great Pacific poet and writer Epeli Hau’ofa:
‘Oceania’ connotes a sea of islands with their inhabitants. The
world of our ancestors was a large sea full of places to explore, to
make their homes in, to breed generations of seafarers like
themselves. People raised in this environment were at home with
the sea.They played in it as soon as they could walk steadily, they
worked in it, they fought on it. They developed great skills for
navigating their waters, and the spirit to traverse even the few
13 350 Pacific (2016), accessed Oct2016, URL: http://350pacific.org/prayforourpacific/.
42
large gaps that separated their island groups. Theirs was a large
world in which peoples and cultures moved and mingled
unhindered by boundaries of the kind erected much later by
imperial powers. From one island to another they sailed to trade
and to marry, thereby expanding social networks for greater flow
of wealth. They travelled to visit relatives in a wide variety of
natural and cultural surroundings, to quench their thirst for
adventure, and even to fight and dominate.14
As Pacific people of God, faith
communities of the world are invited to
stand with us, to take on tiute in their
own distinct ways. The visible trajectory
towards ecological decay in the 21st
century demands that leaders of faith
communities find their voices to advocate
for large scale change.
These words reign true even today. However, more and more people of
the Pacific find themselves leaving their islands, not because of trade or
social networking, but rather, to find new homes or to inform others of
how climate change is affecting their people and ecosystems. Our global
faith community must take action to disrupt the norms that have generated
abnormal weather patterns, forced (through greed and abuse of power)
human migration, and the total depravity of God’s creation. For Samoan
Christian communities, God’s tutelage expresses itself within the framework
of an active Sa-Moana theology. It is a way of doing things that “is empowered
14 Epeli Hau’ofa, Our Sea of Islands, The Contemporary Pacific,Volume 6, Number 1, Spring 1994,
147–161. First published in A New Oceania: Rediscovering Our Sea of Islands, edited by Vijay
Naidu, Eric Waddell, and Epeli Hau‘ofa. Suva: School of Social and Economic Development, The
University of the South Pacific, 1993.
43
by prayers and true faith. It functions on the principles of togetherness and
solidarity in commitments to make it a reality in the present contexts. Its
essence is to have hope in God. It has to have faith like Jesus Christ that
works to bring about liberation and salvation for Sa-Moana in context, and
for humanity and ecology at large.”15 And although the people of Oceania
continue to witness the dying earth and sick oceans, we confess that
redemption is contingent upon holding responsible the primary cause of
nature’s suffering: Us. To truly liberate the earth from our sin we must take
a moral stance in defense, and allow God to breathe new life into her. We
must prove to God that we, the human community, is worth trusting again,
for to fail is not an option. A Samoan pastor gifted me one day with
invaluable wisdom, he said: “My grandfather once told me that it was the
white man who came to teach us the Gospel, today, I can proudly say, it is I,
the barbarian, the pagan, and the savage who is teaching them how to be
Christians and stewards, and I believe, even in the spirit realm, every time I
say that he enjoys a good laugh ” In sum, we, too, have a witness, a Word to
share with the world, and we pray that the world will take heed, as Christians,
people of faith, and human beings.
15 Onesemo and Tofaeono, 203.
PENTECOSTALISM,
LATIN AMERICA AND
ECO-THEOLOGY:
A Spirit-Baptized Encounter
n L UIS ARÁNGUIZ KAHN
Chilean Pentecostal scholar
n W ith Commentary
OSCAR CORVALAN-VASQUEZ, PH.D.
Pentecostal Church of Chile
Secretary of the Pentecostal Latin American Forum
GREENFAITH.ORG I INTERFAITHSTATEMENT2016.ORG
44
W
LUIS ARÁNGUIZ KAHN holds a degree in Spanish
Literature and a minor in theology from the Catholic
University of Chile, and is currently completing a master’s
degree in International Studies at the University of
Santiago, Chile. He has worked academically in texts and
lectures on literature and religion, evangelical analysis of
political discourse in Chile and my master’s thesis will be
in the general field of evangelicals and international
politics. Luis comes from a family of traditional Chilean
Pentecostalism and was a university leader at a Pentecostal
youth group and a preacher at his local congregation.
hat would a Pentecostal Latin-American Eco theology look like?
In this question I am saying many things simultaneously. First of
all, I use the word “Pentecostal.” However, there isn’t only one
Pentecostalism; rather, there are many branches and styles within what is
commonly referred to as “Pentecostalism.” In this clarification I am compelled
to choose one specific branch in the Pentecostal tradition. Secondly, I use the
word “Latin-American”, which means that I have to take distance from
different kinds of Pentecostalism among the world. I have to speak from
Global South, to speak considering our regional ecological problems instead
of other’s concerns. And finally, I use the term “Eco theology”. This is a
complex word because I have to engage it with my specific Pentecostal view
and my Latin-American context. By this way, I will go describing our reality
and context in relation with climate change and energy issues, especially
related to mining and pollution. Last but not least, I will put in dialogue the
result of this question and contextual reflection with the concerns of the
common project that convoke us: energy ethics.This reflection intends to call
to a stronger Pentecostal action in the field of ecology, looking forward to a
church that serves the world as Jesus did.
1
The Pentecostal movements started in the beginning of the twentieth
century in many parts of the world.They share not only the conviction
of the power of the Holy Spirit pouring among the Church giving
many supernatural gifts, but they also share social and material conditions:
many of these revivals took part among poor people, peasants or industrial
workers. In other words, they started in the middle of the social issues. In
the case of Chile, it started mainly in growing cities with increasing
immigration from the countryside and consequent formation of poor
neighborhoods. In its more than one hundred years, there has been a slow
theological development, but development today is urgent.As Pentecostalism
is mostly a form of Christianity that emphasizes the spiritual experience
with God, especially in the form of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, its
theology is not mainly academic or explicit, but practical and implicit.
Pentecostal Latin-American (Chilean) eco-theology must be founded at
least on two concepts: the experience of the Spirit in the history - specially
47
evidenced in the contextual aspect of Pentecostal movement - and in the
early theological construction of it.
In the beginning, Pentecostals were mostly poor, marginalized people
who converted through preaching. But they were also dockworkers, miners
or factory workers, which means that they were linked to the big industrial
production processes, and therefore, this entails the fact that they were part
of the environmental contamination chain, no matter how conscious they
were of it. We could say they were just part of a big machine. At that time,
Chile was an industrializing economy strong in saltpeter and carbon along
the country with the consequent ecological contamination.
We can speak about a political ecological
holiness that looks toward the Kingdom
of God inside a cosmic framework that
includes nature.
We can find that in the beginning their theology was focused towards the
accomplishment of the great commission of Jesus: to preach the gospel, with
an emphasis on the idea of “saving souls” through the power of the gifts of
the Holy Spirit. This wasalso accompanied by the radical moral distinction
between worldliness and holiness, which drifted the early Pentecostalism to
a noted otherworldliness. As Willis Hoover, the Methodist missioner who
founded the Pentecostal movement in Chile said: “If we have any reason to
be, that reason calls us to a life of separation to preserve what God has
entrusted to us,”1 referring to other churches and the world. If the task of
the church is to save souls, then all kinds of concern for environmental
matters were to be avoided, as they seem unnecessary and even worldly.
How can we build a Pentecostal Eco theology from these foundations?
Here I provide just a few and very limited points to start. In first place, it is
necessary to relocate the ecological issues as a theological matter. If God
1 Hoover, W. (Without year) “Ecclesia-Iglesia”. In Historia del avivamiento pentecostal en Chile. Santiago: Comunidad Teológica Evangélica de Chile. (Our own translation.)
48
made all of creation that means it has a deep biblical meaning regarding to
its sacred origin. Second, if ecology is not a worldly issue then it is a Christian
one. So churches have the challenge to reflect on their duty towards the
creation of their God in the same moral way they have concerns about the
general human behavior. Finally, the specific Pentecostal emphasis on the
power of the Holy Spirit to transform reality suggests the task of thinking
on how this spiritual outpouring makes us able to work towards ecological
concerns. In this sense, Pentecostals, under their particular spiritual strength,
can be a relevant agent on these issues; they can redirect their radical morality
into ecological matters, also reflecting in their place themselves as part of
the big production industrial machine. Our commitment to transform the
world through the message of sanctification must now include a radical
morality focused on fighting against everything that breaks the holiness of
creation like idolatry of exploitative commerce and indiscriminate pollute
emissions of the industrial machine.
2
In Latin America there have been some developments on Eco
theology that come from other traditions. I cannot speak theologically
from Latin America without mentioning one of the main LatinAmerican theological frames, Liberation Theology.2 In a Pentecostal view,
we could say that Pentecostals were worried about “spiritual issues” while
liberationists were worried about “worldly issues”. However, I would like to
go beyond this distinction because it is not that liberationist Christians were
not worried about spiritual issues but that they understood spirituality in
other terms. And it is not that Pentecostals were not interested in worldly
issues, but that they understood worldliness in other terms.
I would like to take two concepts from liberation theology.The first comes
from the hand of Leonardo Boff; in his book Ecología: Grito de la tierra, grito de
los pobres3, the Brazilian theologian develops a critical analysis of technological
human progress. In his view, modern civilization is oriented by an
2 In few words, it is necessary to say that in the Latin-American context these two groups have been
mainly opposed to each other. During the XX century, Pentecostalism has been mainly politically
conservative; meanwhile liberationist Christians has been always linked to the left. This political
difference is relevant considering that this has had concrete results in the reality of Latin-American
countries.
3 Boff, L. (1996). Ecología: grito de la tierra, grito de los pobres. Madrid: Trotta.
49
anthropocentric (then androcentric) concept that divides human being and
cosmos, and therefore, technological progress concludes as domination over
nature.This can be seen clearly in the various forms of natural exploitation in
the region, especially those regarding mining, water and forests.4 The call of
Boff is to rethink our cosmology, so we can better savor the greatness and
glory of God in his creation.The second concept that is important to consider
is political holiness, taken from the Spanish theologian Jon Sobrino5. According
to his way of thinking, liberation is not only a practice, but also spirituality. In
his context, this utterance is relevant, especially considering the idea that
spirituality was not related to material reality, and therefore, relegated to
second place. Against this notion, Sobrino claims that holiness calls believers
to the political field as agents of the Kingdom of God and its justice over the
oppressed. Although this can be applied mainly for the poor, Sobrino’s point
of view can also be applied to ecology. Then, we can speak about a sort of
political ecological holiness that looks toward the Kingdom of God inside a
cosmic framework that includes nature.
The spirit-baptized Pentecostal LatinAmerican believer can no longer continue
living without paying attention to big
conflicts we are facing as region regarding
to ecological matters.
This concept of spirituality, regarded not only as something far from
reality, but as part of it, opens a new way to think on Pentecostal spirituality
from a Latin-American perspective. Even though Pentecostals usually don’t
see the political factor in their thinking, the fact is that there is one. So, if we
4 Kamilia Lahrichi, “Chile’s Pollution Grows in Scramble to Meet China’s Copper Demand,” China
Dialogue, August 28, 2014. Retrieved from https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/
en/7262-Chile-s-pollution-grows-in-scramble-to-meet-China-s-copper-demand “Mining and
Logging Companies ‘leaving all of Chile without water,’” The Guardian, April 24, 2013 https://
www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/apr/24/mining-logging-chile-without-water
5 Sobrino, J. (1985). Liberación con Espíritu. Santander: Sal Terrae.
50
try to establish a dialogue between the Pentecostal beginning experience
plus its strong moral implicit theology, and the insight of political holiness
plus the notion of a sacred creation, we could glimpse a Pentecostalism that
is capable of increasing its moral strength, renewing its origins and finding
partnership with ecological matters.
3
My third and last step is the thought of Aaron Jason Swoboda6,
North-American Pentecostal theologian. He begins to notice the
fact that Pentecostal academy, churches and publications have been
“Eco-theologically quiet” (101).7 However, he finds that there are four
major strands that have contributed to a social Pentecostal theology:
charismatic social theology, liberation theologies, eschatological social
justice and African creation spiritualties. As we have chosen liberation
theologies as a source, we will continue with the concept from which
Swoboda has articulated his Pentecostal Eco theology: Spirit-baptized creation.
Swoboda’s account is relevant for us in two senses. First, he maintains the
idea of creation—earth—as the residence of the Spirit, as the Spirit “fills all
things” (Eph. 4:10). Second, he maintains the idea that a person baptized in
the Holy Spirit is empowered to “care for, protect and defend the earth”
(285). In his perspective, as in the beginning, the baptism in the Holy Spirit
was a way for bringing peace among all races, according to the view of
black leader of Azusa Street revival William Seymour: the core of the action
of the Spirit is love. Being so, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and an
understanding of creation as a sacred work of God, would bring out a love
for creation, and consequently, an ecological ethic.
The idea that the Spirit is present in all creation is the basis to understand
a spirit-baptized creation the same way spirit-baptized believer, in which
God is present in the same way in both. Creation then is seen as a sacred
domain. Although a believer baptized in the Holy Spirit could think that
through this empowerment he goes outside of the world, the goal here is to
note that, precisely because of the baptism, he acquires a new perspective on
6 Swoboda, A. J. (2011) Tongues and Trees:Towards a Green Pentecostal Pneumatology. Thesis for Ph.D. on
Philosophy, University of Birmingham.
7 He also notes the deep differences among liberation theology and Pentecostalism.
51
his role regarding creation.
How to receive this notion in Latin-American Pentecostalism? As
Swoboda looked back to Seymour, we have done the same with Hoover.
But also, we should be committed to looking forward toward foreign
theological developments. The spirit-baptized Pentecostal Latin-American
believer can no longer continue living without paying attention to big
conflicts we are facing as region regarding to ecological matters. We also
need to understand our place not only as a political agent, but as an Eco
political agent. And as Latin-Americans that have come from poverty and
marginalization, we must go deeper in our roots, understanding the
consequences of being citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven and of a colonized
region. As church, as Christians seeking political ecological holiness in the
power of the Spirit, we must rise our voices against those who day by day
destroy the creation of God through unethical exploitation of natural
resources. We also have the opportunity to make efforts looking for the
construction of better communities, protect the exploited people and
indigenous communities.
As church, as Christians seeking political
ecological holiness in the power of
the Spirit, we must raise our voices
against those who day by day destroy
the creation of God through unethical
exploitation of natural resources.
4
Finally, some conclusions and concerns. Pentecostals have notably
matured since they began.They have the potential to do great things
in societies. If they become aware and reflect more on ecological
matters, they could be a strong agent of influence and change.This is a long
process that has already begun. What would happen if we mix radical
morality, poverty and exploitation experience, political holiness, ecological
concern, and spirit-baptized human strength focused on the problem of
52
creation as a spirit-baptized one?
Let’s see some aspects in which this possible new Pentecostal LatinAmerican Eco theology ethics could engage. Some global ecological issues
we can name are, for instance, carbon dioxide emissions, creating a renewable
energy future and the social cost of energy. In the first place, Pentecostals
can do a great influence calling for carbon equity policies by requesting the
creation of jobs while demanding a decrease in the impact of air pollution,
an improvement in economic conditions and climate resiliency for the
poor. The most polluted cities in the region like Bogotá, Lima, Santiago,
Montevideo and Cochabamba, are part of countries with a strong Pentecostal
presence and big national churches must take part in this discussion to work
on fighting against pollution.
In another way, if Pentecostals develop a larger and stronger reflection
about ecology, would it be possible for them to discuss to invest 5% of their
investments into climate solutions to end energy poverty with clean energy?
It is one of the most important questions regarding the economic power
that different Pentecostal denominations have reached. In the present,
Pentecostals are near to 13% of total population (560 million people) in
Latin America. In all countries it is possible to find big national churches
that are economically strong. If leadership of these organizations assumes a
commitment with energy ethics, they not only could mobilize thousands
and thousands of believers but a lot of economic resources to work in
climate solutions and clean energy.
Pentecostal churches could support the 1.5°C temperature rise limit
endorsed by the Paris Agreement and be not only advocates, but a group
that pleads for the establishment of fossil fuel industry liability for climate
impacts, creating funds to support adaptation in vulnerable regions.This is a
fundamental engagement in which they can start to work to reduce climate
impacts in the region and in their particular countries.
Latin America is a big territory, composed by many countries with
different energy concerns. However, there are some common problems that
can no longer wait and that deserve urgent attention from Pentecostal
communities as part of their societies. We have above 100 million LatinAmericans without access to electric energy. In times of regional drought
53
many hydroelectric plants have to severely rationing their water reserves.
These and other problems are a signal for a need of regional planning. One
of the main reasons that block this is the deregulation.What can Pentecostals
and Pentecostal churches do about it?
In another way, if Pentecostals develop
a larger and stronger reflection about
ecology, would it be possible for them to
discuss to invest 5% of their investments
into climate solutions to end energy
poverty with clean energy?
ECOLOGICAL
AWARENESS:
A Pentecostal Energy Analysis
nO
SCAR CORVALAN-VASQUEZ, PH.D.
Pentecostal Church of Chile
Secretary of the Pentecostal Latin American Forum
Churches and believers are not only people with beliefs, they are also
citizens, and they inhabit a territory, a country. They are part not only of
a region, but part of a society. In this sense, here is a need of summing
forces; Pentecostals have an historical opportunity to be part of this. Even
though some may not have economic power, they can influence political
matters to foster their States support of an international agreement.
Pentecostal faith, as we have seen through this brief text, can be a strong
theological frame to encourage changes in this context through an active
political ecological holiness.
These, among many others, are concrete issues which Pentecostal
believers and churches could start to think about from a Pentecostal LatinAmerican Eco theology ethic. If it has not happened before, perhaps it is
precisely the time in which Pentecostals can start to go deeper, not only in
their theology itself, but in engaging it with the urgent problems in our
societies. And what better than doing so starting from and going with the
Holy Spirit’s strength? This is the time: this is a call. This is a commitment
from God to his church;rom the Holy Spirit to the believers. It is time for
Pentecostals to assume that the Spirit that lives in their hearts also lives in
the creation of God, and it is a historical time to fight for it.This is the time
for an ecological political holiness Pentecostal revival.
GREENFAITH.ORG I INTERFAITHSTATEMENT2016.ORG
54
A
OSCAR CORVALAN-VASQUEZ, PH.D.,
(Toronto) Pentecostal Church of Chile, is present
secretary of the Pentecostal Latin American Forum
(sponsored by the Global Christian Forum). He is the
ecumenical officer of the Pentecostal Church of Chile,
which has been a member of the WCC since 1964 and
has a partnership with the United Church and USA
Disciples of Christ for several decades. Thanks to that
partnership, his church has developed a 100 hectares
territory in the Andean mountains to provide ecological
education to children, young people and pastors.
s a sociologist interested in the development of the Pentecostal
movement in Chile and Latin America, I would like to make a few
remarks regarding the its relation with ecological matters in general
and the use of energy in particular. First of all, it is necessary to recall that
over most of the twenty century Pentecostal churches´ members were
found among the poorest of the poor in Chile. The entire Pentecostal
movement may be read as a social protest movement in a catholic, landowners
and mining elite dominated country until the 1960s. Catholicism was
hegemonic until Pentecostals were revealed to be over 10 percent of the
population and definitely their level of recognition changed when during
the present century when they reached nearly 20 percent of the population.
It is only now that they can think about the use of energy and water at
different levels of the country. Their consumption of energy has been very
low following their access to a very low portion of the national income. In
addition, while Pentecostals worked as peasants before the agrarian reform
of the 1960s their energy consumption was also very low. The Pentecostal
presence among the mining workers in the north of the country was also
very low. Industrial workers also were less than 20 per cent of the labor
force during the last century and probably a lower percentage among them
were Pentecostals. Therefore, Pentecostals in Chile cannot be characterized
as important energy consumers or linked to production with high energy
consumption levels.
Nonetheless, it is true that for Pentecostals God created nature and all
forms of life, which should be preserved and take care of it, including water
and energy wise consumption. It should be remembered that Chile has very
few sources of oil production and that most of electricity is produced using
coal and water resources. It also has the most expensive electricity cost per
kilowatt in Latin American, which makes difficult for Pentecostals to be
high consumers given the relatively low income distribution they have
access to.
It should also be remembered that since colonial times, Chile, as well as
several Latin American countries, exploited their mining resources to be
exported abroad and have the capacity for importing industrial products. In
the beginning of the country history mining was organized to obtain and
57
export gold, silver and saltpeter. Today copper is exported to China, Europe
and North America. Oil, carbon and electrical energy to move mining
production is probably the bigger portion of energy consumption but it is
so for export and not for national consumption.This is a serious obstacle to
reducing the total cost of energy consumption and unfortunately Pentecostals
have little to say in this regard. Given Chile’s role as a raw material producer
in the international markets it is not easy to reduce energy consumption
until the industrialized countries reduce their high levels of industrial
products consumption.
A major conscientization process
about the need to control the globe
temperature increase is needed, as part
of our responsibility to take care of God’s
created nature.
Within such a socioeconomic context Pentecostals still are increasingly
becoming aware of ecological matters. For instance, the Pentecostal church
of Chile has a hundred hectare center in the cordillera of the Maule Region
to train children and young people on ecological matters and the importance
of taking care of nature created by God. But is also true that a stronger voice
is needed for reducing pollution caused by heating with wood or fossil
based energy. In addition, a major conscientization process about the need
to control the globe temperature increase is needed, as part of our
responsibility to take care of God’s created nature.
In the case of Chile, energy consumption issues are also linked to water
consumption, since the country has 4,200 kilometers of continental coast
and the northern half increasingly will need energy to separating salt from
ocean water to be used both for human and productive use. Today, climate
changes have produced melting down of frozen mountains in the very
south as well as displacement of rain from the central to the south regions
of the country. Since two thirds of the country´s population is located in the
58
central and north regions, water consumption is increasingly an issue for
which solution is not foreseen. So, being Pentecostals nearly a fourth part of
the population, it does make sense to increasingly adopt a living style
consistent with a logical approach to eco theology.
Finally, it is possible to develop a theological approach on energy
consumption among Pentecostals given their historical ascetic approach to
life, probably inherited from Protestantism. The usual approach to the
community life of Pentecostals consists of seeking the welfare of their family,
a new ethic to relate men and women which controls machismo and
respects women, a wise use of the economic income for educating their
children, a friendly attitude with neighbors and co-workers, as well as an
attitude that believe that we all are subject to the final and just judgement
of the Lord Jesus.
JEWISH PERSPECTIVES
TOWARD A WISER
AND MORE ETHICAL
USE OF ENERGY
n RABBI YONATAN NERIL
Israeli Orthodox Jewish rabbi
and
n D ANIEL WEBER, PH.D.
American Orthodox Jewish scientist
GREENFAITH.ORG I INTERFAITHSTATEMENT2016.ORG
RABBI YONATAN NERIL founded and
directs the The Interfaith Center for
Sustainable Development. A native of
California,Yonatan completed an M.A. and
B.A. from Stanford University with a focus
on global environmental issues, and
received rabbinical ordination in Israel. He
has spoken internationally on religion and
the environment, and organized three
interfaith environmental conferences in
Jerusalem in which religious leaders of
several faiths spoke.
DR. DANIEL WEBER is a Senior Scientist
at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
School of Freshwater Sciences. Using fish as a
model of human environmental health, Dr.
Weber studies long-term and
intergenerational behavioral effects of early
life exposures to a range of toxic chemicals
such as lead, mercury and BPA. Community
outreach has been an important aspect of Dr.
Weber’s professional career and has included
interactions with public health professionals,
schools and inner city neighborhoods. Using
this experience, Dr. Weber is a GreenFaith
Fellow, the Chair of the Canfei Nesharim
Science and Technology Advisory Board, and
a Board member of Wisconsin Interfaith
Power & Light.
M
ore than at any moment in history, we face a religious and ethical
challenge today in how we use energy.While the use of fossil fuels
like coal, oil and gas and of nuclear power have greatly increased
material standards of living for billions of people, they also have driven
significant environmental impacts, including global climate change, the BP
oil spill, and Japan’s Fukushima nuclear crisis . People around the world,
especially in poorer countries, are suffering the effects of climate change.
Among Jews, thousands had their homes flooded in recent years, from
Hurricanes Irene and Sandy (2011 and 2013) in New York and New Jersey,
to Hurricane Matthew in Florida and the Carolinas (2016), to the flooding
in Houston (2015 and 2016). In Israel, extreme heat waves and snowstorms
have devastated agriculture.1
A typical American household consumes over 12,000 kilowatt-hours of
electricity per year. Each kilowatt-hour of electricity from a coal-fired
power plant releases over two pounds (nearly 1 kilogram) of carbon dioxide
(CO2).2 Per capita energy consumption in Israel, while below that of the
US, is on the rise.
A consensus of international scientists—i.e. the mainstream in science-state that human-caused global climate change is likely to bring on more
severe heat waves, storms, floods, and droughts, with major impacts on
human societies.3 A major study “directly links rising greenhouse-gas levels
with the growing intensity of rain and snow in the Northern Hemisphere,”
adversely impacting hundreds of millions of people.4 Leading climatologists
stated “with a high degree of confidence” that the extreme heat waves like
those in in recent years in multiple countries “were a consequence of global
1 Green, MS et al. Climate change and health in Israel: adaptation policies for extreme weather
events. Isr J Health Policy Res. 2: 23- , 2013. http://www.ijhpr.org/content/2/1/23.
2 http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/goodstuff/lighting/
3 See the Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), online at www.
ipcc.ch The data is detailed in the Synthesis Report from a gathering of 2,500 scientists and based
on their research. For additional information refer to the US Climate Change Science Program
Report Analyses of the Effects of Global Change on Human Health and Welfare and Human Systems See
also the statement of Canfei Nesharim’s science and technology advisory board, online at http://
canfeinesharim.org/learning/environmental.php?page=22256
4 “Human contribution to more-intense precipitation extremes,” Min, S.-K. et al. Nature 470, 378381 (2011). As reported in “Increased Flood Risk Linked to Global Warming, by Quirin Schiermeier, Nature News, 2.16.11, online at http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110216/full/470316a.
html#B1
63
warming.”5 In Hurricane Sandy of 2012, a number of scientists partially
attribute to climate change the strength of the storm surge that caused
widespread destruction in New Jersey and New York.6 2015 was the hottest
year on record, by the widest margin on record.7
The most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) noted that in recent decades, changes in climate have
caused impacts on natural and human systems on all continents and across
the oceans. In many regions, changing precipitation or melting snow and
ice are altering hydrological systems, affecting water resources in terms of
quantity and quality. Many terrestrial, freshwater, and marine species have
shifted their geographic ranges, seasonal activities, migration patterns,
abundances, and species interactions in response to ongoing climate change.
Based on many studies covering a wide range of regions and crops, negative
impacts of climate change on crop yields have been more common than
positive impacts.8
What can we learn from a Jewish tradition that developed from an
agrarian society that was intimately attuned to nature about how to use
energy responsibly?9
Use Energy Wisely
Energy sustainability and the wise use of resources are important issues
in the Jewish community.10 Jewish tradition teaches us that wasting energy
5 See also “Perceptions of Climate Change,” James Hansen et. al, Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, http://www.pnas.org/content/109/37/E2415.full.pdf+html
6 “Hurricane Sandy Underscores Climate Change Threat to Coasts,” Union for Concerned
Scientists, 10.30.2012 Online at http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/hurricane-sandy-climate-change-coasts-0345.html
7 United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Global Summary Information,
December 2015, http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/summary-info/global/201512
8 IPCC. Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral
Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 2014.
9 Prior to the industrial revolution, the most important sources of energy for human uses were
animals, people, wood, wind, and water. This changed with the invention of the steam turbine,
internal combustion engine, and jet engine.
10 Weber, D. Saving the Planet: Perspectives from the Orthodox Jewish Community. Report for
Canfei Nesharim and GreenFaith. 2016.
64
is a violation of Bal Tashchit, the prohibition not to waste excessively.11 For
example, the Talmudic Sage Mar Zutra stated, “One who covers an oil lamp
[causing the flame to burn inefficiently] or uncovers a kerosene lamp
[allowing the fuel to evaporate faster] violates the prohibition of Bal
Tashchit.”12
More than at any moment in history, we
face a religious and ethical challenge
today in how we use energy.
Given the economic and moral common sense of energy efficiency, it is
disappointing to note the massive levels of energy wastage. For example,
according to the Energy Analysis Department of the Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory, “A surprisingly large number of electrical products—
TVs to microwave ovens to air conditioners—cannot be switched off
completely without being unplugged.These products draw power 24 hours
a day, often without the knowledge of the consumer. A typical American
home has forty products constantly drawing power. Together these amount
to almost 10% of residential electricity use.”13 And how many of us use
more lights in the house than are actually required? To this, the Ben Ish
Chai (Rabbi Yosef Chaim ben Eliyahu), a major halakhic authority of 19th
century Iraq, addressed a related case in which a person lit two wicks in oil
for use at night. The person left both wicks lit throughout the night in the
event they woke up in the middle of the night and needed to see. In order
to prevent waste, the Ben Ish Chai instructed the person to extinguish one
wick before going to bed, since were they to get up they would only need
the minimal light of one wick and keeping the second wick lit would be a
11 For more on this topic, see the Jewcology resources on Bal Tashchit, available at www.jewcology.
com
12 Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Shabbat 67b. Translation by Dr. Akiva Wolff based on commentary of
Rashi. Rabbi Moshe Yitzhak Forehand, in Bircat Hashem p. 144, comments on the statement of
Mar Zutra that the person’s action is considered ‘in a destructive manner’ since a person does not
use the portion of oil that is lit in order for it to burn faster.
13 Online at http://standby.lbl.gov/
65
transgression of Bal Tashchit, the prohibition not to destroy or waste.14 This
halakhic responsa shows a high degree of concern for wasting energy and
the unnecessary use of oil, where no benefit is derived from the additional
use of energy.
If the Ben Ish Chai was concerned about the unnecessary use of one
wick in an oil lamp, how much the more so should we be concerned about
dozens of appliances that quietly, constantly use energy without benefiting
the user? And the inefficiencies of so many appliances and heating systems?
Similarly, the Ben Ish Chai discusses a case in which a person puts a large
amount of oil before Shabbat in a lamp in their home so it will remain lit
for all of Shabbat. He rejects this practice as a waste of oil and a transgression
of Bal Tashchit, since the light from this lamp will not be of benefit to a
person during the day in their sun-lit home. In our time, this responsa may
be relevant concerning leaving lights, heaters, air conditioners, or other
appliances running for all of Shabbat or during the week when a person
will not derive benefit from them.To address this issue, many observant Jews
use timers on their lights and appliances to reduce wasteful use of energy on
Shabbat and holidays.
For Our Health
Modern energy use causes pervasive air pollution from many sources,
including motor vehicles, industrial factories, and power plants in most of
the major cities in the world.We now know that when air pollution declines,
there is a proportional drop in death rates.15,16TheWorld Health Organization
reported that seven million premature deaths annually are caused by air
pollution.17 A joint Israeli-US study found that more people die in Israel
from air pollution than from traffic accidents, and more than from terrorist
attacks.18 Imagine if we, as a species were to respond to fossil fuel-induced
14 Torah Lishma, section 76.
15 “Cleaner Air Brings Drop in Death Rate,” Nicholas Bakalar, The New York Times, 3-21-06, based
on a study published in The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 3-15-06.
16 http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs313/en/ Fact Sheet #313, August 2008.
17 “7 million premature deaths annually linked to air pollution,” 3.25.16, WHO News Release,
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2014/air-pollution/en/
18 The two-and-a-half-year study was conducted in 2003 by a team from Israel’s Ministry of
Environment, the Israeli Union for Environmental Defense, and the US Environmental Pro66
mortalities with the same level of concern as we devote to our political
enemies. Furthermore, cities tend to be hotter than the surrounding rural
areas, which is called the urban heat island effect. As cities get hotter, climate
change-induced heat-stress will fall disproportionately on the young, elderly
and poor. 19
Climate change is already having significant impacts on transport
pathways and cycling of toxic chemicals such as mercury.20 Not only does
the cycling of mercury change due to increased temperatures but so does
uptake and metabolism of mercury compounds in fish21 and possibly among
human populations such as Native Americans and Pacific Islanders that
depend upon fish which often are contaminated with mercury. This is,
perhaps, one of the most devastating cases of environmental injustice because
the effects of toxic chemicals can extend to succeeding generations. Are we
accelerating the poisoning of our children and grandchildren by our wasteful
and unsustainable use of energy resources?
Are we accelerating the poisoning
of our children and grandchildren by
our wasteful and unsustainable use of
energy resources?
Jewish tradition recognizes the importance of protecting our health from
the impacts of air pollution. Rabbi Ezra Batzri, former head of the Sephardi
Rabbinical Court in Jerusalem, writes that causing harmful forms of
tection Agency. A summary of the study is available at http://www.adamteva.org.il/?CategoryID=424&ArticleID=391&SearchParam=air+pollution A related study, “Assessing the spatial and
temporal variability of fine particulate matter components in Israeli, Jordanian, and Palestinian
cities,” Atmospheric Environment 44 (2010) notes how urban air pollution is a significant contributor to the disease burden in the Middle East. Online at http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/
index.cfm/fuseaction/display.pubfulltext/publication_id/53977
19 Patz, JA et al. Impact of regional climate change on human health. Nature 438, 310-317, 2005.
20 Stern, GA et al. How does climate change influence arctic mercury? Science of the Total Environment. 414:22–42, 2012.
21 Maulvault, AL et al. Bioaccumulation and elimination of mercury in juvenile seabass (Dicentrarchus
labrax) in a warmer environment. Environmental Research 149:77-85, 2016.
67
pollution to others is “not to be considered as inconsequential. [Rather]
they are matters of Jewish law that stand up at the heights of the world.” He
notes therefore that a character trait of a righteous person (Midat Hasidut)
is being careful about not damaging others even indirectly.22
While the rabbinic laws to preserve the air quality of Jerusalem and
Israel’s cities are for the most part not in force today, we would be wise to
consider their wisdom for our current situation in order to develop a newer,
healthier vision for cities throughout the world.
If Rabbi Batzri teaches that the righteous person takes care not
to damage others even indirectly, how much the more so should
we act to prevent fossil-fuel induced mortalities and sickness
from motor vehicles, industrial factories, and power plants, and
choose sustainable energy?
If the Mishnah prohibits activities producing excessive smoke for
the sake of the beauty and air quality of Jerusalem, should we not
put into action all the strategies for energy efficiency, green
technology, and greenhouse gas reduction that the Israel Ministry
recommends, in ways suited to our own communities?
Keeping Cities’ Air Clear
Shabbat, Fire, and Energy
The Talmud discusses how large ovens were not allowed in Jerusalem, lest
the smoke from the ovens blacken the walls of the Holy City and make it
less beautiful.23 Furthermore, the Mishnah prohibited using olive wood,
grapevines and fruit-bearing fig trees and date palms for burning in the
Temple in Jerusalem, which according to some rabbinic views was because
they produced excessive smoke.24 Jerusalem had the highest level of sanctity
of all cities in the Land of Israel, and which required that its air quality be
preserved.
A thick layer of smog often hangs over the coastal plain of Israel from
Ashkelon to Tel Aviv to Netanya. With many of the Jewish holidays
proscribing driving on specific holidays, it is amazing to see a 70-90% drop
in air pollution on those days in specific municipalities.25 The Israel Ministry
of Environmental Protection has developed a strategy to combat climate
change that includes energy efficiencies, green technologies and
infrastructure, and a greenhouse gas registry.26
When we speak about human energy use today, we are primarily
speaking about our use of fire. Fire is the paradigmatic technology, which
human beings use to master the world. Fire enabled metallurgy, the shaping
of mineral ores into tools, which over human history have become more
and more advanced. Today we have machines which rely on fire: internal
combustion engines in our cars, power plants that produce electricity, and
lights and appliances in our homes and offices that run on electricity. The
tremendous wealth of modern society stems from the use of industrial
technology powered by fossil fuels ignited to kindle fire.
Rabeinu Bachya (Spain, 1255-1340) teaches that “Fire, i.e. light, was the
first of the activities God engaged in when creating the universe.”27 He also
notes that “Making fire is an appropriate example of basic human activity
seeing that most of the principal activities we are engaged in cannot be
performed satisfactorily if one were not able or allowed to make fire.” For
six days of the week we are supposed to properly use fire, which represents
human mastery over the world.
In contrast to this utilitarian relationship with Earth’s resources, the Torah
teaches, “You shall not kindle fire in any of your dwelling places on the
Sabbath day.”28 On Shabbat, we are instructed to refrain from using fire,
22 Sefer Dinei Mamonot, 2nd chapter on damages, page 376, note 9, and elsewhere.
23 Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Bava Kama 82b, and commentary of Rashi there. Maimonides codifies this in Mishna Torah, Hilchot Beit Habechira, 7:14.
24 Mishna Tamid 29a and Talmud p. 29b. Based on the statement of Rav Papa in the Talmud, this is
the explanation of Rabeinu Gershom, Mefaresh, and one view cited by the Rosh.
25 As one example of this phenomenon see Udasin, S., Israelis enjoy dramatic increase in air quality
over Yom Kippur, The Jerusalem Post, http://www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/Environment/Israelis-enjoy-increase-in-air-quality-over-Yom-Kippur-417916.
26 State of Israel Ministry of Environmental Protection. Climate Change Policy in Israel, November
2011.
68
27 Commentary to Exodus 35:2, citing Genesis 1:2, in Torah Commentary by Rabbi Bachya ben Asher,
translated and annotated by Eliyahu Munk, Lamda Publishers, Brooklyn, NY, 2003
28 Exodus 35:2, Judaica Press translation.
69
demonstrating that true mastery belongs to G-d alone. As Rabbi Sampson
Raphael Hirsch teaches, “…the ability to produce fire artificially is just that
which first gave Man his true mastery over the materials of the world. Only
by means of fire can he create his tools.”29 Rabbi Hirsch explains, “On
Sabbath the cessation of work is the belief and acknowledgment that the
ability to ‘master matter,’ the creative productive power that Man has, is lent
to him by God, and is only to be used in His service.”30
Jews mark the entrance and exit of Sabbath by lighting candles, and on
the seventh day itself rest from using fire. Shabbat is the prime vehicle
through which a Jew can learn balance in using fire, and by extension,
energy and technology. According to traditional Shabbat observance, there
is rest from cars and computers, tablets and cell phones, recorded music,
trains, and alarms.31 Shabbat, therefore, is the paradigm of how society can
make choices and develop sound policies to reduce the amount of energy
we need and also help us put ourselves in correct relationship with our use
of energy.32
Toward Sustainable Energy Use
One way we can reduce the impacts of our use of fire is to use more
renewable energy. In 1981, the Lubavitcher Rebbe made a call to significantly
increase the use of solar energy in the United States. He said, “Very soon,
the entire country should switch, first of all, to energy that can be generated
from the sun’s rays in the [US] south, which should be supplied to the entire
country.”33 His call to use renewable energy is relevant today more than
29 Commentary to Exodus 35:3
30 Commentary to Exodus 35:3
31 The halakhic permissibility of using electricity on Shabbat is based on pikuach nefesh [saving a
human life]: since we need electricity for emergency and security services, we can use it generally
for other needs in a passive sense. For a 250-page exploration of Jewish law in relation to electrical
appliances, including refrigerators, alarm systems, dishwashers, and elevators, see Shabbat and Electricity, by Rabbi L.Y. Halperin, compiled by Rabbi Dovid Oratz, Institute for Science and Halacha:
Jerusalem, 1993.
32 For more on this theme, see the Jewcology.org article on Shabbat, by Yonatan Neril..
33 As quoted in Mind over matter : the Lubavitcher Rebbe on science, technology and medicine, by Rabbi
Menahem Mendel Schneersohn, original Hebrew edition compiled by Joseph Ginsburg and
Herman Branover; edited and translated into English by Arnie Gotfryd. Jerusalem: Shamir, 2003. p.
257. The talk, given in Yiddish and with English subtitles, is available online at www.chabad.org
70
ever. Solar energy utilizes fire in a different way, by making use of the
tremendous energy reaching the earth from the fire that is the sun. For
example, solar water heaters harness the sun’s rays to heat water and thus
reduce electricity demand from fossil fuel sources. The Good Energy
Initiative works to provide financial incentives to poorer families in Israel to
use solar water heaters instead of conventional heaters that rely on burning
fossil fuels.34 Recent environmental campaigns have adopted the call for
society to shift to using 100% renewable energy. We find the spirit behind
this call to be consistent with Jewish teaching.
Shabbat, therefore, is the paradigm
of how society can make choices and
develop sound policies to reduce our
energy use and put ourselves in correct
relationship with our use of energy.
Judaism is a communal religion with interconnected circles of responsibility:
individual, family, synagogue/school and larger community. An individual
might say to him or herself: ‘But I am just one person—my consumption
has a negligible effect on the global climate. There are 6.9 billion people in
the world35 and 10.5 million people in Israel—my using energy wisely
won’t make a difference!’This way of thinking goes against the advice of the
Sages, who said that not only does a person need to act as if the entire world
was created for them36 but saving even one life is equivalent to saving a
world.37 We cannot know the effect of our actions in advance but we can
participate in moral imperatives involving sustainable behaviors and be a
model for others.
An individual can make a difference by using less energy, i.e., by driving
34 For more on this project see http://www.goodenergy.org.il/language/en-US/En/Projects/Project-Portfolio/Kol-Dudi-Solar-water-heaters.aspx
35 According to United Nations statistics, 2011.
36 Mishna Sanhedrin 4:5: “…each and every one is obliged to say, ‘For my sake the world was created’.
37Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5;Yerushalmi Talmud 4:9, Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 37a.
71
less, eating less meat or globalized food, or taking fewer plane trips. It is in
this realm of personal consumption that Jewish thought may best inform
our energy and climate challenges today and empower us to change. Bal
Tashchit of energy, protecting the health of our neighbors, maintaining the
air quality of cities, and not making fire on Sabbath all have in common the
restraint of individuals to achieve a higher purpose.These teachings instruct
us about prudent, conscious, and elevated use of energy. Energy is a precious
resource that must be used wisely. If not, its misuse has serious consequences
for people and the planet.
Recent environmental campaigns have
adopted the call for society to shift to
using 100% renewable energy. We find
the spirit behind this call to be consistent
with Jewish teaching
nCompost. The
production of methane gas, a major greenhouse gas, from
food waste is a significant factor.39 Increasing opportunities to compost
food waste is an easy-to-do project for many families.
n
create financial incentives to install solar panels on congregational
buildings. With high interest in the Jewish community and with the
availability of public and private sector incentives to reduce barriers to
sustainable behavior for many in the Jewish community, it is reasonable
to set as a goal the transition to 100% renewable energy by the Jewish
community in all their congregational buildings.
n
Jewish Environmental Education. Increasing teaching on how Jewish
values guide sustainable behavior will further ethical energy choices.
nAdvocacy:
Individuals and synagogues should call on governments to
end fossil fuel subsidies—particularly those subsidies that support
continued exploration for new sources of fossil fuels.We should also urge
governments to increase their ambitions beyond their commitments in
the Paris Agreement, and doing so in 2018—the next time negotiators
will have the opportunity to formalize such increased commitments.
Finally, we can advocate for putting a price on carbon.This would involve
a government promoting the private sector becoming more sensitive to
the effects of fossil fuel pollution.40
Where Do We Go from Here?
The Jewish community is diverse both religiously and politically. As a
result, it is not possible to state categorically what specific policies it would,
as a community, support. However, there are two paths of ethical energy use
that we can collectively embrace.The first is a series of steps that can fit into
people’s busy lives. Busy-ness is a problem for many of us experience, and
can be a significant barrier to sustainable behavior.38 Each of the following
action steps, when multiplied over an entire community, can have significant
impacts on mitigating climate change.
Solar Energy. There is an increasing array of programs available that
n
Support programs such as the Green Climate Fund, to which the
United States is a significant contributor, do match well with an interest
in using the private sector to advance environmental sustainability,41
particularly in countries with few resources to create a green infrastructure,
and a sense of moral responsibility to assist those in need.
39 Adhikari, BK. Predicted growth of world urban food waste and methane production. Waste Manag
Res 24:421-433, 2006.
40 Weber, D. op. cit.
41 Weber, D. op. cit.
38 Weber, D. op. cit.
72
73
nInvestment: We
can invest a percentage of our personal and communal
assets into projects that can end energy poverty in poor countries with
clean energy by 2030, consistent with the UN’s Sustainable Development
Goal #7. We should also scale up investments in renewable energy.42.
Rabbi Hillel once said: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But
if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?”43 If we do not change
how we use energy now—when so much is at stake for ourselves and the
next generation, then when will we do so? There is no time to waste. We
must act not only for ourselves, our immediate community, but also for all
humanity and species alive today and in the future. This is the religious and
ethical imperative of our time.
A TEWA WOMAN’S
REFLECTION ON
URGENCY
n B EATA TSOSIE-PEÑA
Native American GreenFaith convergee
A portion of this material was produced as part of the Jewcology project.
Jewcology.org is a web portal for the global Jewish environmental community.
42 The International Renewable Energy Agency suggested this as key to effective action against
climate change. See IRENA. REthinking Energy: Renewable Energy and Climate Change. 2015.
43 Pirke Avot 1:14.
74
GREENFAITH.ORG I INTERFAITHSTATEMENT2016.ORG
I
BEATA TSOSIE-PEÑA is of mixed ancestry from Santa
Clara Pueblo and El Rito. She is a poet, mother, farmer
and is certified as an educator, early childhood specialist
and in permaculture design. She is a Green For All
Fellow, and is currently chair for Honor Our Pueblo
Existence (H.O.P.E.) The realities of living next to a
nuclear weapons complex has called her into
environmental health and justice work with the local
non-profit organization, Tewa Women United for the last
nine years. She believes in the practice and preservation
of land-based knowledge, spirituality, language, seeds, our
Earth, and family. Her intentions are for healing, wellness
and sustainability for future generations.
n my ancestral homelands of northern New Mexico there resides knowledge
that is held within Tewa deserts and forested landscapes, where mountains
are elders, and our rivers are alive with a spirit that has sustained us since
time immemorial with traditional knowledge that continues to guide us to be
caretakers of this place. Countless prayers of First Nations are recorded here
within shared memory of all that exists, and so is an act of violence so great
that it will forever be recorded in sacred time. For in the western region of
our Tewa world, in our beloved Jemez Plateau, site of a dormant supervolcano, and home to numerous ancestral, cultural sites, is where man first
birthed the atomic bomb at Los Alamos National Laboratories (LANL).
The first nuclear device was detonated on July 16, 1945 in southern NM
and the subsequent fallout poisoned generations of the more than 30,000
land-based Peoples who lived adjacent to the Trinity test site, and this plume
would also cross state lines. “The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is carrying
out a study to quantitatively estimate the range of possible radiation-related
cancer cases in New Mexico that may be related to the nuclear test.”1 This
will be the first attempt at a public health study about cancer some 75 years
after the Trinity Test. The group, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety,
reports that, “The people who lived adjacent to this bombing site in southern
NM have cancer rates four to eight times the national average,” and have
never been granted justice or even an apology.2 The people of New Mexico
and those downwind and downriver from Los Alamos deserve sincere
acknowledgement and repentance from the U.S. government, access to
healthcare, and speedy inclusion in the Radiation Exposure Compensation
Act. It will take a national and global outcry for this atonement to be enacted.
Other Indigenous and land-based peoples were also irreparably harmed by
environmental releases during the production at LANL leading up to this first
explosion, which was then followed by the countless deaths of those on the
1 “Study to Estimate Radiation Doses and Cancer Risks Resulting from Radioactive Fallout from
the Trinity Nuclear Test,” NIH: National Cancer Institute. Retrieved from https://dceg.cancer.gov/
research/how-we-study/exposure-assessment/trinity
2 “Commemoration Events of Trinity Atomic Bomb Test and Church Rock Uranium Tailings
Spill Set for Saturday, July 16 in Tularosa and Church Rock, New Mexico,” Concerned Citizens for
Nuclear Safety, July 10, 2016. Retrieved from ttp://nuclearactive.org/commemoration-events-oftrinity-atomic-bomb-test-and-church-rock-uranium-tailings-spill-set-for-saturday-july-16th-intularosa-and-church-rock-new-mexico/)
77
receiving end of these a-bomb-inations in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.This first
assault of the nuclear age began a rapid declaration of war on Mother Earth
and her Peoples, in which there were 2,053 nuclear explosions “tested” above
and below ground, and in our oceans. We now have “naturally occurring”
levels of background radiation as a result of these tests, and it is estimated that
about 40% of the population will develop cancer.3
In my Tewa homelands in north central New Mexico, it is difficult to
reconcile how we existed in reciprocity a rural, land-based agricultural
existence as farmers, ranchers, and seed savers, isolated from the industrial
age, only to be thrust into the nuclear age when the “land was seized under
a set of values that separated the Peoples from the land.”4 This forcible act
imposed a culture of violence on our soils, seeds, air, waters, future
generations, and spiritual existence that continues to enact harm to this day.
Soil samples collected by soil chemist, Morgan Drewniany, with the
Indigenous women’s non-profit Tewa Women United in the Rio Arriba
Valley of New Mexico in 2015, offers a preliminary study on soil
contamination by LANL: “Over 100 samples were tested for arsenic,
perchlorate, RDX, and hexavalent chromium using quantitative or semiquantitative colorimetric methods. All four contaminants were found to be
elevated, with levels above or closely approaching established healthprotecting quality limits. It is clear that with levels this high, the health of
those exposed is threatened as are the surrounding waterways.”5
I know that nuclear energy is a false solution to our current energy crisis,
if only because of the teachings held in our shared stories as Peoples
impacted by the nuclear age. This is knowledge that has gone around the
world, and now needs to be reburied and held as sacred, never to be forgotten
in our oral her-story.
In reflecting on our traditional, pueblo life-ways and unique worldview
that has endured three waves of colonization and the constant environmental
3 National Cancer Institute, Cancer Statistics,” 2016. Retrieved from https://www.cancer.gov/
about-cancer/understanding/statistics
4 “Community Summary of CDC’s Los Alamos Historical Document Retrieval and Assessment
(LAHDRA) Project,” 2010. Retrieved from http://www.lahdra.org/pubs/Final%20LAHDRA%20
Community%20Summary_December%2002%202010.pdf
5 Morgan Drewniany, Red Dust (2015), 1.
78
violence and racism of corporate and military institutions, I look to our
elders. Our sacred mountains that have born witness and continue to hold
teachings of sustainable living and abundance. In our ancestral homes, now
ruins at Puye Cliff Dwellings, is a prime example of some of the first solar
powered architecture. My human elder, Kathy Sanchez, likes to say, “The
only safe nuclear energy is 92.96 million miles away found in our sun.”This
we can tap into with the full blessing of the first Peoples of this land. Solar
and wind energy is nothing new when looking at pre-history and what we
can learn from Indigenous People.
The Winter People’s energy system
consisted of values in which nothing was
wasted, everything was recycled, you only
took and harvested what you needed,
water was regarded as life and medicine,
and people were taught to love, respect,
and take care of one another.
I am from the Winter People, and I am Badger clan. At Puye, you can see
where the old ones built their winter adobe (mud brick) homes on the
southern side of a tall Cliffside, where they would be heated by full sun. In
the summer, they moved to a village on the top of the mesa (flat mountaintop),
where basins built into the rock harvested rainwater, and they could live in
the relative coolness and life lessons that the forest offered.This is an example
of how the Tewa summer and winter clans came to be, living in balance of
seasonal time, with shared roles and responsibilities that was accepting of
their place within life and a watershed that was all too precious and deeply
respected. Their energy system consisted of values in which nothing was
wasted, everything was recycled, you only took and harvested what you
needed, water was regarded as life and medicine, and people were taught to
love, respect, and take care of one another.
79
When we look at forests as an example of how energy is utilized, it is
comprised of a watershed that begins at the top with natural springs, clouds,
rain and air, and supports different levels of life until returning to the valleys
and riverbeds at the bottom. This cycle is continuous, and is part of natural
law. Current environmental regulatory agencies chop up this cycle so that
what is relevant in one permit regarding groundwater, is not relevant to
another permit regarding surface water or storm water and so forth.
Indigenous Peoples’ worldviews are often rendered as meaningless within
scientific racism because we cannot speak of harm to the big picture that
sustains all life and includes human life.Yet, so many of our permit processes
are in a value system that functions on “allowable” levels of harm rather than
the precautionary principle of “doing no harm”.We must return as much as
possible to these natural laws, which supersede all governmental law that is
only destroying our ability to live as spiritual human beings and as an
integral part of our ecologies. The scientific community needs to advocate
for Indigenous People’s ability to act as experts in helping to heal this land
we are part of, and be a partner in enacting environmental regulatory reform
that is inclusive of our unique worldview.
The impacts of our dependence on
dirty energy are being felt globally in
Indigenous communities.
We were never meant to dominate life, but to take care of all our relatives
with gratitude and good will. This includes our plant relatives, our waters,
the animals, the insects, the soil microbes, and even stone, which hold great
energy. Native perspective sees rock and minerals as alive and also having a
spirit, and I remember having to clarify with my children when learning in
their science textbooks that rocks are classified as “not alive,” that we have
another perspective that is just as valid as any scientists. I have a line in one
of my poems, “Have you ever looked into the shining eyes of coal?” I can’t
help but think of this when I see what harm is being released through the
burning of coal, the mining of uranium, metals, and other minerals.
80
The spirit of these elements is not being honored or respected in a way
that is in line with “taking only what we need.” Minerals and fossil fuels are
being unearthed at such an accelerated rate that the prehistoric time held
within them is being released too rapidly, and as a result we can all feel the
reality of this fast paced society we have created. It is a model that cannot
sustain human life in the epochs of time that is held within stones and
mountains. True time is held in cycles of cosmic spirals rather than the
linear, binary existence that came with the colonizers mindset.
The impacts of our dependence on dirty energy are being felt globally in
Indigenous communities. There is a direct connection to environmental
violence perpetrated against mother Earth and the violence enacted upon
women, girls, and other genders. Women and girls are the first to feel the
impacts of climate change when it comes to the devastation of super storms,
long-term drought, and relocation due to sea level rise. In my region we are
impacted by long-term drought that has made our forests extremely
susceptible to wildfires.
In 2011, my Pueblo of Santa Clara lost 80% of our lands and watershed to
the devastating Las Conchas wildfire. Now we are working to remediate the
dangers of flooding due to forest loss and earthen mountainsides that burned
so hot it became like hardened glass, and regrow our cathedral forest that my
children will never know as it once was. It is estimated that it will take over
300 years to regenerate. We remain hopeful and strong as a people working
toward healing.What is painful is that the fire was diverted north towards our
homelands in order to protect LANL facilities and the nuclear waste dump
there known as Area G, where more than 30,000 barrels of mixed radioactive
waste lie above and below ground in unlined dirt pits.This was the third time
these labs housing plutonium were threatened by wildfires, and I can’t help
but think that nature is trying to cleanse herself. It is also a site riddled with
seismic fault zones, and is located above our sole source aquifer, which means
that more than half the population of New Mexico depends on that water for
survival. I can tell you stories for hours of hundreds of contaminated sites that
pose further threats to our water and health.
Indigenous women are also the most vulnerable when it comes to
negative impacts on the well-being of our bodies.Women’s bodies are more
81
susceptible to contamination, and exposure to toxicity is only increasing.
There are many studies of toxicity found in breast milk and the implications
for future generations. Mohawk midwife, Katsi Cook, teaches us about
“woman as the first environment.” It is known amongst Native populations
that our health and wellness are very much dependent on the health and
wholeness of our surroundings. One cannot be separated from the other.
When I was pregnant with my daughters, all of their ova (eggs) were
developing within them with the potential for reproduction. In my pregnant
state, three generations were being held all at once.This is true for all diverse
cultures and another reason why we must protect those most vulnerable in
our communities.
As a Native woman living adjacent to a nuclear weapons facility, I can tell
you that I am not protected by current environmental radiation exposure
regulations. My children are not protected. Do you know who is? Known
as “reference man,” the International Commission on Radiological
Protection defines him as a 154 lb. adult, white male, of western European
descent and custom, being 5’7” in height, and between 20-30 years in age.6
According to Dr. Mahkijani, women are 52% more likely to get cancer from
the same dose as a man, and infants when exposed to radioactive iodine are
75% more likely. Some of the toxins from nuclear sites can cross placental
boundaries.This is an example of how environmental justice intersects with
reproductive justice.
This environmental racism also does not consider the lifestyle of Native
and land-based Peoples, who are outdoors for longer periods of time, still
grow their own food, harvest rain water and use natural springs and bodies
of water in our ceremonies, hunt, fish, gather wild plants, gather natural
clays and dyes, etc.This puts us at risk for multiple and cumulative exposure
to toxins over long periods of time, a factor that is also not considered when
determining “allowable” levels of contamination into our environment and
when determining water quality standards. We cannot wait for science to
validate the harm we know is happening. We must be counted as experts
that can help heal this place we are a part of. The process of health studies,
6 Arjun Mahkijani, “The Use of Reference Man in Radiation Protection Standards and Guidance
with Recommendations for Change,” Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (April, 2009),
11.
82
while needed, is costly and takes long periods of time. We must not be
required to give up our ancestral ways of knowing in order to protect
ourselves from environmental violence. It is time that for-profit industries
are held accountable, and that we are no longer classified as collateral damage
for the war machine or fossil fuels industry.
While co-facilitating at the 2016 GreenFaith Climate Convergence in
New Orleans, Louisiana, I was struck by the resilience and personal truths
of the people there in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The locals all
spoke of how hurricanes were common; it wasn’t until oil and gas companies
began dredging canals, destroying wetlands and cypress groves, the natural
buffer to these storms, that the impacts became so devastating. Man made
impacts compounded by climate change and human error, have created a
situation that threatens coastal life ways on a global scale.
The life-giving waters that we had so
reverently interacted with, endure so
much harm and violence on the journey
south, that by the time they reach the Gulf
they can no longer sustain life.
At this same convergence, we visited the Houma Nation, who are the
first climate refugees in the United States, and were awarded a lump sum to
help with relocation due to their island disappearing by sea level rise. It was
there that I reflected on how this Nation were comprised of several tribes
fleeing genocide, and found refuge in these wetlands that were willing to
take them in. Now they are faced with being dislocated again, and it’s
obvious that First Nations Peoples are an indicator species of the continued
colonization and violence enacted on this continent. All the diverse people
who call this planet home would do well to ensure that Indigenous Peoples
are healthy and thriving, as their survival is now entwined together.
I also hold close to my heart a desperate plea from a young woman activist
at a GreenFaith climate convergence in Rome, who shared how her home
83
islands of Fiji were disappearing into the ocean. How you could toss a rock
from one end of their island to the other. Again, it is people like this who are
suffering, while an elite few have benefited from their continued demise.
While in New Orleans, we visited an aquatic conservatory, where I was
also able to reflect further on human impacts to our shared waters. As a
spiritual anecdote, I can tell you that four years earlier I had the honor to bear
witness and participate in a ceremony at the headwaters of the Mississippi
River, called The Gathering of Condolence and Peace. This ceremony was
the culmination of the hard work of an elder from the Akwesasne Nation to
bring to life a healing vision that came to him in a dream.This ceremony was
done in order to help all First Nations Peoples heal from the 500+ years of
genocide and historical and generational trauma enacted upon them. It is a
long story, full of beautiful signs and many miracles, but the piece I want to
share with you is about after it was done. All the Indigenous People who
attended from the four directions of mother earth, ended up at these
headwaters. I never realized how small the beginnings of the great river are.
We could walk across it easily. The water was sparkling, pure, pristine, and we
all laughed, played and splashed as one inter-generational family. I remember
making my offerings and prayers, and marveled at the experience while being
5 months pregnant with my future son.
Here I was, four years to the day that this powerful ceremony had
happened, looking out over the Gulf of Mexico at this same rivers end
where it emptied into the sea. What were the chances, except I knew it was
a completion of a spiritual journey. The scientists at the aquatic center
shared with us the reality of “dead zones.” The life-giving waters that we
had so reverently interacted with, endure so much harm and violence on
the journey south, that by the time they reach the Gulf they can no longer
sustain life. The waters have picked up so much pollutants, residual toxins
from oil spills, and industrial fertilizers from Big-Ag. farms that it only serves
to feed toxic red algae in which no other life can exist. My heart broke at
this realization, but knew that it was a story I was meant to share.
I offer this story as a means of reflection that the water in our bodies
comes from the same source as all other water on our planet. That first and
foremost we are water beings, born from water, and cannot live without
water’s life giving gifts, a covenant that we share with all other life here on
mother Earth. We also share our life and resiliency with our corn mothers,
and all our seeds, which evolved with us so that we could thrive in mind,
body and spirit. It is important that they are adapted to the changes that are
happening, that they are protected from genetic contamination; for it is in
them that our true sovereignty is held. We lose it all when we lose our
ability to feed ourselves. It is profound how growing corn teaches us to be
in a good way with ourselves, each other, and with earth.
84
85
To all my relations reading this, I urge you
to listen deeply to the struggle and voices
of global, Indigenous communities who
are currently putting their lives on the line
to protect what they hold as sacred.
To do this, we must work to ensure the health of our lands, air, and
waters, so that this memory held within the cells of our seeds and genetic
memory, can continue to inform our journey as spiritual human beings.
This journey that is awakening us to a time of healing, a time that will right
the wrongs that are so apparent.To do nothing is sealing our destructive end
and is a path that is no longer an option. We must at least try. Our spiritual
evolution awaits our higher selves, and can be nurtured alongside our
reclamation of meaningful relationships to all of creation.To all my relations
reading this, I urge you to listen deeply to the struggle and voices of global,
Indigenous communities who are currently putting their lives on the line
to protect what they hold as sacred. That you open yourselves mind, heart,
and spirit to the healing that happens when we love and respect water as the
source of all life, how it will ultimately lead to loving and respecting
ourselves and each other, and that it will give you the strength to take
actions as a fellow “protector,” one in harmony with all life and creation.
“I NDEED THE
WORLD IS GREEN
AND SWEET,”
BUT “WALK SOFTLY
ON THE EARTH”:
Towards an Islamic Energy Ethic
and Praxis
n S AFFET ABID CATOVIC
United States Muslim Environmental Leader
GREENFAITH.ORG I INTERFAITHSTATEMENT2016.ORG
T
his article will seek to briefly explain some ways in which one of the
significant faith communities, the Muslims, now numbering
worldwide over 1.6 billion, can recognize and understand their
relationship with the Earth and her resources according to their Shariah
(Sacred Law)1 as derived from their sacred texts of the Holy Quran2 and
Hadith/Sunnah3of the Prophet Muhammad (AS)4 and some ways in which
this environmental ethical understanding and associated practices need to
be revived practically going forward.
In Islam, the linkage of doing one’s religious duty to Allah (God) through
proper service and interaction with one’s fellow human beings and other
creatures is essential and clearly established.The Holy Quran uses the Arabic
terms Hablu’Allah and Hablu’Naas: cable that connects human beings to
Allah along the vertical plane and cable which connects human beings to
SAFFET ABID CATOVIC is a United States Muslim
Environmental Leader of Bosnian-Anglo descent. He is
one of the first GreenFaith Muslim Fellows and is
Co-founder and Chair of the Green Muslims of New
Jersey (GMNJ). He is a founding board member of the
Islamic Society of North America’s (ISNA) Green Masjid
Task Force. He is a member of the Drafting Committee
of the Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change and
a founding member of the Global Muslim Climate
Network (GMCN). He serves as the Imam and Muslim
Chaplain at Drew University, Madison, New Jersey.
1 The word Shariah literally means “a waterway that leads to a main stream, a drinking place, and
a road or the right path.” From this meaning, the word Shariah was used to refer to a path or a
passage that leads to an intended place, or to a certain goal. Although the word Shariah and its
different derivative forms are mentioned in five places in the Quran, its extensive use only came
into vogue much later, for the words Islam and deen (religion) were more commonly employed to
express the same meaning in the early days of Islam. Shariah (Sacred or Divine Law), conceptually,
refers to a set of rules, regulations, teachings, and values governing the lives of Muslims. However,
these rules and regulations, contrary to how they are often described by many non-Muslims, cover
every aspect of life. Shariah embraces worship, morals, individual attitude and conduct, as well as
the political, social, economic, criminal, and civil spheres.
2 Muslims hold The Holy Quran as being the uncreated Divine Word/Speech (Logos) whose wording and meaning are both from Allah. It is the first of the two universally accepted primary sources
of Hidaya (life guidance) and Shariah (Islamic jurisprudence/legislation) for Muslims. All verses
quoted from the Holy Quran throughout this paper and their English translations are taken from
Ali, Abdullah Yusuf, Holy Quran translator. The Holy Quran
3 Hadith is the Arabic word for the sacred saying of the Prophet Muhammed (AS) as remembered
and recorded by his Sahabah (Companions), Azwaj (Wives), or Ahl-Ul-Bayt (literally “People of
the House” – immediate familial relations). It is also used in connection with the term Sunnah
(Traditions) which includes Prophetic actions and approvals as well as sayings as they pertain to
the sacred (bearing in mind that Islam does not maintain the same duality and apparent concrete
separation of sacred/profane as found in the modern Western Judeao-Christian context, but rather
a more fluid continual spectrum. A more appropriate term might be religious - but this too, like
all such terms, is value laden). It is the second of the two universally accepted primary sources of
Hidaya (life guidance) and Shariah (Islamic jurisprudence/legislation) for Muslims.
4 Throughout this paper, I have chosen to use wherever appropriate the original Arabic/Islamic
terms (italicized) as means of familiarizing the reader who may be unaccustomed to the religious
language with that language and its flavor. AS is an abbreviation for the Arabic phrase “AlayheSalam” which means “Peace be upon him”. Islamic tradition holds that whenever Prophet Muhammed’s name is mentioned verbally or in writing, the aforementioned phrase must be uttered
as a matter of religious practice and respect. In addition, the same phrase is strongly commended
to be used when mention is made of any recognized Prophet or Messenger or similar ranking
personality.
89
the rest of creation in the horizontal plane. Each cable conditions and is
conditioned by the other. This in turn creates mutual rights, duties and
obligations between human kind and Allah (Huquq Allah) and human kind
and the rest of creation “worshippers” (Huquq al-Ibaad).This type of linkage
and positive interaction can be described broadly as ethics.
Human beings have been charged with
amanah (trust) (33:72), that is the just (adl)
and effective (ihsan) administration of all
that has been placed under our control
and use (taskhir) in our multi-faceted role
as Khalifa—vicegerants (6:165).
Ethical understandings and insights occur and are communicated within
religious traditions. A useful working definition of “religious tradition” is
one put forth by Joseph Runzo: “A religion or a religious tradition consists
of a complex set of social elements—symbols and ritual, myths and stories,
concepts and truth-claims—which a community believes gives ultimate
meaning to life by connecting the religious adherent to the transcendent.”
A religious life thus rests on a specific claim about the nature of reality,
about how meaning and value are to be achieved, and about what is the
desired end for humankind. To follow a religious life in part is to follow a
moral life which in turn is informed by and informs one’s ethical point of
view. Ethics then is the reasoning about morality, and is situated in the
person, community/society, place and time of its making. It is interesting to
note that both terms, “ethics” (etymologically from the Greek ethos, ethike)
and “morality” (etymologically from the Latin mos, mores) mean customs or
sacred customs of the people.The challenge of environmental crisis brought
on by global warming and climate change caused the construction of
environmental ethics and spurred the world’s religions to develop their own
set of environmental ethics based on their religious values.
Islamic ethics has historically been incorporated within the Islamic
90
Science (Ilm) known as Ilm al-akhlaq. Linguistically the Arabic term
akhlaq (plural of khuluq) means character, nature, and disposition. The
word akhlaq is closely related and connected to the word khaliq (the
Creator) and makhluq (the creation). Therefore, linguistically speaking
akhlaq assumes a good, wholesome, sound and positive relationship
between the Creator and the creation, and between and among
creatures. The term khuluq appears in the Quranic verse “And You
(Muhammad) are on an exalted standard of character” (HQ 68:4) and
was the essence of the Prophet Muhammed’s (AS) self described
mission when he said “I have been sent to perfect good (best of) character.”
Over the millennia different Muslim scholars from across the
theological spectrum have devoted much time, thought, research
and scholarly writings to this matter. A common thread through
these diverse views is that the scope of Islamic ethics or ilm al-akhlaq
is wide, comprehensive and far reaching because it deals with the
relationship between human beings and their Creator Allah, and
human beings and all other creatures. In all these senses the Maqasid
(Goals) of Shariah (which I will discuss later) give practical form to
ethical norms and seek to construct human life on the basis of the
Hisbah—Amr bil Maroof wa Nahy anil Munkar (Enjoing the Right and
Forbidding the Wrong). Maulana Maududi in his Tafseer Tahfimul
(Meaning of) Quran—has defined Ma’roof as historically universal
accepted good “good, known, well-known, generally recognized,
beneficence, and approved by Shariah” and Munkar,which is the
opposite of Ma’roof,means historically universal accepted wrong/evil
“bad, evil, detestable, disagreeable, abominable, disapproved”. In
general, What is Good (Maroof) and Approved are the Halaal, the
Lawful in Islam.What is evil (Munkar) and disapproved are the
Haraam, the Prohibited in Islam. The enactment of the hisbah is a
societal or communal obligation (Fard Keefaya), meaning it rests
within the power of the State and legitimate governmental
authorities, but should the State fall short in carrying this out with
justice and fairness then the responsibility and obligation devolves
to the individuals (Fard Ayn) who are the members of that State.
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The question for the Muslim is not who
owns these resources, whether water, the
soil, its vegetation, plant and animal life
above or its minerals (including fossil fuel
deposits) beneath, for in all these cases it
is Allah (God) (HQ 10:55; and 6:73).
The scheme of life envisaged by Islam is a complete whole that revolves
around the central concept of Tawheed (divine unity/oneness). For the
believing Muslim, Islam is not a mere appendage to life, it is life itself! 5 The
primary basis of an Islamic world view is the idea of Tawhid, or the oneness
of God. A world view based on Tawheedsees this universe as originating
from God, returning to Him, and centered about Him. The Unity of Allah
has several corollaries, including: unity of all religions (not uniformity or
unanimity) and unity of humanity with all its diversity (not sameness) and
the unity of creation. The universe and all it contains originates from the
power of the Word, the active singular Will from which all creation came
“Kun faYaKun—be and it is”6.The fact that all groups7 of living beings owe
their existence directly to Allah and therefore stand on the same footing is
beautifully expressed in the verse “…There is no beast that walks on the
earth and no bird that flies on its two wings which is not Allah’s creatures
like yourselves. No single thing have we neglected in our Decree”8. This
verse gives some idea of the sanctity to which all life is held in Islam or what
5 An insightful observation about the real life implications of Divine Unity for a faithful and practicing Muslim was put forth by Syed Qutub when he noted “Islam chooses to unite heaven and
earth in one spiritual organism … For the center of its being and the field of its action is human
life in its entirety, spiritual and material, religious and worldly. Muslims must practice their faith
in their social, legal and economic relationships. One of the characteristic marks of this faith is
the fact that it is essentially a unity. It is at once worship and work, religious law and exhortation.”
Qutub, Syed, Social Justice in Islam, pp.7-8.
6Holy Quran (36:82)
7 The Holy Quran refers to non-human communities of creatures as being “Ummams” (nations/societies) like yourselves (human) (Holy Quran 6:38)
8Holy Quran (6:38)
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Thomas Berry refers to as the “rights of living species”9.
In an oft referenced hadith by Muslims involved in the environmental
“green” movement, The Prophet Muhammed (AS) said: “Indeed the world
is green and sweet, and indeed Allah has left you to remain as Khalifatul ard
(stewards or more correctly guardians and caretakers of the Earth and its
resources) to see how you behave. So take care of the world, beware of the
world.” This is similar to the Quranic Aya (Verse but also the term used for
Sign in nature…) It is He (Allah-God) who has made you (human beings)
as (His) Khalaif (guardians/caretakers) of the earth: He has raised you in
ranks some above others: that He may try you in the gifts He has given you:
for your Lord is quick in punishment: yet He is indeed Oft-Forgiving Most
Merciful” (HQ 6:165). According to this view, Human beings have been
charged with the amanah (trust) (33:72), that is the just (adl) and effective
(ihsan) administration of all that has been placed under our control and use
(taskhir) in our multi-faceted role as Khalifa—vicegerants (6:165). This trust
not only encompasses the web of human relations, but extends outward in
ever expanding concentric circles to include all within the natural world. In
another hadith, he (AS) observed a timeless truth and worldly reality when
he said:“People have common share (arfaq) in three (things). Grass (herbage/
vegetation for ourselves and the animal world, both domesticated and wild),
water and fire (includes electrical power—sourced by fossil fuels and other
sources of non-renewable and renewable energy).” According to Islamic
Fiqhi (Juridical) terminology arfaq—is that which is held in common or
commonage so that all humans (and I would also hold that in many cases
non-humans as well) have an inalienable right to benefit from them and to
expect their prudent use and just and equitable distribution. The question
for the Muslim is not who owns these resources whether water, the soil, its
vegetation, plant and animal life above or its minerals (including fossil fuel
deposits) beneath, for in all these cases it is Allah (God) (HQ 10:55; and
6:73). Ownership in Islam is then more in keeping with the concept of
trusteeship, a type of individual interim ownership. Abdullah Yusuf Ali, a
commentator of the Qur’an, says of the verse 33:72 regarding “Amanah” ;
“There is no trust if the trustee has no power, and the trust implies that the
9 Berry, p. 111
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giver of the trust believes and expects that the trustee would use it according
to the wish of the creator of the trust, and not otherwise.” (Ali, A.Y. The
Holy Qur’an; Text, Translation and Commentary. Maryland; Amana
Corporation. 1989. pg. 1080)
Most if not all of the conflicts throughout
human history can be directly or indirectly
tied to the fair access and/or just control
over these finite, life sustaining resources.
In other words, the guardian of the trust has a high degree of freedom
and accompanying responsibility (and accountability) in the use (or misuse)
of the given trust. Hence the focus of concern is rather on “who” has the
right to determine and to what extent the access to those non-renewable
resources, their distribution and consumption. From a Fiqhi perspective
within the various Madthahab (Schools of Thought/Jurisprudence) there
are several kinds of this type of individual ad interim ownership that have
been discussed by Muslim scholars over the years. In general most Muslim
scholarship has had the tendency to defer most forms of those nonrenewable resources held in common to the State ownership who in turn is
expected adminster them in the public interest and for the public (common)
good (maslaha mursala). The historic experience of this type of State
administered and run ownership, especially as it pertains to the modern
period and to resources like fossil fuels has been mixed at best.
The fact of the matter is that most if not all of the conflicts throughout
human history, whether at the communal, regional, national or international
level can be directly or indirectly tied to the fair access and/or just control
over these finite, life sustaining resources. Simply put, our problem as humans
is that we are not sharing these common resources equitably, neither
horizontally (among the living human and non-human beings, in particular
between the Geo-politically developed Global North and the underdeveloped Global South) nor vertically (among the living and the yet to be
born—intergenerational equity) thru implementing ecologically
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conscientious, environmentally friendly, and sustainable development
practices and policies.
In response, global faith communities and their respective religious
leadership have declared their intent to battle climate change with the
release of statements and declarations that articulate their religious
environmental ethics.These include the Papal Encyclical on the Environment
and Climate Change,Laudato Si’, and similar faith based declarations made
by Jewish, Christian and other faith communities, sects and denominations.
At a historic meeting of over 60 Muslim scholars, academics, and
environmental activists from over twenty countries held in Istanbul, Turkey
(August 17-18, 2015) an Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change
(http://islamicclimatedeclaration.org/islamic-declaration-on-globalclimate-change/) was adopted.This bold grassroots initiative was driven by
various NGO’s including Greenfaith, Islamic Relief Worldwide, the Islamic
Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Climate Action
Network (CAN) International, OurVoices campaign, and others. Specifically,
the Islamic Declaration on Climate Change affirms the UN position that
aims to limit global warming above pre-industrial levels to 2, or preferably
1.5 degrees Celsius thru reduction and limitation of anthropogenic human
caused fossil fuels burning and resultant CO2 and other green house gas
emissions in the atmosphere. The Declaration is possibly unique among
other similar declarations adopted previously by Muslim groupings and
organizations—as well as those put forth by other faith communities in, that
it calls for a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels and a switch to 100% renewable
energy as well as increased support by the major green house gas emitters
(Geo-political global north—so called developed nations and China) for
vulnerable communities (Geo-political global south), including people of
color who are disproportionately suffering from climate change impacts
and where much of the Muslim population of the world resides (Asian
Pacific Region 61.7%; Middle East/Northern Africa 19.8%; Sub-saharan
Africa 15.5%—Pew Research Forum on Religion). Wealthy and oilproducing nations (of which the USA is now number one) are urged to
phase out all greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. All people, leaders and
businesses are invited to commit to 100% renewable energy in order to
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tackle climate change, reduce poverty and achieve sustainable development.
This pattern cannot continue indefinitely and is unsustainable because it is
destroying the resources or conditions upon which it depends. Writ small
this call put forth in the Declaration is for divestment from fossil fuels assets,
stocks and capital investments.
This concept of not disturbing the earth is in keeping with the Quranic
injunction “to walk softly on the earth” (HQ 25:63). Scholars of Tafseer
(Quranic exegesis) inform us that this walking softly on the earth is
exemplified by the Prophet Muhammed (AS)—who was himself the
embodiment of the Holy Quran,“a walking Quran”. His manner of walking
was to place his feet firmly on the ground as if he was always walking down
hill and not to penetrate or disrupt it. Hence a more “green” ecological
reading of this verse is to not cause harm to the earth. In modern
environmental terminology, it includes reducing our carbon footprint that
results from the burning of fossil fuels which is driven by our overconsumption. It is also part of the Rahma—Mercy—and hence Sharia to
adhere to the general principle of not being the cause of harm/hurt to one
another. In the words of the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH): “There should
be neither harming nor reciprocating harm”. The mechanism of harming
or violating the earth is fasad (corruption), or as contemporary Muslim
scholars like Dr. Yusuf Qaradawi have interpreted the term, “pollution” in
the earth, which the Quran holds is the result of what “the hands of man
have wrought” (HQ 30:41) anthropogenic. Muslims must strive to follow
this Prophetic best example—Uswat-Hasana—in all aspects of their lives,
including our investment decisions.
Broadly speaking the divestment campaign asks all investors, not just
corporate, institutional, NGOs, organized religious communities/bodies,
but also individuals, to consider cleaning up their investment portfolios, but
the operative question is how? The immediate challenge is how to convince
and persuade these investors to do this. General cookie cutter one size fits
all arguments about saving the earth for future generations, etc., while
correct and generally appealing, will not by themselves push many to action
in terms of investments. Religious language, however, which is grounded in
our particular faith traditions and which speaks to matters of the soul, life,
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salvation and eternal standings (heaven and hell), can be very persuasive in
moving the faithful to take action.
The Islamic Declaration on Global Climate
Change is possibly unique in that it calls
for a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels and a
switch to 100% renewable energy.
So here I will briefly outline some ways in which Muslim investors,
concerned about ethical halal (religiously permissible and sanctioned)
investments can be reached and persuaded to become part of the movement,
get on board and get with the program. These are by no means the only
ways and are at this point in outline form and I invite anyone who can
contribute to this effort in any way to step-up to the plate and help make
this happen. Now a hot button issue and much discussed these days has
been the subject of Shariah or Islamic Sacred Law. I am not going to revisit
this broad and multi-faceted subject here, but would call your attention to
the following facts (abstracted from http://www.pewforum.
org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-overview/).
1. Shariah, or Islamic law, influences the legal code in most Muslim countries.
2. According to the Pew Research Center 2013 survey findings, most
Muslims (around the world) believe Shariah is the revealed word of God
rather than a body of law developed by men based on the word of God.
Many Muslims around the world say Shariah should be the law of the
land in their Muslim majority country, the survey reveals divergent
opinions about the precise application of “the how’s of implementing”
Islamic law.
Given this reality, strategically connecting to and including the fossil fuel
divestment issue within Shariah is critical. Conveying to the faithful that to
divest is to uphold and fulfill the purposes and objectives of the Shariah and
therefore to ensure that one’s Islam is complete and sound, and that to do
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otherwise is to violate the Shariah and compromise one’s Islam, is a critical
step in this process. Initially this requires a lot of scholarly work within the
Islamic society. Islam has been characterized by some as Lutheran priesthood
of the believers par excellance, which means there is no denominational
executive council or Papal authority. It starts with proposing the ideas and
sharing them with scholars across the religious spectrum and the geographic
Muslim world. This in turn will result in critiques of the ideas and debate,
subsequent deliberation and consensus building. But the good news is that
the proposals and sharing has begun and debate is soon to follow. Then
follows the tactical design of new Shariah-compliant financial investment
instruments (for both corporate, NGOs, non-profits, religious bodies,
institutional and individual investors) that allow those who divest to reinvest in halal (permissible) investments, including those that include
renewable energy and clean energy projects and stocks in their portfolios,
much as they are already doing with respect to avoidance investing in the
non-Sharia-compliant, so called sin stocks (alcohol, gambling, etc.).
The Declaration calls for increased
support by the major greenhouse gas
emitters (Geo-political global north) for
vulnerable communities (Geo-political
global south), where much of the Muslim
population of the world resides.
Here then is my initial and humble contribution to this endeavor and
undertaking:
Shariah literally means the trodden path which leads to the water well,
the source of life—or the water way (stream) which leads to the river and
sea itself, analogous to the Hebrew term Halakha (The Way to Go). A classic
and widely referenced definition of Shariah give by Sunni scholar Ibn alQayyim al-Jawziyyah states in part “The foundation of the Shariah is wisdom
and the safeguarding of people’s interests in this world and the next. In its
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entirety it is justice, mercy and wisdom. Every rule which transcends justice
to tyranny, mercy to its opposite, the good to the evil, and wisdom to
triviality does not belong to the Shariah . The Shariah is God’s justice and
mercy amongst His people. Life, nutrition, medicine, light, recuperation and
virtue are made possible by it. Every good that exists is derived from it, and
every deficiency in being results from its loss and dissipation, for the Shariah
, which God entrusted His prophet to transmit, is the pillar of the world and
the key to success and happiness in this world and the next.”
By the fourth century after the death of the Prophet (AS), these principles
and objectives were formally categorized and organized into an architectural
framework by the Ulema (scholars) and jurists into the sacred science of
Maqsid Shariah (Higher Objectives of Sacred Law). Of particular import is
the work of one of the religious geniuses Abu Hamid al-Ghazali who wrote
categorically that the Shariah pursued five basic objectives: preservation
(hifdh) of faith (Din), life (nafs), lineage/posterity/family (Nasl), intellect
(Aql) and wealth/material resources/property (mal), and that these were to
be protected as absolute priorities. He observed “Whatever ensures the
safeguard of these five principles serves public interest and is desirable, and
whatever hurts them is against public interest and its removal is desirable.”
Al-Ghazali’s five basic categories or essentials (al-darurah al-khamsah) remain
the same but order is changed by some scholars and others have added
additional categories to them.
In reference to these categories it has been observed by Dr. Kamili Hashim
and others “that Maqsid Shariah (Higher Objectives of Sacred Law) is still
open for further development and enhancement. The nature of this
development and enhancement must reflect the priorities of our age and the
change of circumstances that we encounter as a result.” In fact this is a must;
what is referred to as tajdid al-`aql wa l-fahm (renewal of mind and understanding)
is to cope with the challenge of modernization and globalization (and I would
add climate change).These are the objectives whose fulfillment is essential for
the establishment of welfare in this world and in the world hereafter, in the
sense that if they are ignored then coherence and order (taqdir) cannot be
established, the balance (mizan) will be disrupted and fasad (chaos, disorder
and corruption) will be obvious in this world and the hereafter.
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Our communities, nation, the world environment and our very future are
threatened by rising global temperatures caused by the green house gas
emissions resulting primarily from the burning of fossil fuels. Projections by
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,10 whose scientific integrity
has been affirmed repeatedly through rigorous peer-reviewed processes, and
the overwhelming scientific consensus have concluded unequivocally that the
earth’s temperature is warming, that the burning of fossil fuels is largely
responsible, and that climate change will cause grave humanitarian, ecological
and financial damage on a global scale. In the coming century, this fact will
displace (climate-refugees—climargees) and impoverish hundreds of millions
of people globally and will increase illness, injury and death rates due to the
spread of infectious diseases, heat waves and severe weather-related disasters,
and climate change also creates grave damage to the ecological systems on
which human civilization and all forms of life depend, thus undermining the
very goals and objectives of the Shariah.
Traditionally, strategies and policies put forth by environmentalists with
respect to limiting and controlling green house gas emissions driven climate
change focused on reducing demand and restraining consumption. These
included curbing excess and waste and this strategy is very much in keeping
the Quranic injunction as found in verses like “O Children of Adam! Wear
your beautiful apparel at every time and place of prayer: eat and drink: But
waste not by excess, for Allah loves not those who waste” (HQ 7:31). This
ethic of conservation and restraint is exemplified by the growing global
grass roots Green Ramadan Movement and example of which is Islamic
Society of North America (ISNA’s) multi-faceted Our Masjid is Greening
Ramadan Campaign with its theme “Ramadan—When Less is More” is an
example of implementing Prophetic ecological friendly practices at the
community level and committing to the “greening” of the Masjids/Mosques
facilities as has been recently committed to at the national level by the
Morrocan Minstry of Religious affairs. On the government level the idea
of a carbon tax (sometimes referred to as carbon fee and dividend CF&D
approach championed by Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL) and others) which
leads to more carbon equity, having those who consume those more carbon,
10 http://www.ipcc.ch/
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to pay more for the products and resources that they use and consume.
Exploration of new ways and means, especially through the use of modern
technologies to capture and sequester carbon (Carbon Capture and
Sequestration) from the air and strengthening of traditional policies which
seek to do this through nature’s proven and time tested way through tree
planting and control of de-forestation through deliberate polices of reforestation and CO2 oxygen exchange as a result of the life giving energy
process of photo-synthesis are excellent ideas and they’re making slow but
steady progress (more slowly in the U.S. than elsewhere, but that’s par for
the course). Given sufficient time, taken together they would reduce carbon
emissions gradually and in significant ways.Time, however, is precisely what
we don’t have. In Suratul Asr, (HQ 103) the Quran mentions that time is
running out for human beings to believe and do the right thing. A growing
number of respected environmental scientists and economists have stated
that in order to stem a global warming disaster, we must stop burning fossil
fuels and keep at least 50-75% of CO2 in the ground by not extracting
those reserves to start with. To do otherwise is to overwhelm the planet’s
physical systems, heating the Earth far past the red lines drawn by scientists.
This concept of not disturbing the earth is
in keeping with the Quranic injunction “to
walk softly on the earth” (HQ 25:63).
It is not just the macro effects of green house gas emissions and the
resultant global warming that is of concern, but also the immediate health
and well being of the children, our future, but what type of future are we
providing for our children and our children’s children? Our most precious
gift from Allah whose care, existence and future we have been entrusted is
inextricably linked and connected with and directly impacts all of the noble
goals of Maqasid Shariah. A recent UNICEF study has found that air
pollution is a major contributing factor in the deaths of around 600,000
children under five every year—and it threatens the lives and futures of
millions more every day,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake.
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“Pollutants don’t only harm children’s developing lungs—they can actually
cross the blood-brain barrier and permanently damage their developing
brains—and, thus, their futures. No society can afford to ignore air pollution.”
The satellite imagery confirms that around 2 billion children live in areas
where outdoor air pollution, caused by factors such as vehicle emissions,
heavy use of fossil fuels, dust and burning of waste, exceeds minimum air
quality guidelines set by the World Health Organization. South Asia has the
largest number of children living in these areas, at 620 million, with Africa
following at 520 million children. The East Asia and Pacific region has 450
million children living in areas that exceed guideline limits (All the areas
cited in this study are areas of heavy Muslim population concentrations).
The study also examines the heavy toll of indoor pollution, commonly
caused by use of fuels like coal and wood for cooking and heating, which
mostly affects children in low-income, rural areas. Together, outdoor and
indoor air pollution are directly linked to pneumonia and other respiratory
diseases that account for almost one in 10 under-five deaths, making air
pollution one of the leading dangers to children’s health. “We protect our
children when we protect the quality of our air. Both are central to our
future”. The Shariah, Islam and Allah requires no less from us.
What is referred to as tajdid
al-`aql wa l-fahm (renewal of mind
and understanding) is to cope with
the challenge of modernization and
globalization and climate change.
In 1963 during his speech at the historic Civil Rights March on
Washington the great American Civil Rights leader, Reverand Dr. Martin
Luther King stated the following regarding the civil rights of AfricanAmericans—that is equally applicable today in the context of the ravages of
climate change: “We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today.We
are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum
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of life and history, there “is” such a thing as being too late. This is no time
for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and postive action.”
Is it not time for Muslims, believers, our mosques and our institutions to
awaken to their responsibilities as Khulafa al-ard (Caretakers of the Earth)
and do their part to keep it in the ground? As Allah informs the faithful in
the Holy Quran: “Has not the Time arrived for the Believers that their
hearts in all humility should engage in the remembrance of Allah and of the
Truth which has been revealed (to them), and that they should not become
like those to whom was given Revelation aforetime, but long ages passed
over them and their hearts grew hard? For many among them are rebellious
transgressors. Know you (all) that Allah gives life to the earth after its death!
Already have We shown the Signs plainly to you, that you may learn
wisdom.” (HQ 57:16-17).
THE WIND FLOWS
FROM THE SOUTH:
Intrinsic Values of Mexican
Indigenous communities:
A Bottom-up Solution for
Climate Change
n PAULETTE LAURENT CAIRE
Mexican environmental educator
and clean energy developer
GREENFAITH.ORG I INTERFAITHSTATEMENT2016.ORG
“M
PAULETTE LAURENT CAIRE is a leading social entrepreneur,
environmental educator, and clean energy developer in Mexico.
She is Founder and CEO of Ki Kaab Gourmet, which provides
sustainable catering services and distributes in Mexico “Malongo
Coffee”, brand leader in fair trade coffees and bio-coffees in France.
She is a candidate for a Master of Liberal Arts in Sustainability at
Harvard University and engages with interfaith dialogue. As an
advocate for an applied energy ethic, she is currently a researcher
and project developer at InTrust Global, an organization that is
developing clean energy projects of high social and financial impact,
in alliance with rural communities, investors and government. She is
also regional representative of the Sustainability Literacy Test, an
internationally recognized and locally relevant tool that measures
and improves sustainability literacy in higher education institutions,
companies and other organization around the world, and co-author
of the “One year report - Sustainability Literacy Test,” presented on
the occasion of the World Conference on Education for Sustainable
Development at Nagoya, Japan 2014.
y experience has taught me that protesting has no sense
without a credible alternative and tangible proposal. The
future is not built by yelling at present day problems. This
is why I developed the phrase: We keep protesting, but at the same time we keep
proposing” Francisco Van der Hoff, (Dutch missionary, cofounder of Max
Havelaar Labeling, first Fair Trade Inititative).
With the transitional economy to sustainable energy projects, comes the
promise of a cleaner, just and prosperous future for the Mexican nation, one
that will give people access to energy, education, and the ability to reach
their full potential. “Energy is the golden thread that connects economic
growth, social equity, and environmental sustainability,” said UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon.
The Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the COP 21 Conference, was
an epic moment for world unity and prosperity of the planet. One hundred
and ninety six countries came together and committed to limit their carbon
emissions while providing finance to poor nations to fight global warming.
There is no question it was a great global achievement: the agreement called
for zero net anthropogenic green gas emissions to be reached during the
second half of the 21st century. But it seems the solution again is driven
from the north to the south, imposed from rich countries to the poor, when
the true solution will be raised from the bottom- up, from the voiceless.
Although many top leaders in sustainability identified by global experts
are headquartered in the global north, strong leadership also comes from the
south. “If being a leader in sustainability is partly about responding to the
needs and expectations of one’s society, it is hard to make the case that the
world in the global South is lagging behind. Maybe our expectations need
to change.”1
How are we going to address the UN Sustainable Development Goals is
the main question that should be answered at COP 22. It is the direction of
how we approach these solutions that will cause the true change needed
today. Shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy, driven by economic
forces, green technology and innovation, is challenging, yet is a partial
1 Global Scan 2013, “When will emerging economies embrace sustainability?” Retrived from http://
www.globescan.com/news-and-analysis/press-releases/press-releases-2013/272-when-will-emerging-economies-embrace-sustainability.html .
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solution to reduce carbon emissions. The complete solution, taking the world in
the right direction, is the one that embraces bottom-up solutions.These solutions create
public-private partnerships with social impact and an alternative model that challenges
devotion to endless growth by recovering ancestral wealth values.
Renewable energy industry leaders have
largely failed to link sustainable energy to
more robust benefits for local populations.
Today there are numerous corporations in southern Mexico striving to
scale renewables, increase energy efficiency and secure energy access for the
world’s most vulnerable citizens. However, in the case of the wind corridor
in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexican indigenous communities have been
victims of unfair and biased contracts, in order to generate electrical energy
with the wind on their land, for the benefit of private wind developers.2
The Mexican government has produced an aggressive legislation to address
climate change and support energy transition, yet these projects remain
susceptible to internal and external forces beyond the government’s control,
that will deprive indigenous people and land and livelihood. Likewise
renewable energy industry leaders have largely failed to link sustainable
energy to more robust benefits for local populations.3 This is an example of
how only innovation, technology and energy access are not enough: the
world needs an energy transition that is clean, affordable and just to tackle
climate change while lifting people out of misery.
Climate change and lack of energy access are affecting millions of the
world’s most vulnerable citizens. According to the UN, ensuring access to
sustainable energy by 2030 will require collective leadership of all kinds,
including communities, financial institutions, developers, governments,
2 “The dark side of wind power in Mexico,” Renewable Energy Mexico (RNM). May 2012. Retrieved from http://www.renewableenergymexico.com/the-dark-side-of-wind-power-in-mexico/
3 Dominic Boyer, Aeolian Extractivism and Community Wind in Southern Mexico, 2012. Retrived from:
http://publicculture.dukejournals.org.ezpprod1.hul.harvard.edu/content/28/2_79/215.full.
pdf+html
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companies, entrepreneurs and organizations.4 Toward that end the world’s
leaders have called for “universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable,
and modern energy”. However a fair energy transition is not only about reaching
universal energy access, but also the democratization of its supply. The effective
regulatory framework, with new domestic conservation and sustainable
legislation, must include incentives for energy developers to include indigenous
communities as co-investors. These communities who own the land where the
wind blows the fiercest, need to be provided with the tools and skills that
will allow them to make decisions according to their community’s needs
and values. An effective framework must ensure that jobs and profit must be
generated for host communities and ownership must be vested to the
greatest degree possible. This energy transition should empower indigenous
leaders and amplify women’s voices, to broker partnerships and unlock
finance to achieve universal access to sustainable energy, as a contribution to
a prosperous and equitable world.
The challenge goes beyond access to funding and technology, but
bringing together the correct players together to enable impactful
partnerships to form. According to Rachel Kyte, from Sustainable Energy
4all, these coalitions must be funded with domestic revenue gained through
different national strategies, such as reduced corruption. Bottom-up
solutions foster transparency and best practices, which eventually will
dissipate corruption. Traceability of the energy supply enables stakeholders
to trace down energy production and distribution, from wind energy farms
to the final consumer, to help ensure a positive environmental and social
impact. Likewise the private sector also plays an important role in providing
solutions and enhancing capacity through human, technological and
financial resources. But the principal challenge lies in allowing engagement
between indigenous people and the private sector and government.
For centuries indigenous communities have been victims of abuse, lies
and exploitation from these parties.5 Today this relationship has to heal and
trust needs to be re-built. New holistic partnerships between key stakeholders
4 Sustainable Energy For All, http://www.se4all.org/
5 “Mexico’s Wind Farms Brought Prosperity, but Not for Everyone,” New York Times July 7, 2016
Retrived from: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/27/world/americas/mexicos-wind-farmsbrought-prosperity-but-not-for-everyone.html?_r=1
109
at the international and national level are essential for implementation and
action. Bottom-up solutions towards a decarbonized world foster the
transition to renewable energy with positive financial and social impact for
vulnerable communities around the world.The energy transition, through a
bottom-up solution, should be used as a driver to fight extreme poverty,
lack of education, inequality, and the young work force migration to urban
cities and organized crime in Mexico.
The framework that embraces these goals is the Energy Cooperative
Model comprised of rural and indigenous communities. This type of
enterprise engages communities in the production of renewable energy for
their mutual benefit. Energy Cooperatives are the ideal models to make
energy supply accessible to everyone, as well as develop financial and social
impact for local communities. Socially—conscious investments, aligned to
interest of indigenous communities, creates opportunities in rural areas to
unlock value through alliances and trust.6 Energy Cooperatives could
become a bottom-up renewable energy model and act as an agent of change
by empowering local communities within a win-win business model.
Bottom-up solutions towards a decarbonized world also proposes an
alternative model that challenges devotion to endless growth, as well as
recovering ancestral values. A decarbonized world also means zero carbon
lifestyles. Bottom- up solutions enable mindset conversions reflected in
people’s day to day living, to what the economist Juliet Shor addresses as the
“plenitude economy.” How we spend our time is key to reducing our
environmental impact, inequality and promoting social wellbeing.7 Research
proves that inequality boosts carbon emissions. Fair income distribution is
also fair distribution of work. Long work hours and higher income above a
certain level boosts consumption and increase unpleasant emotions such as
depression and anxiety. In addition, lower incomes will reduce consumption
and unsustainable growth.
“At the same time we can note the rise of a false or superficial ecology
which bolsters complacency and a cheerful recklessness” (Pope Francis,
6 Intrust Global 2016: Energy Cooperatives Retrived from: http://intrustglobal.com.
7 Juliet Shor, 2016 “Plenitude Economy.” Retrived from: https://www.newdream.org/programs/
redefining-the-dream/plenitude
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Laudato Si’, 59).The transition to renewable energy by itself is not an integral
solution if we continue depleting natural resources to produce goods. Simply
because a good was fabricated with “green energy” doesn’t mean it does not
have an impact on the earth. It makes no sense to think that we can use clean
energy on the north while depleting the south. Instead, a new system is
needed where the market is not dependent upon sales, which stimulates
demand for more production, but by ecological wealth and true prosperity.
The effective regulatory framework must
include incentives for energy developers
to include indigenous communities as
co-investors.
But how does the bottom- up solution propose a mindset conversion?
Today there are some people who believe nature is another commodity and
an economic input into the production process, referring to nature as “IT”:
something that is ultimately for human benefit. This economic focus aims
to conserve and enhance natural assets with four major sources of finance:
compensation payments, pollution taxes, carbon taxes and contributions
from the depletion of non-renewables.8 All these efforts are made to assure
that natural assets do not deteriorate and to keep them functioning as
environmental services.
Although this vision is well intended, and somewhat useful, it gives
permission for continuous growth, and growth itself degrades natural
resources. Bottom-up solutions, with intrinsic indigenous values, proposes
mindsets opposite to materialism and consumption. It is important to
highlight the fact that these are not new trends, these are ancestral lifestyles
owned, enjoyed, suffered and embraced by indigenous people through
many generations.
Indigenous cultures in the southern Mexico, from the Tehuantepec
Isthmus region, such as “Zapotecos”, “Mixes,” “Mixtecos,” and “Chontales”,
8 Dieter Helm, Natural Capital (New Haven:Yale University Press, 2015).
111
view the intrinsic values of nature as priceless. In these cultures, nature has
spiritual and aesthetic value above and beyond the instrumental economic
yields.They believe in equal rights for nature and for humans. Both can live
together and are an example of how humans can have a net positive impact
on biodiversity, because they take care of their land. Nature was never seen
as an individual property, instead it was a common good, that they could
use, profit, posses along their lives, but always in community. Biodiversity is
admired even in their food, having different crops variety is a blessing.
For Indigenous cultures poverty is not a curse but rather poverty, lived as
a simple life, is their chosen lifestyle. Although the intrinsic economic system
makes them struggle to earn fair payment for their work, they simply
demand more equitable partnerships to ensure their basic needs. Poverty is
not a paradigm of sacrifice, instead poverty is lived with dignity.9 In western
societies poverty is viewed as a bad thing. For this reason phrases such as:
“attack poverty” and “banish poverty” are commonly mentioned in the
media and by politicians.Then society tries to overcome it with last remedy
actions such as charity.
The energy transition, through a bottom
up solution, should be used as a driver to
fight extreme poverty, lack of education,
inequality, and the young work force
migration to cities and organized crime.
Indigenous communities resent and reject charity business; instead they
propose fair trade. Charity treats individuals as objects, not as living beings.
These communities feel humiliated every time corporations and
organizations regret leaving poor people apart and try to compensate their
actions through charitable causes. This is viewed as a new form of
neocolonialism; a “green wash” action for sustainable development. Research
found a real danger that “green capitalist” renewable energy initiatives will
9 Francisco Van der Hoff Boersma, Manifesto de los pobres (Uciri 2011).
112
emerge as new modes of resource exploitation legitimized by the urgency
of climate change mitigation.10
Indigenous communities, living in dignified poverty, have different
sources of wealth lead by their values. Living with few conventional
consumer goods promotes social and ecological well-being, putting
sustainability at its core.11 This phenomenon is already understood and is
emerging in some western societies as an alternative solution to global
warming. It’s an argument that through a major shift to new interpretations
of ecological and social wealth, green technologies, and different ways of
living, individuals and the planet as a whole can actually be better off and
more economically secure.
“Authentic development includes efforts to bring about an integral
improvement in the quality of human life, and this entails considering the
setting in which people live their lives” (Pope Francis, Laudato Si’, 147).
People around the world are looking for ancient life styles that offer a way
out of the work and spend cycle, and are rich in the newly abundant
resources of time, information, creativity, and community. This alternative
development had been lived by indigenous communities for centuries.
Taken together, these intrinsic values represent a movement away from the
conventional market and offer a way toward an efficient, rewarding life in
an era of high prices and traditional resource scarcity. It is unthinkable to believe that nations could build infinite solar panels
or wind farms to satisfy endless energy demands. Renewable energy
infrastructure has an impact too. Landscape justice should not be ignored.
Natural resources, such as people and animals, should also have the right to
be conserved in their original state to sustain marvelous forms of life and
biodiversity. Indigenous people honor nature and understand landscape
ecosystems role, because it is the land that has feed them and sustained their
cultures for generations. For that end, they become conscious and fervent
protectors of their land. Landscapes should not be also considered an endless
space available for people’s convenience.They have more important purpose:
to sustain life.
10 Dominic Boyer, op. cit.
11 Shor, op.cit.
113
Through a major shift to new
interpretations of ecological and social
wealth, green technologies, and different
ways of living, individuals and the planet
as a whole can actually be better off and
more economically secure.
I envision a viable future scenario bringing together the renewable
energy transition and finance to the southern countries, while incorporating
intrinsic values from ancestral cultures to modern society. COP 22 should
try to keep its positive energy and magnificent attitude toward global
collaboration already reflected at COP 21. Looking for holistic directions
and actions are key to reaching a viable solution to heal Earth systems and
people’s lives. “We, the people from the south, will be pleased to transfer our
ancestral knowledge to help you reach and enjoy a meaningfully wealthy,
truly prosperous and sustainable life, as we already do.”
WHAT DO THE
HINDU ETHICAL
FOUNDATIONS
TEACH US ABOUT
ENERGY POLICY?
A New Ecological Interpretation
of Ahimsa and Asteya
n M AT MCDERMOTT
Director of Communications
for the Hindu American Foundation
GREENFAITH.ORG I INTERFAITHSTATEMENT2016.ORG
114
A
MAT MCDERMOTT is a Hindu American living in
New York City. He is the Director of Communications
for the Hindu American Foundation, an Advisor for the
Bhumi Project, a Hindu environmental organization
based at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, and the
principal author of the 2015 Hindu Declaration on Climate
Change. His writing has appeared in Hinduism Today,Yale
e360, the Omega Institute, and primarily at TreeHugger.
com where he was the Business, Politics, and Energy
editor for many years.
t the intersection of Hindu thought and environmental conservation
or advocacy are familiar and important concepts, people, and
communities: the Bishnoi sect and their amazing devotion to
protection of all life, the importance of the Chipko movement as being the
original ‘treehuggers’, the phrase vasudhaiva kutumbakam signifying the
world being one family, the importance of Gandhi’s promotion of nonviolent
non-cooperation as a political tool, to name a few. I’d like to go beyond
these examples to examine four other facets of Hindu ethics and practices
that, when viewed through the lens of attempting to live placing less of a
burden upon planet Earth, of creating societies firmly rooted in ecological
sustainability, offer a powerful foundation from which we can all build our
lives, our practices, and our society.
What I will discuss here is the importance of the yamas and niyamas, the
first two limbs of the yoga practice as described in the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali,
in shaping our relationship with our environment. This will be followed by
how these principles can be seen to support some of the policy
recommendations supporting strong action on climate change and
supporting renewable energy.
In the Yoga Sutra, the passages mentioning the yamas (abstentions) and
niyamas (observances) are found in the second section, on practice. Yoga
Sutra II.30 says (using Edwin Bryant’s translation into English1): “The yamas
are nonviolence, truthfulness, refrainment from stealing, celibacy, and
renunciation of [unnecessary] possessions.” In Sanskrit, those are: ahimsa,
satya, asteya, brahamacharya, and aparigraha. Yoga Sutra II.32 reads, “The
observances are cleanliness, contentment, austerity, study [of scripture], and
devotion to God.” That is, saucha, santosha, tapas, svadhyaya, and
Ishvarapranidhana. According to Patanjali these are absolutes for aspiring
yogis; they are non-negotiable prerequisites for pursuing the rest of the
practice (physical postures, breathing practices, concentration and meditation,
as preparation for experiencing samadhi). While nearly all of the yamas and
niyamas can be interpreted through an ecological lens, here I will focus on
the yamas ahimsa, asteya, and aparigraha, and the niyama santosha, as to my
1 Bryant, Edwin F., and Patanjali. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Edition,Translation, and Commentary with Insights from the Traditional Commentators. New York: North Point, 2009. Print.
117
mind these are where the applicability to our most pressing environmental
problems is most clear.
In doing this I should emphasize that what I am doing is offering how I
personally interpret these principles. As a Hindu, a yoga practitioner, a
student of Hindu thought broadly, and environmental writer and policy
expert, this is how I see the words laid down by Patanjali so many years ago
applying to what I am observing in the world today and how they offer an
ethical underpinning for our actions. As such I make no claim as my
interpretation being ‘the’ interpretation of these concepts. Rather, I am
offering ‘an’ interpretation, one which I hope readers will find useful and
applicable to their lives and work.
In its strongest sense, asteya calls for
examination of how fossil fuel use
deprives all living beings of a stable
climate, the sustainable basis for life.
Ahimsa is the first yama and as such underpins all the other observances
and practices outlined in the Yoga Sutra. In English it is regularly translated as
‘nonviolence’, but ‘not causing harm’ is probably better, as sometimes action
that could be interpreted as ‘violent’ is required to prevent a greater harm.
Ahimsa is described as being the highest dharma (ahimsa paramo dharma), but
for all people other than ascetics, not causing harm is a situational and relative
concept. That is, there are times and situations where and people for whom
using force, even destructive force, is not considered a violation of this
principle. Police are sometimes required to forcefully stop criminals; soldiers
stopping an attack on their nation often must kill; any of us stopping someone
or something attacking ourselves, our families, or someone else rightly can
and should use force to prevent a greater harm—all of these uses of force are
not violations of the principle of ahimsa, again except for those people who
have taken vows of renunciation. In fact, the less-quoted next line in that
Sanskrit maxim about nonviolence is the highest dharma is “dharma himsa
tathaiva cha” (so too is violence in service of dharma).
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So what then is dharma? The term has layers of meaning and association
that aren’t easily encapsulated in the usual one-word English translations,
such as duty or religion. Dharma, broadly defined, is a set of principles and
practices that both sustains the cosmic order, as well as binds us in harmony
with that order. An understanding of dharma informs how we behave and
guides what we do, on a daily basis as well as throughout our lives, as we all
love, attempt to have a good life, look for inspiration and insight, and
ultimately strive for liberation.
This outlook provides a very practical ethical touchstone for our own
efforts to promote environmental conservation, ecological sustainability,
and responsible use of energy. How can each one us, each in our own way
suited to our own particular inclinations and abilities, live so that our actions
are minimal in the harm they cause, using upholding the welfare of all
beings as the benchmark of our success?
Ahimsa in your dietary choices points to a largely plant-based diet: the
carbon and ecological footprint of industrialized agriculture2, in particular
animal agriculture, is hugely damaging to our planet, deeply deficient in
term of animal welfare, and needlessly energy intensive. (For more
information on this point, see Dharma of Sustainability, Sustainability of
Dharma: A Hindu Energy Ethics in this collection.) In terms of our energy
usage, it means striving towards using less energy and using energy that
comes from sources that are non-polluting and low-carbon: Given what we
now know about the harm unfettered consumption of fossil fuels is causing
to our planet, and knowing that we have today the technology to fully
exploit renewable energy sources, continuing to explore for fossil fuels and
exhausting our current proven reserves is an ethically untenable position.
While each of the other yamas and niyamas stands on its own, in terms of
environmental action each illuminates another aspect of how we can reduce
the harm our actions cause, each indicates how we can enjoy lives that
promote the welfare of all beings.
What is the essence of non-stealing, of asteya? At the most basic it is
taking something which you have no right to take. In a legal sense those
2 “The Carbon Foodprint of 5 Diets Compared.” Shrinkthatfootprintcom. N.p., 23 Apr. 2014. Web. 31
Oct. 2016.
119
rights generally revolve around the concept of property and ownership,
violations of that being deemed theft. There also a sense of fairness at work.
Through this lens, stealing can be interpreted as using resources to such a
degree that it deprives others of that which is sufficient for them to have
enough so that they have the ability to sustain healthy lives. This baseline
standard varies from place to place and in time, based on available resources3.
It doesn’t mean flatly equal access to resources or overflowing abundance
for all. Rather it sets a minimum standard of what is required for life to
maintain itself. Using resources to a degree that deprives others (both
human and non-human) of their opportunity to live at even this basic level
is, in essence, stealing. Applying the principle of asteya in this way means
living your life so that no other being is so critically deprived that they
cannot live theirs. It’s a natural extension of ahimsa, as well as being truthful
with yourself about your needs and how these needs impinge upon those of
others. In its strongest sense, asteya calls for examination of how fossil fuel
use deprives all living beings of a stable climate, the sustainable basis for life.
Aparigraha builds on the the previous yamas, further building upon the
foundation established in ahimsa and asteya. Given that overconsumption of
natural resources is the root of humanity’s out of balance relationship with
the rest of life on this planet, reducing one’s possessions to only those which
are necessary is an imperative. This doesn’t mean everyone living like
renunciates. Rather it means being thoughtful, frugal, and considered in
purchases of goods and use of resources. It means prioritizing long-term
durability and utility over short-term convenience. ‘Necessary’ is a loaded
term. Everyone’s necessary is different. But starting to examine what you
truly need will likely result in you finding out that you need less than you
thought you did. It also often means coming to the conclusion that lasting
pleasure is more often found experience than possessions.
Under the umbrella of santosha, the second niyama, we are urged to seek
contentment, joy, and serenity in life. We are encouraged to be friendly,
express constant gratitude for all that we have, be it a lot or a little. We are
encouraged to live life in the eternity of the moment. From an environmental
perspective, witnessing the state of pollution, climate change, biodiversity
loss, deforestation, and the myriad other green issues we face, cultivation of
santosha is both a critical imperative and at times difficult. One essential
challenge is witnessing this suffering, trying to alleviate it, but still remaining
content and joyful.
Our past choices for energy usage here
have created a strong predisposition to
continue along the same path, even when
there is increasing knowledge that doing
so is harmful individually, collectively, and
on a planetary level.
3 By Maintaining and Strengthening the National Footprint Accounts and Creating Global
Ecological Footprint Standards, We Are Ensuring Accurate, Consistent, and Comparable Footprint
Analyses. “Science Overview.” Science Overview. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2016.
How we each take action on environmental and energy issues is deeply
connected to the path we take in life? In the pluralistic tradition of Hinduism,
there is it no one universally right path, one way of being or thinking or
believing applicable to every person, in every situation, in every stage of life.
Pluralism means that each of us has our role to play. We can’t presume what
someone else’s path and role might be. We’re all seeing and interacting with
the same cosmic order, the same creation, but from different perspectives.
We all have different likes, dislikes, and abilities. Finding our own personal
path, determining how we each can best contribute to society is crucially
important, but there is no one ‘right’ contribution. The questions we must
ask ourselves here is, “How can I best contribute; how can I be of service?”
In asking ourselves that question we must recognize that our individual
karma and our collective karma predisposes us to certain actions and thoughts.
What we have done individually and collectively in the past and today
makes certain future choices more likely, easier, to be taken than others.This
applies personally, as well as at the community or national level—though
obviously the former is more easily influenced than the latter. On a physical
level, we have built out our cities and suburbs in the past half century based
on the ubiquity of the automobile, superhighways, and spread out housing.
120
121
We have deep separation between where we work and where we live,
perhaps wise for heavy industry and the pollution that comes with it, but
less so for most everything else. What has resulted? Long commutes,
pollution from fossil fuel combustion, destruction of neighborhoods and
community. Physical, emotional, and spiritual disconnection from place also
often accompanies this pattern of building. Certain less polluting
technologies, such as electric vehicles, can reduce some of the environmental
impact of this sort of development, but our future options are constrained
by these past actions, making a transition towards less ecologically harmful
living that much more difficult. Similarly, the wealthy countries of the world
have grown to be so dependent on fossil fuels, using so much energy and
making their producers so much money, that efforts to use renewable energy
sources or rein in pollution are frequently met with opposition, though this
is slowly changing. Our past choices for energy usage here have created a
strong predisposition to continue along the same path, even when there is
increasing knowledge that doing so is harmful individually, collectively, and
on a planetary level4.
Knowing the harm that continued burning
of fossil fuels causes, knowingly financially
profiting from them is contributing to a
form of harm.
When it comes to specific climate change and energy policy recommendations, how can the yamas and niyamas be used as guidance?
In the past few years the calls from environmental advocates for institutions
to divest from fossil fuel companies have grown ever louder, with a number
of high profile actions persuading cities and universities to pull their money
from fossil fuel investments. Such action clearly is in line with the application
of ahimsa: This principle applies not just to actions, but our words, and
4 Sarma, EAS. “Coal Is Not the Answer to India’s Energy Poverty, Whatever Tony Abbott Says | EAS
Sarma.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 07 Aug. 2015. Web. 31 Oct. 2016.
122
thoughts as well. Where we choose to put our money in the hopes of
turning a profit encompasses all of these. Knowing the harm that continued
burning of fossil fuels causes, knowingly financially profiting from them is
contributing to a form of harm.
But what about continuing to use fossil fuels individually and what about
the harm potentially created to people working for fossil fuel companies?
Unfortunately at the moment, in most places, entirely avoiding fossil fuels is
an impossibility for anyone who doesn’t live a life of ecological asceticism,
for anyone who lives in the world, travels only under their own power, and
uses goods that they themselves have made. Knowing this, guided by the
yamas and niyamas we can reduce our energy use and wherever possible
choose non-polluting energy. Increasingly, many options exist for choosing
low-carbon lifestyles, eating, transport, home electricity supply, and personal
and institutional investments. As for the potential harm created to people
working in the fossil fuel industry by pulling investments, clearly this harm
too is to be avoided as much as possible. For these people we need to ensure
that other job opportunities are made available, with training and assistance
provided to all who need it.
Accompanying the calls for divestment there is a growing chorus of
voices saying that we need to leave as much of remaining fossil fuel reserves
in the ground, cease exploration for potential new reserves, and cease
expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure. Here too a solid ethical case based on
the yamas and niyamas can be made. In the balance our use of fossil fuels is
causing more harm than good. The ecological damage of climate change is
stealing from future generations the possibility of living lives that we today
would think would be ‘good’, and those of us in wealthy nations are using
a disproportionate share of them. For whatever good fossil fuels have had in
bettering our lives up until this point in history, the balance has solidly
tipped from them helping increasing our wealth to them increasing illth.
Recent analysis of the increases in greenhouse gas emissions that will result
from our current trajectory of fossil fuel usage shows that there is no way
we can keep temperature rise to reasonably safe levels without forgoing the
exploitation of more fossil fuels. While markets and economic forces always
do have a role to play in the transition away from fossil fuels, at some point
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we as people, community, and nations have to say forcefully and confidently
that we will only use low-carbon energy sources, that is as unthinkable to
use them in the way and to the degree we have been as it would be to
suggest we can enslave our fellow human beings. We need to have the
courage and confidence to say we can no longer explore for more oil and
natural gas and coal. We need to accept that we cannot even burn all that
exists in proven reserves if we want to preserve a climate similar to the one
in which all of human life has evolved5 .
Finally, a less publicized but no less important issue, and one with
particular relevance to the global Hindu community: ending energy poverty.
While segments of the human family use copious amounts of electricity, a
disturbing number still live in a state of energy poverty6, and could benefit
immensely by having a small fraction of what those of us in the wealthy
nations of the world take for granted. Roughly one third of those billion or
so people in the world without access to electricity, and one quarter of
those who rely on biomass for cooking, live in India. This has many
deleterious effects on human health and education, with the burden falling
disproportionately on women and girls. It also can have negative effects on
land use, deforestation, and wildlife habitat, when you consider collection of
wood for cooking. Providing these people with clean, low-carbon energy
sources (and in many places currently worst-affected by energy poverty,
decentralized), would alleviate a great deal of harm in the world directly,
while simultaneously safeguarding the lives of future generations through
reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Fortunately, as solar power prices
continue to fall, there should be less and less temptation to repeat the
polluting patterns of development from the last century and deploy coalfired electricity7. In places without current grid access there is the
opportunity to not mimic the methods of the past and instead lead the way
with renewable energy, generated close to the point of use.
Where is santosha in these? Santosha provides a sort of counterbalance
to the heaviness of these issues and what at times seems like a constant
uphill struggle.
We need to have the courage and
confidence to say we can no longer
explore for more oil and natural gas
and coal; we need to accept that we
cannot even burn all that exists in
proven reserves.
Despite what at times can seem like slow to no progress on the path
towards more of us living more environmentally-aware lives, and towards
alleviating the suffering caused by the current general lack thereof, through
our practice of contentment we can see these seeming setbacks or undesired
situations as opportunities for growth and learning.We can strive and work,
while not being personally attached to the outcome of actions and trying to
be content with the work we have done, with our place on the path, even
if sometimes it seems we are off of it for a bit or the goal still seems far away.
The Bhagavad Gita advises, “Always perform with detachment the work
you must do; only by work performed with detachment does man reach the
highest…Whatever a great man does, that others will also do. Whatever
standards he sets, the same the world will follow.” (3:19–21) Now, it is up to
all of us to set a standard that rooted in an ecologically aware sensibility,
minimizing harm, and ensuring the welfare of all beings.
5 @_rospearce. “Analysis: Only Five Years Left before 1.5C Carbon Budget Is Blown | Carbon
Brief.” Carbon Brief. N.p., 19 May 2016. Web. 31 Oct. 2016.
6 “Five Surprising Facts About Energy Poverty.” National Geographic. National Geographic Society,
n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2016
7 “Deutsche Bank Report: Solar Grid Parity in a Low Oil Price Era.” – Deutsche Bank Responsibility.
N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2016.
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GOD’S FIRST
COMMANDMENT:
To Be Earthkeepers
n N CUMISA UKEWEVA MAGADLA
South African Anglican environmentalist.
GREENFAITH.ORG I INTERFAITHSTATEMENT2016.ORG
T
he very first commandment that we were given as human beings is
found in Gen 2:15: Adam and Eve were placed in the garden planet
and told: “Work the Earth and care for it.”
Over the years humans have worked the earth in order to find energy.
Since the discovery of fire, humans have burnt wood to keep themselves
warm and to cook. There was minimal impact on the garden planet. But
with the discovery of fossil fuels, all this changed—oil, coal and gas are
releasing carbon emissions that are damaging our planet and its inhabitants,
and pollutants that are damaging our health.
In order to develop, we need energy, but there are many types of energy
now available. For Anglicans, we are influenced by the Five Marks of Mission.1
The Five Marks of Mission are:
NCUMISA MAGADLA is a black South African
young woman, a former journalism student, and
currently communications officer for the Anglican
Church of Southern Africa’s Environmental
Network. Her work is focused on leadership
among the youth of Southern Africa, especially
Anglicans, to heighten awareness of our
environmental challenges and to advise them
regarding recreating a vision for Eco Churches
and communities. n
To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
n
To teach, baptise and nurture new believers
n
To respond to human need by loving service
n
To transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence of every
kind and pursue peace and reconciliation
n
To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the
life of the earth
Mark Three—to respond to human need by loving service,
The third mark of mission shows us that we must look at how best
human needs can be met. Electricity is needed to light our homes, to help
young people break out of poverty by being able to study. It enables people
to start small businesses, creates jobs. Fuel is needed for people to be able to
cook, to warm themselves. Fuel is needed for transport. Energy is needed to
meet these human needs.
1 “Marks of Mission,” Anglican Communion http://www.anglicancommunion.org/identity/marksof-mission.aspx
129
However we also need to balance the need for energy with the human
needs of health. Fossil fuels contribute massively to air pollution and are
threatening the present and future health and safety of the poorest of the poor.
There is no doubt, when one considers the
impact of fossil fuels on the integrity of
creation, that the age of fossil fuels must
come to an end.The coal industry has
destroyed vast swathes of our country;
The oil industry similarly creates vast areas
of environmental degradation
Mark Four—To Transform Unjust Structures of Society
The fourth mark of mission emphasizes the growing inequity of our
society, where wealth is concentrated in the hands of shareholders, and the
continual influence of the fossil fuel industry on political decisions. In our
South African society the government is pushing for an unaffordable nuclear
expansion. The South African Government has been reported to have
concluded a trillion nuclear deal with Russian Rosatom. Already a R171
000 000 contract for the “Nuclear New Build Programme Management
System’ has been issued.2 Climate change is impacting on the most
vulnerable of society and we should talk rather of climate justice.The impact
of climate change is leading to a growth in refugees and increasing violence
as people compete for simple necessities such as water and education.3
There is a link between our depreciating economy, poverty and education:
and resources must be directed to support the futures of young people.
2 Ulrich Steenkamp and Dominique Doyle, “Nuclear Deal will be a Financial Meltdown,” Nuclear
Costs SA, September 21, 2016 http://nuclearcostssa.org/?p=3519
3 Lebo Tshangela, “Funds for Nuclear Should be Used for Education,” SABC News, October 26,
2016. http://www.sabc.co.za/news/a/c4a487804ebc965e8cdcacc17c6e412d/Funds-for-nuclearshould-be-used-for-education:-Activists-20162610
130
Mark Five—To Safeguard the Integrity of Creation and Sustain
and Renew the Life of the Earth
There is no doubt, when one considers the impact of fossil fuels on the
integrity of creation, that the age of fossil fuels must come to an end. The
coal industry has destroyed vast swathes of our country, polluting water with
acid mine drainage and leaving communities devastated with ill health.4 The
oil industry similarly creates vast areas of environmental degradation and
accidents create environmental disasters. Fracking uses huge amounts of
water and threatens to contaminate underground water sources. Nuclear
energy leaves us with waste products for tens of thousands of years ahead.
If we are faithful to the fifth mark of mission, then renewable energy is the
only way to go, as the use of solar, wind and tidal energy leaves no pollution,
no carbon emissions and is healthy both for the worker and the user.
It is vital that we accelerate the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
Individual Christians and churches can do this through personal life-style
choices, installing a solar geyser, changing light bulbs, reducing fossil fuel
usage by using public transport and reducing electricity usage. But these
changes although important, need to be accompanied by policy advocacy.
The divestment movement, taking our money out of fossil fuels and reinvesting it, is an important symbolic and practical action. Even if the
amounts are small, it gives a strong message to industry and financial
institutions that the day of fossil fuels is coming to an end. The Anglican
Church of Southern Africa at its latest Synod in 2016agreed to divest from
fossil fuels. Although there is currently no fossil fuel free portfolio on the
Johannesburg stock exchange, the Church will work with others to put
pressure on the financial institutions to create one.
Prior to COP21 the nations of the world agreed on their INDC,
“Intended” nationally determined contributions. These goals are good and
a step in the right direction, but even if all these intentions are fulfilled, we
are still looking at a devastating 3 degree increase. As people of faith, we
need to pressurize our own national governments to be more visionary and
4 “Faith and Fracking: Why Should I as a Person of Faith be Concerned?” Southern African Faith
Communities’ Environment Institute http://safcei.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/SAFCEI-Fracking-leaflet-March-2015.pdf
131
become leaders in renewable energy.
The world stands at a crossroads—it is time to call for a just transition from
fossil fuels to renewables, A just transition provides the opportunity for deeper
transformation that includes the redistribution of power and resources towards
a more just and equitable social order where we create jobs, reduce the impact
of climate change and create a healthier world for all.
Creation is groaning with the birth pangs of this new society. And
Creation is waiting on tiptoe for us, the children of God, to take up our
place and be part of this transformation. (Rom 8:19)
“When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into
deep water, and let down the nets for a catch. Simon answered,
“Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.
But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” Mark 5:4
From a personal experience, care for creation is probably one of the most
overlooked ministries in our spiritual journey, especially by young people,
for one because it bears no immediate results, requires perseverance, passion
and obviously does not draw crowds.You can then conclude from a distance
it’s not attractive.
Although I was not really conscious of my concern for the environment,
I believe that deep inside me, it has always been there. My early childhood
years were spent in a wonderful rural environment with a real forest just
outside our front door. Since then I have been a young green Anglican and
it has been a gradual journey with new knowledge and experiences adding
to my commitment to care for creation. Growing up in a very spiritual
household taught me so much about being faithful to your cause, and that’s
what keeps me grounded and passionate all the time.
Educated people may understand environmentally pressing factors, but it
is not just those in places of fortune who can turn the wheel around. We
have an amazing base of people in our pews who would love to take action
but have no proficiency in environmental management. With training and
education, we could be able to assist people in developing a vision to serve
and renew the earth in their own small corners and that includes divesting
their investments and energy into renewables.
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Creation is groaning with the birth pangs
of this new society. And Creation is
waiting on tiptoe for us, the children of
God, to take up our place and be part of
this transformation. (Rom 8:19)
People in faith ministries have the ability and the capacity to change the
world. Looking at the quantity of people sitting either in a church, mosque,
synagogue, etc., every day of the week and you tell me that all those people
do not have some form of belief in saving this world and are waiting to take
action. At the moment many are deeply buried in a material world.They are
not aware of the consequences of their purchases. For example they do not
connect investing their monies in mines to borrowing time from their
children and coming generations; they think it’s preparing for the betterment
of their future. By reaching out to people through their comfortable ways
of communication, through the Church, it is possible to grow awareness. It
is also important for those of us who are environmentally aware to set
responsible examples. The Anglican Church has set a very good example in
Southern Africa by divesting and moving their investments into renewables
and also setting up a structure that focuses on earth keeping. It not only
reduces our carbon footprint, but it is an opportunity to activate a sense of
community with God’s creation, and to make a bold statement of where the
Church stands.
Care for creation requires thorough understanding, faith and, I
believe, positive thinking. The Anglican Communion can never
achieve this on its own. We need for world leaders to join and like
good stewards, mind God’s commandment to work and take care of
the land. The thought of an environmentally peaceful society is the
drive behind every effort. The day where the environment will be
equally loved and protected is yet to come, but it needs coalition from
all parties.
We are the lucky ones that have the ability to make change.
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However it means dealing with reality, the risks to our future. It takes
courage, but I believe in change, effort, as well as love for our precious
planet, so now it’s all about advocating and acting on climate change
and other environmental issues. Those of us who can see the light,
need to go into the deep waters and fish for more earth keepers. Jesus
gives us the will.
People in faith ministries have the ability
and the capacity to change the world.
SHIFT THE POWER:
Buddhist Temple Communities for
an Energy and Social Revolution
nB
Y REV. HIDEHITO OKOCHI
with JONATHAN S. WATTS
GREENFAITH.ORG I INTERFAITHSTATEMENT2016.ORG
Cultivating a Buddhist Standpoint on Environmental
and Social Justice
This paper was translated and edited by JONATHAN S. WATTS,
drawing from a variety of sources, particularly REV. OKOCHI’s
chapters in This Precious Life: Buddhist Tsunami Relief and Anti-Nuclear
Activism in Post 3/11 Japan (2011/2015 2nd Ed.) and Lotus in the Nuclear
Sea: Fukushima and the Promise of Buddhism in the Nuclear Age (2013),
both published by the International Buddhist Exchange Center
(IBEC) in Yokohama, Japan. For a wide variety of further sources on
this work visit the homepage of the Japan Network of Engaged
Buddhists: jneb.jp/english
Like most Japanese priests in Japan, I was born in a temple and raised to
succeed my father as abbot. However, instead of entering the Buddhist
Studies Department of the university affiliated with my Jodo Pure Land
denomination, I entered the Law and Political Science Department of Keio
University. Growing up in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I was strongly
influenced by the Japanese student political movement of the era; a
movement that is for the most part dead today. Still, my ties to my family
temple and my subsequent ordination as a priest, led me to search for the
common points in my socio-political interests and my Buddhist path.
Eventually, I made the connection between the student movement ideals
for political peace with Buddhist values for peace and social justice, such as
no poverty and no discrimination. I also eventually saw how environment
was connected to peace, and how I could work for society as a priest.
In my 20s, I, and a group of other like-minded Buddhist priests, took
several trips abroad to various regions of conflict, especially war torn IndoChina. It was at this time that I discovered how the Japanese economic
prosperity of the 1970s and 80s was built on the back of the economic and
environmental exploitation of South and Southeast Asia while piggy backing
on the political exploitation of the United States in the Middle East.1 These
intimate encounters with the suffering of humanity led us to create AYUS, a
Japanese Buddhist NGO focused on supporting small NGOs doing aid work
in these areas. At this time, other Japanese Buddhist priests were developing
similar concerns and a group of successful, overseas aid Buddhist NGOs
sprouted up and continue their work today.2 However, these initiatives were
not enough to satisfy my political sensibilities for social justice.
Reflecting on the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths, I went deeper into the
1 After World War II, the second rise of Japanese economic expansion in South and Southeast Asia
is well documented. Following the model established by the United States with the World Bank
and U.S. Aid, Japan used the Asian Development Bank and the Japan International Cooperation
Agency (JICA) to invest heavily in these regions and exploit natural resources for their industrial
development. While attempting to develop energy independence through nuclear power, Japan has
continued to rely on the status quo in the Middle East to import oil.
2 Watts, Jonathan S. A Brief Overview of Buddhist NGOs in Japan. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 31 (2): 417–28, 2004.
137
nature of the suffering that I had encountered overseas. When Shakyamuni
Buddha gained enlightenment, his first teaching was the Four Noble Truths,
that is: first, get a solid grasp of the suffering (the problem); second, ascertain
its causes and structure; third, form an image of the world to be aimed for;
and fourth, act according to correct practices. From this, one gains a sense
of the meaning of life in modern society as a citizen with responsibilities in
the irreversible course of time. The suffering of the southern peoples and
nature, from which we Japanese derive support for our lives even as we
exploit it, has caused our community to think.
The suffering of the southern peoples and
nature, from which we Japanese derive
support for our lives even as we exploit it,
has caused our community to think.
The problem is structural in nature, so by changing the system and creating
measures for improvement, we achieve results. The first thing is to fulfill our
responsibilities to the people around us and to future generations.While other
Buddhist priests in Japan may have also seen the structural nature of the
second noble truth, almost all have been content in working on the first noble
truth of immediate suffering through social welfare and aid work overseas.
On the other hand, I decided to engage in my own community to end the
complicity with this overseas exploitation rooted in Japanese consumeristic
lifestyles. From the critical consciousness developed in understanding the
global system of economic, environmental, and political exploitation from
engaging in the second noble truth, our community naturally moved into the
visionary work of the third noble truth.
For myself, I was able to draw heavily in this process on the teaching of
the founder of my Jodo Pure Land denomination, Honen (1133-1212).
Honen was the first of the generation of Buddhist reformers who brought
Buddhist faith and practice down to the Japanese masses during what is
known as the Kamakura Era.This was a time marked by political corruption
and chaos as well as numerous natural calamities with the eventual creation
138
of a military state run by the historically famous Shoguns. Buddhism at that
time had become heavily compromised with political authority while using
mercenary soldier-priests (sohei) to secure its vested interests. Further, the
Mahayana Buddhist teachings had become so highly developed and ornate
by this time that they were inaccessible to Japan’s largely agrarian society.
Honen, as a highly accomplished scholar and practitioner, broke with this
order by teaching that in this age of decline a committed devotional faith to
Amida Buddha and the simple recitation of his name (Namu Amida Butsu)
was equal to, if not better, than any of the complex practices of the monastic
order.This was a radical message that empowered all, especially the poor and
marginalized, to practice Buddhism.Yet it obviously had social implications
by emboldening the people to find their own agency and take control of
their own lives and communities. Honen’s teaching’s and legacy remind me
of the work of Liberation Theology leaders in Latin America and the
Philippines.3 For me, his legacy means creating a radically democratic
society from the grassroots up, leading to a world without discrimination
and exploitation, especially one without a military and nuclear presence.
From Anti-Nuclear Activism to Community-Based Production
and Consumption
From my experiences of seeing suffering in Southeast Asia, I became
increasingly concerned about their causal connections with our lifestyles in
the highly consumerized “bubble economy” of Japan. So in 1993, I joined
a group of Japanese religious leaders to form the Interfaith Forum for the
Review of National Nuclear Policy. The Forum is comprised of religious
professionals (Buddhist, Christian, and Shinto priests) from all parts of Japan
working on anti-nuclear activities with 40 core representatives and over
800s members. Most of our members do not come from prestigious central
positions in Japan’s politically passive Buddhist denominations, but rather
from the local communities that host nuclear power plants, like Fukushima,
which are deeply affected by their daily existence. In April 1992, we
convened our first national meeting in Kyoto to rethink the political
3 Machida, Soho. Renegade Monk: Honen and Japanese Pure Land Buddhism. Ioannis Mentzas, Trans
(Berkeley, University of California Press, 1999).
139
background of Japan’s nuclear policy. This was around the time that the
Monju fast breeder reactor, named after the Buddhist bodhisattva Manjusri,
was scheduled to achieve criticality. In response, the Forum created an
October Action, gathering 70 individuals and over 300 endorsements, to
meet in Tokyo and participate in “dialogue” and “protest” inquiries with
government officials from the Agency of Natural Resources and Energy
and the Agency of Science and Technology. After the earthquake, tsunami,
and subsequent nuclear disasters of March 11, 2011, the Forum provided
emergency evacuation housing in temples and churches for children and
pregnant mothers in the areas around the Fukushima nuclear power plants.
While the Forum is today still relatively small in numbers, it consists of
some of the most important anti-nuclear religious activists in the nation,
such at Rev. Tetsuen Nakajima, who has led community organizations to
successfully stop the restart of reactors in his region since 2011.
For myself, based on Honen’s teachings, I wanted to work on nurturing
my temple community based on trusting relationships and self-reliance. In
December 1997, Japan hosted the Third Session of the Conference of the
Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(COP3), resulting in the well-known Kyoto Protocol. As a way of increasing
awareness in my community about this important event, I helped establish
the Edogawa Citizen’s Network for Thinking about Global Warming
(ECNG) in the summer of 1996. Our first project was to learn about global
warming by engaging in the recovery of CFCs in our local ward of Edogawa,
which was responsible for a high level of such emissions in the central
Tokyo 23 ward area due to the concentration of car demolition businesses
there. This project led into a deeper investigation of Japan’s industrial grid
and the generation of electricity.
Until the Fukushima nuclear crisis, the production of electrical power in
Japan was monopolized by giant regional utilities in cooperation with the
central government. A cluster of vested interests called the “nuclear village”4
have controlled this system for decades, creating multi-billion-dollar projects
at any cost and pushing local regions into an addictive cycle of economic
subsidies in exchange for hosting reactors. ECNG thus made it a goal not
only to reduce peak electricity demand and change policy in order to
promote the spread of alternative forms of energy, but also to familiarize
people with the concept of energy and get communities involved in
initiatives. The first test of this was the establishment of the citizens’ power
plant using solar electrical generation.
Honen’s legacy means creating a
radically democratic society from the
grassroots up, leading to a world without
discrimination and exploitation,
especially one without a military and
nuclear presence.
4 The “nuclear village” consists of: entrenched government bureacrats, politicians both local and
natiaonal, utility companies like TEPCO which runs the Fukushima complex, construction companies that build the reactors and even profit off their accidents which they are contracted to clean
up, and academics and media who receive various benefits for promoting nuclear energy.
It was decided that the site for this “plant” would be my Juko-in temple,
and this required a complete rebuilding of the 400-year old temple using
eco-friendly concrete and wood building materials.Two sets of fifteen large
solar panels with an output of 5.4kw were installed on the roof of the newly
constructed temple in 1999. It was estimated that 3kw would be enough to
meet the needs of my family of four, so the “plant” produced a little less than
twice that at first. This initiative was an experiment not in creating an
alternative form of large-scale electrical generation but, in keeping with my
vision of an empowered democratic community, how an individual home
could develop sustainable electrical independence.
The first big obstacle to this project was raising the 6 million yen
($60,000) cost of installing the panels. Grants from government foundations
and NGOs paid for around 2.7 million yen; Juko-in Temple funded another
1.5 million yen by prepaying 10 years worth of its electric bills; and the rest
was paid with a loan from the newly established, local micro-credit Mirai
(Future) Bank.The electricity generated is used only by Juko-in temple, due
to laws that prevent the sale of surplus electricity directly to citizens—
140
141
another example of the collusion between the government and large electric
companies to control the industry. So I ended up selling the surplus back to
the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the same company that
manages the Fukushima reactors. Using this method, it would have taken
fifteen years or more to pay off the loan using the profits from this excess
energy bought by TEPCO.
The citizens’ power plant on the roof
of Juko-in temple was an experiment
not in creating an alternative form of
large-scale electrical generation but, in
keeping with my vision of an empowered
democratic community, how an individual
home could develop sustainable electrical
independence.
To expedite this process and develop a more viable community
development model, ECNG decided to issue Green Power Certificates. We
developed these certificates as a way for people in the community and
people we knew who were concerned about these issue to participate in
this experiment in energy self-sufficiency. We canvassed people to buy as
many certificates as they liked for 1,000 yen ($10) per certificate at the price
of 33 yen/kWh, a figure between the 22 yen/kWh price paid by Tokyo
Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and the 55 yen/kWh price paid for
natural energy in Germany.5 In return for the certificates they bought, we
created a local currency called Edogawatt and provided three 10
unit Edogawatt bills for each certificate to use in exchange for baby-sitting,
5 In Europe and other places, there are regions that stipulate the obligation to buy natural energy—
which does not put a cost burden on the future by harming the environment or creating radioactive waste—at a higher price than that of energy generated by normal means. This is known as a
feed-in tariff (FIT) system. There are also green power systems, which designate power produced
by consumers using clean generation methods and purchase it at higher prices.
142
carrying loads, translating, and other small jobs within the community. This
provided an incentive for the creation of a mutual aid society within the
community, and we would like to make this a tool for deepening
interpersonal relationships and trust. In the end, by selling 200 certificates at
1,000 yen each, we reduced the time for return on investment to within
nine years. With the loans having now been paid back, ECNG is making
good profits on the surplus electricity it is still selling back to the main grid
from the Juko-in Temple roof.
The fulcrum for this whole initiative was the Mirai “Future” Bank that
ECNG established based on the micro credit banking systems first developed
in Sri Lanka by the well-known Buddhist based Sarvodaya Shramadana
Movement under A.T. Ariyaratne and made famous by the Grameen Bank
and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh.The bank
provided an important amount of capital for installing the solar panels on
the roof of Juko-in and for the subsequent power station of 3kw built in
2007 on the roof of an elderly home run by a local NGO on land owned
by the temple. The bank also supported a consumer campaign to decrease
the amount of electricity used through the purchase of more energy
efficient, electrical appliances in the community. In the end, we discovered
that if we made only a 700,000 yen ($7,000) investment in updating
community member’s electrical appliances, we could save 2,000 kwH more
electricity than generated by the solar panels on the roof on Juko-in Temple
that cost 6,000,000 yen ($60,000) to install. In this way, through both
generating our own electricity and saving on the electricity we do use, our
temple has become a successful model for realizing the final vision of every
home becoming totally energy self-sufficient—thereby empowering it to
unplug from centralized electrical grids.
This initiative has fed into another “eco-temple” project at a second
temple in Tokyo at which I serve as abbot. I have also completely rebuilt this
temple recently using sustainably harvested domestic timber that is longlasting and chemical free. In this way, we are trying to divest from the large
Japanese companies, like Mitsubishi, engaged in destructive logging practices
in Southeast Asia. These companies also build low-quality commercial
housing filled with toxic chemicals that are causing a variety of health
143
problems for Japanese today. Another aspect of this project has been putting
in a group of 14 individual apartments, built as an entirely cooperative and
connected complex with the temple. The apartment owners were brought
in at the beginning to help design the construction project, participating in
the different stages of the planning and receiving the benefits of a developer
in the ability to purchase at a cheaper price. We felt a community based on
mutual trust more easily develops in this scenario rather than the usual one
in which separate home owners don’t know anything about those living
next to them.
A crucial aspect of these two eco-temple initiatives is support for the
development of local electrical generation through the use of solar, wind,
and micro-hydroelectric. One of the great myths propagated by the Japanese
industrial complex is that Japan has no natural resources and needs massive
centralized electrical systems—especially nuclear power—to fuel its
economy and well-being. While the Japanese government, like many other
governments, has used the promise of nuclear power to distance itself from
oil dependency and fulfill targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions,
nuclear power has been a means to reinforce a top down social order that
ensures the profits of electric companies and their “associates”, exploits
laborers in the plants, and robs communities in remote regions of their
independence while endangering their future. Our vision of and practices
towards a natural energy society would reverse the social hierarchy by
decentralizing the production and consumption of energy and empowering
localities and individuals to better determine their own futures.
A Global Energy and Social Revolution: An “Eco-Temple” in
Every Community in the World
Moving from the local to global, I have been working since 2009 with the
International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB) to collaborate on such
temple based ecological activities. With INEB’s formation of the Interfaith
Climate and Ecology network (ICE) in 2012, we have been slowly building
an Eco Temple Community Development Project.This project has sought to:
1) share experiences, identify needs, and begin collaboration among core
members to support the development of eco-temple communities; and 2)
144
from this shared knowledge, further develop and articulate an Eco-Temple
Community Design Scheme, which can be a planning tool for our own and
other eco-temple community initiatives.The Eco Temple Community Design
is a holistic development process that involves much more than simply putting
solar panels on the roofs of temples. It involves a comprehensive integration
of: 1) ecological temple structure and energy system, 2) economic sustainability,
3) integration with surrounding environment, 4) engagement with community
and other regional groups (civil society, business, government), and 5)
development of spiritual values and teachings on environment, eco-dharma.
We know well about the numerous
barriers to localized, clean energy
development put up by vested business
and political interests. There are also
various barriers in the religious world to
this work that mostly revolve around social
complacency and political conservatism.
As a faith based network, INEB and ICE see one of their key contributions
to social change as the reform and revival of our Buddhist and spiritual
traditions, especially in this case, the community and the physical presence of
a holistic and ecologically minded religious center/temple. Through the
religious center/temple, we can contribute greatly to the critical need for
education and practice in inner ecology, while connecting that to outer
ecological activities such as community mobilization on environmental issues,
right livelihood, and, foremost for this project, the establishment of a zerowaste, clean energy temple structure integrated into the local environment.
From such a movement, religious communities can have a progressive role in
and contribute to wider movements for ecological design and post-industrial
societies, critical to the immediate global environmental crisis.
Of course, there are still numerous barriers to this work. We know well
145
about the numerous barriers to localized, clean energy development put up
by vested business and political interests. There are also various barriers in
the religious world to this work that mostly revolve around social
complacency and political conservatism. The Japanese Buddhist world in
which I live has shown little sustained interest in speaking out about the
moral dilemmas of nuclear power or global climate change. While there is
interest in “green values”, simple-minded religious campaigns for the
environment are rarely holistically implemented and often times come off
as a kind of “green-wash” to appear up to date with the times. Finally, the
level of community involvement and mobilization involved in building my
eco-temples is beyond the scope of engagement for most Buddhist priests
in Japan. It has been heartening to see colleagues in less developed nations
in South and Southeast Asia have greater capabilities in mobilizing their
temple communities, while still lacking some basic technology to realize
comprehensive eco-temple development. This is why we feel our new
network has the potential for increasing the pace of this work through an
exchange of best practices and in certain case actual technology exchange.
We feel our message should appeal to everyone in the world who sees
the indivisible connection between inner ecology and outer ecology. As I
have endeavored to engage and awaken people in my own small communities
in Tokyo, I hope that others can try the same in their local religious or
spiritual communities. I believe that if we can all transform the way our
local communities produce and consume, we can transform the larger global
forces that are destroying our planet.
TOWARDS AN
ECUMENICAL
AND ECOLOGICAL
SPIRITUALITY:
The Faith in a More Biblical
Understanding of Salvation that
Calls Us to Concrete Actions
n C LAUDIO DE OLIVEIRA RIBEIRO
Brazilian Methodist pastor and theologian
GREENFAITH.ORG I INTERFAITHSTATEMENT2016.ORG
We know that the whole creation has
been groaning in labor pains until
now; and not only the creation, but we
ourselves, who have the first fruits of the
Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for
adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
(Romans 8:22-23 - New Revised Standard Version - NRSV)
CLAUDIO DE OLIVEIRA RIBEIRO, PH.D., is a
Brazilian Methodist pastor and theologian, Professor at
the Methodist University of Sao Paulo, in the Masters and
Doctoral Program on Religious Studies, and Coordinator
of the Research Group on “Contemporary Spiritualities,
religious pluralism and dialogue”. He is a member of the
Interfaith Forum of São Paulo that works on issues
dealing with Land and Human Rights, democracy and
religious pluralism. Rev. Dr. Ribeiro is also Adviser of
Ecclesial Base Communities (CEBs) and Ecumenical
groups, and a member of the board of directors of the
Ecumenical Center for Evangelization and Popular
Education (CESEEP).
The theological and pastoral reflections on ecological spirituality have
been highlighted in different environments, both in the ecclesial space, in
the academic, as well as in the context of interreligious dialogue. For my
part, as a Christian theologian, but with a strong interfaith concern, I have
sought to analyze them in different ways. Thus I try to emphasize their
Biblical foundations, the spiritual dimensions generated in the encounter of
different religions and the challenges of community life in a world marked
by depersonalization, exacerbated individualism, and by exclusionary,
violent and conflictive logics, with concrete implications for the poor
people and families. Here I want to approach this issue from the perspective
of a spirituality that emerges from the creation and recreation of life and is
committed to it. Therefore it goes beyond the personal dimension and aims
at a cosmic one. It also springs from history and is committed to it, thus it is
neither escapist nor individualist, but relates to life in all its human, communal
and social breadth. Such spirituality assumes a wide view of salvation and
brings into our mind the Judeo-Christian Biblical tradition symbolized in
the beautiful image of the shepherd that amidst the dangers of life saves the
wounded sheep in a concrete way.
To speak about salvation is an act that intensely mobilizes all human
beings, regardless of creed, culture or political and philosophical beliefs. It is
something decisive, fundamental in human existence that raises questions
and expectations to us all. In the case of the theological reflection, the
subject of salvation represents a watershed. The understanding of the
149
salvation issue demarcates the other theological points, especially the
practical and pastoral. Attitudes, values and practices of the individuals and
groups will vary considerably depending on their view of salvation. That is
why the question is so important in the theological reflections on ecological
spirituality.
Within the Christian churches, there are at least two quite common
misunderstandings about salvation, both of them without biblical support.
The first is the conception of a mere and utterly individualistic salvation. The
second is that salvation has to do exclusively with another world.
Historically, preaching and Christian education in the context of the
evangelical churches in Brazil—but also in the Catholic context—repeated so
abusively that salvation is an individual issue that people ended up believing
it to be so. Such perspective reinforces the metaphysical interpretations of the
salvation issue and raises barriers for a wider understanding of it, with direct
consequences in the field of interreligious spirituality.
What does Jesus teach about our care
for the world?
This picture is what seems to describe the reality of Christian churches
today. To reverse it, aiming at a substantially more biblical theological
understanding of salvation, various efforts need to be made.
In the Latin American context it is prominent the eco-theological
proposal of Leonardo Boff. It does not deal with one or another specific
aspect of life but proclaims the need of a reinvention of the way of living in
the world. It is a call to all humanity, including the varied secular and sacred
experiences, aiming at a spiritual awakening for justice and human survival,
in the face of the crisis being generated by the current threat of ecocide.
In the book O Tao da Libertação: explorando a ecologia da transformação (The
Tao of Liberation: Exploring the Ecology of Transformation), written by the
theologian with Mark Hathaway and Fritjop Capra, we see the intimate
relationship between cosmology and spirituality. Cosmology leads us to the
questions of the origin, evolution, destiny, and purpose of the humans and
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of the universe. Thus we question ourselves about the place of the human
being in the great scheme of life, including the “relationship with the Source
of everything or God”. Spirituality is the concrete way of incorporating
cosmology in the human life. How can we discover the path and the
personal or communal meaning of life within a perspective of cosmic
evolution?
Such perspective of spirituality is not restricted to religion, even if it
has an intimate relationship with it. Spirituality has to do with the whole.
In the case of human life, there is a holy unity grounded in a dynamic and
interconnected coexistence of matter, energy, and spirit; hence, the
refutation of dichotomous ideas, especially between body and soul, matter
and spirit, natural sciences and social and human sciences. The fragmented
view that separates body and soul is a reductionist one and does not
explores all richness and complexity of life. It can even value—by means
of introspective attitudes of internalization, silence and seclusion—a
posture of relativization of human activism. However, for not being
carried out holistically, these can be turned into a way of going through
certain moments in life searching for peace and tranquility, which are
needed, of course, but this kind of spirituality will not be a “way of being”,
such as it would be expected from a holistic one.
Spirituality Has to Do with the Whole
Our presupposition is that the human being is a whole, with distinct
dimensions totally intertwined. It is also complex, in the sense that it
possesses dynamic dimensions which converge into a coherent reality.These
dimensions are exteriority, interiority and profoundness.
The exteriority of the human being is linked to its corporeity, but not as
something “dead.” It is the result from a wide scope of dynamic and
interactive relationships. Among these are the ones established with the
cosmos, the nature, history and society, and other human beings. Among
them also are those relationships with the elements and energies that boost
life, such as the air, water, clothing, and food, which are followed by a long
and varied list. Such relations generate feelings, intelligences, loves, and
many kinds of reactions. Even though the body reveals the human exteriority,
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it lives in a complexity of interconnected relations that are also interiorized;
hence the preference for the expression an embodied being instead of a
being with a body. In other words: we are a body and not we have a body. As it
was said, we understand the bodies as integrated into the ample relations
that surround them. In this sense, we can ask ourselves about land use, the
integration with nature and other environmental issues. In the case of
Brazil—but also of other parts of the world—our bodies are incorporated
into the Amazon forest. If it is destroyed life in the planet is threatened.
A biblical view applied to energy use
today, leads us to think that because
of fossil fuel consumption and climate
change, we live a process that affects our
existence, making it “crucified.”
The dimension of interiority is linked to the psychological and mental
universe. It is also an equally complex universe, characterized by impulses,
desires, passions, images, and ancestral archetypes. The human mind is the
totality of the human being and not just a part of what he has, because it
reflects what is inside him and captures all the resonances and interactions
of the outside world that reach him and penetrate him. Desires are the most
basic structures of the human psyche. They rule life and direct the human
being to conquer. As he goes after the desire, which is unlimited, the human
being aims to reach everything and the whole. The totality of Being is his
purpose. However, human finitude does not allow us that totality and we
suffer the temptation of identifying the manifestations of the whole, that is,
of God, with God himself.This is to confound the Absolute with the relative,
the unlimited with the finite. Hence the need of guiding our desires not
only toward our personal and objective satisfaction, which frequently
generates frustration and violence, but toward that which cannot be
negotiable or transferable in the journeys of human life: the Infinite, the
Source of reality, God.
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The human being also has a dimension of profoundness. It is that
possibility of going beyond human limitations, the mere appearances,
sensibilities, perceptions, and understandings. It is the power of perceiving
what is beyond the events and things, of being able to discover their
foundation and depth, of finding that toward which they lead us or
identifying what they point to or symbolize for us. Every situation we
live—and with it all material, historical and emotional mediations—evokes
memories, images and symbols that nourish the human interiority.They are
sacraments of something much greater and wider.This movement promotes
a consciousness state by means of which we can perceive the whole and
how we integrate ourselves in it. “To perceive the profoundness of the world,
of all things and of ourselves constitutes that which we call spirit. This is not
a part of the human being. It is that moment of consciousness by which we
experience the meaning and value of things.”1 This vision enables the
human being to experience a singularity. As he goes out to meet his
profoundness he encounters himself, with all his circumstances, whether in
interpersonal, social and historical relations, whether in relations with nature
and the cosmos, and the great Other, God, foundation and center of life.
Such profoundness represents a spiritual human possibility, namely
spirituality. This is not a monopoly of any religion, culture or thinking, but
can be found in different people, groups and stages of life. It aims toward the
cozy love of God and opens itself to it, looking for integration with the
whole.
Therefore, spirituality expresses itself in the practical and concrete aspects
of the political and social life. Here are prominent the processes for the
defense of life, social and economical justice, human and earth rights,
citizenship and the dignity of the poor. Ecological spirituality creates spaces
of social consciousness, alterity, life in coexistence and cordiality,
humanization and cosmic integration. It is the empowerment of life, not
only the human but life in all the diverse forms it manifests itself. In the case
of Brazil, there are many social initiatives and projects from the Movimento
dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra—MST (Landless Workers Movement) and
1 Leonardo Boff, Marc Hathaway, and Fritjop Capra, O Tao da Libertação: explorando a ecologia da
transformação (Petrópolis, RJ:Vozes, 2012), 426.
153
similar social movements that promote communal production and
dialogue—not without conflicts—with other social sectors on the
preservation of natural resources and forms of land occupation.
This spiritual perspective can be seen as indispensable for the future of
humanity and of the Earth. It is sensibility toward others and cooperation
and respect in relation to human life and nature. It is a perception of the
natural world—both material and human—as living sources of energy and
a call to communion with them, in a communal and ecological spirituality.
This is vital for the survival of the biosphere.
The Contribution of Christian Faith to Ecospirituality
It is important to analyze the relationship between ecology, spirituality
and the Christian tradition for different reasons.
The first one is related to a more critical and negative dimension. This is
derived from the fact that Christianity has in its historical conditions,
especially in its European roots, a connection with colonial exploitation
processes and more recently with the destructive processes of the global
corporative capitalism. It is a self-criticism of Christianity for being linked
to the pathological and dysfunctional cultures that generated the industrial
plunder and consumerism. This raises another reason, of biblical and
theological background, that is the question not so much about Christianity,
but about the Christian faith, if it is possible to make such a distinction:
What does Jesus teach about our care for the world? What does the biblical
view offer as a contribution for the salvation of the planet? Our understanding
is that a theological interpretation of this biblical view, if applied to the
consideration of energy use today, would lead us to think that because of the
fossil fuels consumption and of the climate change, we live a process that
affects our existence, making it “crucified.” Humanity is on its way to
Calvary. The resurrection will arise, however, in the new forms of
environmental protection and energy use, especially from renewable sources.
Maybe we might say that the wide range of environmental struggles
underway in Brazil are making us live on “the way to Emmaus.”The Amazon
is this way.
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It is important to reinforce all existing
initiatives in various social movements
and non-governmental organizations that
defend the adoption of energy production
using the renewable processes, especially
wind power.
That is why we affirm that the Biblical presupposition is that the life and
teachings of Jesus are against the imperialist logics of exploitation of the
poor and of the Earth. It is true that both in the Old and New Testament
there are passages that lead to the idea of a human yoke and dominion over
nature. There are also dualistic and dichotomous interpretations, especially
of terms like “flesh” and “spirit” in the Pauline writings, respectively as
something bad and something good. Other dichotomies also do not
cooperate for the valuing of society and nature. Among these are those
which refer to the “body” and “soul” (the first linked to sin and negative
realities and the second as a preferential option linked to the religious scope),
those that distinguish the material and the spiritual realities, the world and
the Kingdom, the secular and the sacred dimensions and others. The Bible,
however, proclaims in its entirety a totally opposed vision: all creation
belongs to God and all that was done by him is good and blessed. It is a
holistic, comprehensive perspective that values the human being and nature
in its integrality and in its inter-relatedness.
Even the verbs “to master” and “to subdue” that appear in biblical texts
do not need to be interpreted in an anthropocentric and domineering way.
They can be understood within a perspective of alterity and fellowship, if
we identify them with an attitude of reiteration of the human consciousness
or with a deepening of interiority.
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Thus, humanity is seen in Genesis as an expression of the Earth.
We were created in order to have a special connection to the
planet. We are formed by its own body as if we were children of
the Earth. We are the Earth in which the breath became
immanent. We are the Earth turned into a way of consciousness.
We are not above it or upon it, but we are a part of it.
Thus we are called to live in a profound and conscious relationship
with the Earth and with the creative process. We rescue our
humanity when we rescue our “earthiness”, i.e., when we
recognize that we are a part of the great Earth community.2
Thinking in more global religious terms, it is expected that every spiritual
tradition may search in its core and in its own foundation the insights that
might lead to a reverence for life and an ethics of sharing and care for life in
its human and cosmic dimension, as they awaken to an understanding that
the sacred is present in history and the cosmos. “If we do so, we will have
access to a source of lasting and deep inspiration, which might create the
outbreak of a spiritual revolution which can truly save the Earth and enrich
the quality of human life.”3
From the point of view of concrete actions in our time and taking into
consideration the Brazilian reality, it is important to reinforce all existing
initiatives in the various social movements and non-governmental
organizations that aim to defend the adoption of energy production using
the so-called renewable processes, especially wind power. In Brazil, there
were several initiatives of the popular governments in the period 20122015. Several investments in wind energy as an alternative to fossil fuels
were made. The fact that this energy source is renewable, is permanently
available, exists everywhere, is clean, that is, does not produce greenhouse
gases, and has less environmental impact than other sources, led large social
sectors to some optimism. The discontinuity of the government in 2016
may jeopardize these initiatives. Therefore it is even more important the
2 Boff et al, 434.
3 Ibid, 462.
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monitoring of this issue on the part of the ecological movements and
religious groups sensitive to this cause.
The Faith that Calls Us to Concrete Actions
At the inter-religious movements in which we participate we have
emphasized the vision, essential for the future of humanity, of a life valuing
spirituality, sensitive to the caring for nature and the poor, which is
concerned the whole, open to the mysteries of the universe and attentive to
the main social and political challenges present in the world today.What was
flagged reveals an opening sensitivity toward others and to cooperation and
respect for human life and nature. It allows us to see the natural world, both
the material and human, as living sources of energy and permits us to answer
the call to communion with them. The contribution of the Christian faith
to eco-spirituality, as it was said, is essential for the dimensions of personal,
communal and environmental integration, because it is vital for the
biosphere survival.
Government discontinuity may jeopardize
these initiatives; therefore monitoring
by ecological movements and religious
groups is even more important.
This process demands from the religious groups, given their ethical and
prophetic commitment, a strong criticism of the dominant powers in the
context of the capitalist system, especially of the countries that flout the
agreements on environmental issues. It also demands coherent internal
practices and policies, their presence in public discussions and concrete
social propositions developed together with other social sectors.
Such reflections should lead us to concrete actions. They can be
implemented both by the various religious groups independently and in a
joint ecumenical effort. The religious traditions need to perceive energy
decisions as a means of advocating for the poor, protecting vulnerable
157
communities, caring for God’s creation, and moving toward a sustainable
and healthy society. It is very important the shifting to renewable energy
and the engaging of our communities in interfaith efforts for environmental
advocacy and research into energy ethics. For this, it is necessary to describe
and analyze the concrete impacts of the climate crisis, to offer specific
solutions, or calls for action tied to policy debates.This should be done both
on a large scale and on concrete examples of such action.These may include
actions ranging from a call to our own faith communities, to promote the
immediate transition to the use of 100% renewable energy, to the utterance
of prophetic words to governments, demanding from them the increase of
their ambitions beyond their commitments in the Paris Agreement, with
the adoption of specific projects that support the rapid growth of clean
energy systems.
The religious traditions need to perceive
energy decisions as a means of advocating
for the poor, protecting vulnerable
communities, caring for God’s creation,
and moving toward a sustainable and
healthy society.
DHARMA OF
SUSTAINABILITY,
SUSTAINABILITY
OF DHARMA:
A Hindu Energy Ethics
nP
ANKAJ JAIN, PH.D.
Hindu Scholar of Philosophy, Religion and Anthropology
Based on these approaches we wish to envision a spirituality that values
life and is sensitive to the care of nature, to the point of perceiving in it the
place of salvation in the same way that we look towards the human being.
It is a spirituality that by being ecological defends the poor, learns from
them and stands open to the mysteries of the universe and the world, relating
them to the social and political challenges that life presents us.
GREENFAITH.ORG I INTERFAITHSTATEMENT2016.ORG
158
I
DR. PANKAJ JAIN is the author of award-winning book
Dharma and Ecology of Hindu Communities: Sustenance and
Sustainability He has published articles in journals such as
Religious Studies Review, Worldviews, Religion Compass,
Journal of Vaishnava Studies, Union Seminary Quarterly
Review, and the Journal of Visual Anthropology. He also
contributes to the Huffington Post, Washington Post’s forum
On Faith, Times of India’s Speaking Tree, and Patheos.
Currently, he is working on his next book Science and
Socio-Religious Revolution in India: Moving the Mountains
(Routledge, forthcoming in 2017) and editing a volume
Indian Philosophical Theories of Religion and Anthropology.
n addition to releasing the Greenhouse Gases that are causing the Climate
Change that in turn is wreaking havoc in dozens and dozens of countries
across the world now, fossil fuel companies are also destroying the trees in
the concrete jungles of America. In July 2015, my neighbors and I, in
Coppell, one of the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, were shocked to wake up one
day to see that several dozens of large trees were destroyed by a large local
fossil fuel companies called Atmos Energy and Oncor to protect its highpressure gas pipeline and transmission line respectively.1 We soon discovered
that such destructions are a routine in several other North Texan cities such
as Flower Mound, Waco and Denton. Most American cities have quite thin
green belts that are further damaged by fossil fuel companies in this way
leading to more air and noise pollutions just as in major Indian cities.2
Thirteen of the world’s most polluted cities are in India, where indoor
smoke is associated with 500,000 premature deaths yearly. Yet projections
for India’s economic growth based on fossil fuels promise only increased
emissions and pollution.3 Globally, energy poverty is a stark reality for the
1.3billion persons without access to electricity and the three billion with
minimal access to modern forms of energy, who depend on solid biomass
or solid coal for their basic energy needs of lighting, cooking and home
heating. This is a deadly form of energy: globally, exposure to the toxic
particles and gases inside the smoke filled kitchens are responsible for about
4 million premature deaths annually, mainly among women and children. And
according to the World Health Organization, pollution is underrecorded in
many of the worst-affected cities due to the nation’s lack of resources or
1 Michael Albanese, “ATMOS Energy to Remove Trees During Project in Coppell. Coppell
Gazette, May 15, 2015 http://starlocalmedia.com/coppellgazette/atmos-energy-to-remove-treesduring-project-in-coppell/article_b5fdfcac-fb2a-11e4-b2ed-037fdd0e721c.html; Nancy Matocha,
“Flower Mound could lose hundreds of trees along pipeline right of way, “ Dallas News, February
2013 http://www.dallasnews.com/news/flower-mound/2013/02/23/flower-mound-could-losehundreds-of-trees-along-pipeline-right-of-way; Bill Teeter, “Atmos, Waco resident square off over
tree cutting,” Waco Tribune-Herald, April 30, 2010 http://www.wacotrib.com/news/atmos-wacoresident-square-off-over-tree-cutting/article_4e8a250d-aa84-58aa-b0c7-e94b73373a46.html
2 Suryatatp Bhattacharya, “Indian Cities Rank High Among Places Where Clean Air Can Be Rare,”
The Wall Street Journal, May 12, 2016 http://www.wsj.com/articles/indian-cities-rank-highamong-places-where-clean-air-can-be-rare-1463055940
3 “India and the Environment: Catching up with China,” The Economist, October 10, 2015. http://
www.economist.com/news/asia/21672359-prime-minister-wants-india-grow-fast-over-next-20years-china-has-over-past-20
161
situations of conflict. The smoke and soot from burning biomass also
destroys crops, accelerates Himalayan glacier melt, and accelerates the
deforestation that also depletes water sources and takes girls out of school to
collect firewood and water.4
While suburbanites in advanced
nations and the millions lacking even
basic energy seem worlds apart, the
dangerous collision of expanding fossil
fuel use, deforestation, and unhealthy air
represents a tragic link between them.
While suburbanites in advanced nations and the millions of persons
lacking even basic energy access can seem worlds apart, the dangerous
collision of expanding fossil fuel use, deforestation, and unhealthy air
represents a tragic link between them, a link that is intensifying the impacts
of climate change for all residents of this one planet. Energy is an essential
link in the chain of development and prosperity, but how can energy poverty
be addressed in a way that is truly healthy and sustainable? With significant
number of Hindus in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri
Lanka, Malaysia, United States, Myanmar, United Kingdom, Canada, South
Africa, Mauritius, the Caribbean (West Indies), and Fiji, Hindu values can
help shape a unique energy ethics. Hinduism contains numerous references
to the worship of the divine in nature in its Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas,
Sutras, and its other sacred texts. Millions of Hindus recite Sanskrit mantras
daily to revere their rivers, mountains, trees, animals, and the earth. Although
the Chipko (tree-hugging) Movement is the most widely known example
of Hindu environmental leadership, there are examples of Hindu action for
the environment that are centuries old.
4 Veerabhandran Ramanathan, “The Two Worlds Approach for Mitigating Air Pollution and Climate
Change,” in Pontifical Academies Workshop: Sustainable Humanity, Sustainable Nature, Our Responsibility
(Vatican City 2014), 2, 9.
162
Hinduism is a remarkably diverse religious and cultural phenomenon,
with many local and regional manifestations. Within this universe of beliefs,
several important themes related to energy emerge.5 The diverse theologies
of Hinduism suggest that:
n
The earth can be seen as a manifestation of the goddess, and must be
treated with respect. Therefore, all energy sources are divine gifts from
the mother earth.
n
The five elements - space, air, fire, water, and earth - are the foundation
of an interconnected web of life. Many of these elements provide us with
renewable energy sources that can continue to support web of life on the
planet.
n
Dharma - often translated as “duty” - can be reinterpreted to include our
responsibility to care for the earth. Human dharma should be in harmony
with the earth dharma, i.e., humans should practice their dharma to
protect and conserve earth’s energy resources rather than destroy or
exploit them.
n
Simple living is a model for the development of sustainable economies
so energy must be consumed sustainably and responsibly by humankind.
n
Our treatment of nature and our usage of energy directly affect our karma.
Gandhi exemplified many of these principles, and his example continues
to inspire contemporary social, religious, and environmental leaders in their
efforts to promote ecofriendly energy choices.
Ishavasyam idam sarvam Divinity is omnipresent and takes infinite
forms. Hindu texts such as the Bhagavad Gita (7.19, 13.13) and the Bhagavad
Purana (2.2.41, 2.2.45), contain many references to the omnipresence of the
Supreme divinity—including its presence throughout and within nature.
5 Christopher Key Chapple and Mary Evelyn Tucker. 2000. Hinduism and Ecology: the Intersection of
Earth, Sky, and Water. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Nelson, Lance E. 1998. Purifying
the earthly body of God: religion and ecology in Hindu India. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York
Press. Jain, Pankaj. 2016 [2011]. Dharma and Ecology of Hindu Communities: Sustenance and Sustainability. London, England: Routledge.
163
Hindus worship and accept the presence of God in nature. For example,
many Hindus think of India’s mighty rivers—such as the Ganges - as
goddesses. In the Mahabharata, it is noted that the universe and every object
in it has been created as an abode of the Supreme God meant for the benefit
of all, implying that individual species should enjoy their role within a larger
system, in relationship with other species. All the earth’s resources are
therefore to be shared by other species and humans have no monopoly over
them. Humans that still have no access to any energy source should be
quickly connected with a solar-powered energy grid.6
are responding to the energy crisis of India is by moving away from fossil
fuels to solar energy.7
Dharma is defined in a major Hindu text Mahabharata as a phenomenon
that sustains both this-worldly and other-worldly resources, Dhāraṇād
dharma ity āhur dharmeṇa vidhṛtāḥ prajāh, Yat syād dhāraṇasaṃyuktaṃ sa
dharma iti niśchayaḥ (Mahabharata 12.110.11). In fact, the very root of the
is shown forth in the structure and interconnectedness of the cosmos and
the human body. Hinduism teaches that the five great elements (space, air,
fire, water, and earth) that constitute the different kinds of energy resources
are all derived from prakriti, the primal energy. Each of these elements has
its own life and form; together the elements are interconnected and
interdependent. The Upanishads explain the interdependence of these
elements in relation to Brahman, the supreme reality, from which they arise:
“From Brahman arises space, from space arises air, from air arises fire, from
fire arises water, and from water arises earth.” Hinduism recognizes that the
human body is composed of and related to these five elements, and connects
each of the elements to one of the five senses. The human nose is related to
earth, tongue to water, eyes to fire, skin to air, and ears to space. This bond
between our senses and the elements is the foundation of our human
relationship with the different kinds of energies in the natural world. For
Hinduism, nature and its energy resources are not outside us, not alien or
hostile to us. They are an inseparable part of our existence, and they
constitute our very beings. One way, Hindu political and business leaders
word dharma comes from dhri that means to sustain. Thus, dharma in its
foundational meaning promotes sustainability. Protecting the energy
resources is part of Dharma. Dharma, one of the most important Hindu
concepts, has been translated into English as duty, virtue, cosmic order, and
religion. In Hinduism, protecting the energy resources is an important
expression of dharma. In past centuries, Indian communities—like other
traditional communities—did not have an understanding of “the
environment” as separate from the other spheres of activity in their lives. A
number of rural Hindu communities such as the Bishnois, Bhils, and
Swadhyaya (Jain 2016) have maintained strong communal practices to
protect local ecosystems such as forests and water sources.These communities
carry out these conservation-oriented practices not as “environmental” acts
but rather as expressions of dharma. When Bishnois are protecting animals
and trees, when Swadhyayis are building Vrikshamandiras (tree temples) and
Nirmal Nirs (water harvesting sites), and when Bhils are practicing their
rituals in sacred groves, they are simply expressing their reverence for
creation according to Hindu teachings, not “restoring the environment.”
These traditional Indian groups do not see religion, ecology, and ethics as
separate arenas of life. Instead, they understand it to be part of their dharma
to treat creation with respect.
The earth—Devi—is a goddess and our mother and deserves our
devotion and protection. Many Hindu rituals recognize that human beings
benefit from the earth’s energy resources, and offer gratitude and protection
in response. Many Hindus touch the floor before getting out of bed every
morning and ask Devi to forgive them for trampling on her body and for
causing her pain for extracting many resources (including energy sources)
6 Kundan Pandey, “The extent of India’s energy poverty.” DownToEarth, March 12, 2015 http://
www.downtoearth.org.in/news/the-extent-of-india-s-energy-poverty-48966
7 Anindya Upadhyay, “Modi Lures India’s Top Fossil Fuel Companies to Back Solar Boom,”
Bloomberg. July 21, 2016 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-21/modi-lures-india-s-top-fossil-fuel-companies-to-back-solar-boom
Our treatment of nature and our usage of
energy directly affect our karma.
Pancha mahabhutas (The five great elements) create a web of life that
164
165
from her, by reciting: Samudra vasane devi, parvata stana mandale. Vishnupatni
namastubhyam, paada sparsham kshamasva me. (O! Mother Earth, the wife of
Lord Vishnu, with the ocean as clothes and mountains as your body, I bow
to you, please forgive me for touching you with my feet). Millions of Hindus
create kolams daily—artwork consisting of bits of rice or other food placed
at their doorways in the morning. These kolams express Hindus’ desire to
offer sustenance to the earth, just as the earth sustains themselves. The
Chipko movement—made famous by Chipko women’s commitment to
“hugging” trees in their community to protect them from clear-cutting by
outside interests, represents a similar devotion to the earth.
Hinduism’s tantric and yogic traditions affirm the sacredness of material
reality and contain teachings and practices to unite people with divine
energy. Hinduism’s Tantric tradition teaches that the entire universe is the
manifestation of divine energy. Yoga—derived from the Sanskrit word
meaning “to yoke” or “to unite” - refers to a series of mental and physical
practices designed to connect the individual with this divine energy. Both
these traditions affirm that all phenomena, objects, and individuals are
expressions of the divine. And because these traditions both envision the
earth as a Goddess, contemporary Hindu teachers have used these teachings
to demonstrate the wrongness of the exploitation of the environment,
women, and indigenous peoples, including for extracting the fossil fuels.
Belief in reincarnation supports a sense of interconnectedness of all
creation. Hindus believe in the cycle of rebirth, wherein every being travels
through millions of cycles of birth and rebirth in different forms, depending
on their karma from previous lives. So, a person may be reincarnated as a
person, animal, bird, or another part of the wider community of life. Because
of this, and because all people are understood to pass through many lives on
their pathway to ultimate liberation, reincarnation creates a sense of solidarity
between people and all living things. Through belief in reincarnation,
Hinduism teaches that all species and all parts of the earth are part of an
extended network of relationships connected over the millennia, with each
part of this network deserving respect and reverence. So, burning a natural
resource for energy is to be less preferred than using a natural resource
renewably without destroying that source such as the sun or the wind.
Ahimsa paramo dharma (Non-violence is the greatest Dharma).Ahimsa
to the earth improves one’s karma. For observant Hindus, hurting or
harming another being damages one’s karma and obstructs advancement
toward moksha - liberation. To prevent the further accrual of bad karma,
Hindus are instructed to avoid activities associated with violence and to
follow a vegetarian diet. Based on this doctrine of ahimsa, many observant
Hindus oppose the institutionalized breeding and killing of animals, birds,
and fish for human consumption. Also, because several researches have
shown that consuming meat causes more wastage of earth’s energy resources
which is another form of violence against the mother earth.
Sanyasa (Asceticism) represents a path to liberation and is good for the
earth. Hinduism teaches that asceticism—restraint in consumption and
simplicity in living—represents a pathway towards moksha (liberation)
which treats the earth with reverence. A well-known Hindu teaching - Ten
tyakten bhunjitha—has been translated, “Take what you need for your
sustenance without a sense of entitlement or ownership.” One of the most
prominent Hindu environmental leaders - Sunderlal Bahuguna - inspired
many Hindus by his ascetic lifestyle. His repeated fasts and strenuous foot
marches, undertaken to support and spread the message of the Chipko,
distinguished him as a notable ascetic in our own time. In his capacity for
suffering and his spirit of self-sacrifice, Hindus saw a living example of the
renunciation of worldly ambition exhorted by Hindu scriptures. Similarly,
Gandhi is a role model for simple living. Gandhi’s entire life can be seen as
an ecological treatise. This is one life in which every minute act, emotion,
or thought functioned much like an ecosystem: his small meals of nuts and
166
167
Fortunately, global leaders are already
collaborating with Hindu political and
business leaders to replace India’s fossil
fuel energy sources with solar based
sources.
fruits, his morning ablutions and everyday bodily practices, his periodic
observances of silence, his morning walks, his cultivation of the small as
much as of the big, his spinning wheel, his abhorrence of waste, his resorting
to basic Hindu and Jain values of truth, nonviolence, celibacy, and fasting.
The moralists, nonviolent activists, feminists, journalists, social reformers,
trade union leaders, peasants, prohibitionists, nature-cure lovers, renouncers,
and environmentalists all take their inspirations from Gandhi’s life and
writings. This simple living exemplified by Gandhi and Bahuguna, by
definition, includes reducing the consumption of earth’s energy resources
and relying instead on earth’s other alternative resources such as wind and
sun for human survival.
Perhaps no other Hindu practice encapsulates all the above ideas than the
widespread Hindu practice of vegetarianism. Consumption of meat is
desecrating the five great elements and the divinity that is also present in
animals. It is against dharma since this practice will accumulate negative
karma because the idea of reincarnation makes every living being into a
cosmic family. The meat consumption is obviously against the ideas of
Ahimsa and Sanyasa as well. Although not every Hindu is 100% vegetarian
(many are), most of their diet consists of grains, lentils, fruits, and vegetables
with some Hindus taking a meat dish once in a while. Because of this major
emphasis on vegetarian diet, India continues to have one of the least carbon
foot prints compared to other countries, according to the Greendex surveys
conducted by National Geographic in 2015, 2012, 2010, 2009, and 2008
even as India’s beef export has risen sharply due to heavier demand from
other countries.8
Karma. Our energy consumption behaviors affect our Karma. Karma - a
central Hindu teaching - holds that each of our actions creates
consequences—good and bad—which constitute our karma and determine
our future fate, including the place we will assume when we are reincarnated
in our next life. Moral behavior creates good karma, and our behavior
towards the energy resources has karmic consequences. Because we have
free choice, even though we may have misused or abused the energy
8 Geographic, N. (2012). Greendex: Consumer Choice and the Environment- A Worldwide Tracking Survey. http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/greendex/
168
resources in the past, we can choose to protect the energy resources in the
future, replacing destructive karmic patterns with good ones.
Livestock production accounts for about
15 % of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Americans calling for effective climate
change policies must advocate for
transparent monitoring of this enormously
polluting sector.
Fortunately, global leaders are already collaborating with Hindu political
and business leaders to replace India’s fossil fuel energy sources with solar
based sources. The goal of just sustainable development is to enable the
bottom three billion to enter the global middle class, attaining the lower
income rungs of the top four billion. This requires a solution adapted to
both societies with unlimited clean energy access and those marked by
energy poverty. As Professor Ramanathan writes, we must “dial down” the
greenhouse gas emissions of superdeveloped nations by shifting to renewable
energy, and dial down the pollutants from soot and methane, the “livelihood”
emissions of developing nations. Because these short-lived climate pollutants
disperse rapidly, a large-scale shift to solar stoves and lighting will have a
rapid, positive effect within a few decades.9 The shift to air conditioning
without hydroflurocarbons also promises enormous climate benefits.10
Shifting investments to sustainable energy, and enabling clean energy for
cooking and lighting for the bottom three billion through currently available
advanced cookstoves and solar lighting, thus will dramatically advance the
goal of clean, healthy energy access. If divided by each of the 1.1 billion, this
9 Ramanathan, 5.
10 Coral Davenport, “Nations, Fighting Powerful Refrigerant That Warms Planet, Reach Landmark
Deal,” The New York Times, October 15, 2015. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/15/world/africa/kigali-deal-hfc-air-conditioners.html?_r=0
169
may cost as little as $22.11 On the national level, support of the Green
Climate Fund advances the implementation of these technologies at the
necessary scale and immediate time frame.
The Hindus are now spread across the world with large populations
in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, United
States, Myanmar, United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa, Mauritius, the
Caribbean (West Indies), and Fiji. If one environmental message Hinduism
can share with the world and especially people in all these countries, it can
be to limit or eliminate the meat consumption, both as an individual
behavior approach and as a systemic approach to the food issue globally.
In addition to films such as Cowspiracy, there are various researches that
conclude that the emissions produced by large-scale meat consumption—
due to the methane from massive cow production and deforestation caused
by expansion in the meat industry is one of the biggest reasons for climate
change. Hindus, thankfully, are already at an advantage by being at the lowest
level of meat consumption compared to other communities whom they
would like to urge to adopt vegetarian diet. The faith-based institutions
globally can commit to serving vegetarian food in their facilities and to
implement policies, along with divesting from fossil fuel holdings, to divest
from the meat industry. Similarly, governments can integrate a reduction in
meat consumption into their climate plans and policies and nations can
commit to measuring emissions resulting from the meat industry, which
currently is exempted from reporting requirements under most emissions
reductions schemes despite representing a massive source of emissions.
Livestock production accounts for about 15 percent of greenhouse gas
emissions around the world.—“more all the world’s exhaust-belching cars,
buses, boats and trains combined”—yet in the United States, the government
exempts the meat industry from filing the annual emission reports that 41
other industry sectors are required to submit. It is the only major industrial
source of greenhouse gases in the country to be excluded.12 Americans
calling for effective climate change policies must advocate for transparent
11 Ramanathan, 10.
12 Nathan Halverson, “This Huge Loophole Helps the Meat Industry Hide Its Pollution.” Mother
Jones, January 5, 2016 http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/01/us-meat-emissionsparis-cop21
170
and honest monitoring of this enormously polluting sector.
In summary, the diverse theologies of Hinduism suggest that: n
If all energy sources are divine gifts from the mother earth, meant for the
use of all: we must act to ensure energy access through renewable energy,
by supporting each nation’s payments to the Green Climate Fund. https://
www.greenclimate.fund/home
n
The five elements - space, air, fire, water, and earth -in an interconnected
web of life provide us with renewable energy sources that can continue
to support the web of life on the planet. We must move away from fossil
fuels to renewable energy, and call for an end to fossil fuel subsidies.
n
Human dharma that is in harmony with the earth dharma will protect
and conserve earth’s energy resources rather than destroy or exploit
them. Each local and national community can advocate for an end to
exploiting the earth through polluting extractive processes.
n
Simple living is a model for the development of sustainable economies.
A cap of about 10 tons/year per capita is estimated to achieve the target
emissions that will keep warming below 2’C. This cap will only affect
the upper 1.1 billion people in the top four billion, as the bottom three
billion currently emit only 5% of total fossil CO2. 13 Energy must be
consumed sustainably and responsibly by humankind, and we strongly
endorse the Hindu practice of vegetarianism as a wise guide for all, and
insist upon honest emissions accounting in all industries.
n
Our treatment of nature and our usage of energy directly affect our
karma. We can choose to protect the energy resources in the future,
replacing destructive karmic patterns with good ones.
Just as Yoga, also a gift of Hinduism to the world, vegetarianism can be
another helpful gift to improve the individual and planetary health of the
world. The link of these ancient traditions to the well-being of the world
and all its societies and living communities has never been so strong. And
the time to embrace is now!
13 Ramanathan, 8.
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CLIMATE CHANGE AND
THE ENERGY-WATERFOOD NEXUS:
(Afro)Faith Responses
to the Ethical Imperatives
nT
ERESIA M HINGA
Kenyan Catholic theologian, Santa Clara University
GREENFAITH.ORG I INTERFAITHSTATEMENT2016.ORG
Introduction: Understanding the Water-Energy-Food Nexus
and The Issues Arising
TERESIA HINGA, PH.D., was born in Kenya where
she received a B. Ed.in English Literature and Religious
Studies from Kenyatta University College, and a M.A. in
Religious Studies from Nairobi University. She attained
her Ph.D.in Religious Studies focusing on gender in
African Catholic Christianity from Lancaster University,
England. Her research interests, informed by insights
from Indigenous African spirituality as well as Catholic
social thought and theo-ethical worldviews, address
women and religion, religion and contemporary moral
issues such as ecological justice, as well as religion and
ethics in the public square. She is a founding member of
The Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians
and a founding member of the African Association for
Study of Religion. Recent fieldwork in Kenya explored
the impact of two intersecting dimensions of poverty:
food insecurity and energy poverty. She is involved in
ecumenical and in interfaith dialogue through the
Parliament of World Religions.
In his book “The End of Poverty,” economist Jeffrey Sachs names one of
the most enduring ethical scandals of our time: massive loss of life due to
extreme impoverishment, mostly in the global south, specifically Africa,
where 15,000 Africans die daily from preventable causes and diseases.
Many of these deaths are linked to the multifaceted extreme poverty in
the continent. Many die from lack of access to affordable clean water or from
the impact of chaotic water cycles, alternating between drought and floods that
are symptomatic of climate change. Many others die from hunger and
starvation when such floods and droughts lead to crop failure.
Analysts have indicated that the climate change that leads to the erratic and
extreme weather patterns is anthropogenic. It is intricately linked to the
disproportionate emission of cfcs (chlorofluorocarbons) particularly through
the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels (oil and coal) for energy. Many
in the global south, particularly Africa, also die from “energy poverty,” defined
as a lack of access to affordable energy for lighting and cooking. While
affordability of energy is necessary, it is not sufficient for energy security.This
is because even where biomass energy such as firewood and charcoal is
available (and increasingly this is not the case), combustion of firewood and
charcoal can lead to ill health1 and even death due to carbon monoxide
poisoning and allied health issues.The use of kerosene lamps is not only costly
because kerosene is expensive; it is also costly because the fumes pose a health
hazard to users. For households to have energy security, then, it is imperative
that they have access to affordable and clean energy (i.e. non- toxic) fuels such
as biogas or electricity to meet their energy needs.
Now, while lack of access to water, food and clean energy (light and
power) can each discretely result in massive loss of life, the three elements
are interlinked in their potential impact. Lack of clean water can lead to
death from waterborne diseases or hunger when droughts and floods destroy
food crops or make the production and distribution of food physically
1 A recent UNICEF Report (30th October 2016) laments that 300 million children suffer from
Breathing issues due to breathing toxic air. For details see http://www.unicef.org/media/media_92979.html
175
impossible. Lack of fuel to cook the food has been many an African woman’s
nightmare while deforestation has a boomerang effect in producing climate
change and extreme weather patterns that make food production difficult
in many places. Moreover, not only does deforestation make it increasingly
difficult to access fire wood, it simultaneously makes it difficult to grow
food, due to soil degradation by runoff water where there is no forest cover.
While lack of access to water, food and
clean energy can each separately result in
massive loss of life, the three elements are
interlinked in their potential impact.
Since forests absorb carbons, deforestation also reduces the planet’s
capacity to absorb cfcs, the disproportionate and rapid accumulation of
which is cited as being instrumental to climate change. Disproportionate
amounts of carbons are released into the atmosphere through the combustion
of fossil fuels oil and coal. So both deforestation and fossil energy use exacerbate
the climate change crisis. Water is necessary both for food production and
the production of energy, including but not limited to, hydro-electric
energy. In turn, lack of adequate energy (say to pump water from a source
and to ferry it to where it is needed or to treat it so it becomes drinkable
can compromise water security. The symbiotic nexus between water and
energy needs to be recognized in efforts to seek sustainable solutions locally
and globally.
While deforestation adversely affects hydraulic cycles and thus makes
growing of food difficult leading to food insecurity, this lack of food
triggers other issues including migrations from rural to urban centers or
across borders in search of greener pastures. Conflicts around decreasing
resources such as water and land lead to displacement of peoples, with many
ending up in refugee camps internally or across borders as is the case with
Kakuma Camp and Daadab both in Kenya. The displacement of peoples
has increasingly been exacerbated by climate change which causes extreme
weather patterns. Droughts, floods, heat-waves and extreme cold all have
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led to the emergence of the so called “climate refugees.” The refugee
camps themselves become congested and sites of highly compromised
access to water, energy and food (leave alone access to other basic needs
such as education,health, shelter and security of persons).2 The camps
themselves become hotbeds of insecurity on multiple levels. Harrowing
stories of women being raped as they venture out of the camps in search
of firewood or water are often cited. The camps have also been cited as
reservoirs for recruitment and radicalization particularly of displaced,
dispossessed and desperate youth. This seems to be the case for Daadab,
allegedly a hotbed for al-Shabaab recruitment. The three sectors are
indeed interlinked and, since the three form a nexus, lack of access to one
cascades into lack of access the other.
This means that responding to the practical and ethical challenges implicit
and explicit in these sectors demands that the responses acknowledge the nexus
and avoid piecemeal solutions some of which solutions end up being
“Trojan horses,” camouflaging or exacerbating problems in other sectors.3
Acknowledging the relationship of this nexus with climate change demands
that integrating rather than piecemeal solutions be sought so that efforts to
solve issues of energy poverty do not end up compromising food and water
security4 or vice versa.
2 Recently, on October 26th 2016, one such congested refugee camp, Calais,a.k.a the jungle was
closed in France. For details see http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-francemigrant-camp-calais-20161024-story.html
3 One such seeming Trojan horse is described by Naomi Klein. In her book This Changes Everything,
she discusses a scenario where an environmental protection agency, The Nature Conservancy
bought land from an oil producing company, ostensibly to protect the breeding grounds for an
endangered species of birds. Later however, the conservation agency itself began to drill for oil in
the land it had purchase, in ways that still threatened the endangered bird. For details see Naomi
Klein: chapter entitled: Fruits Not Roots:The Disastrous Merger of Big Business and Big Green: in, This
Changes Everything: Simon and Schuster 2014:192-196.
4 As I write this paragraph, protests are being staged against DAPL (Dakota Access Pipeline) by
members of Standing Rock Sioux Native Americans and allies, who are protesting the building
of thousands of miles of pipeline to ferry crude oil through several states. Their concern is that
while the oil flow will lessen America’s dependence on foreign oil, it will compromise the water
in their reservation. Interestingly, the protest against the pipeline is also because according to the
Native Americans, it will disturb sacred burial sites. Both the dignity of the living and the dead will
therefore be compromised and this is morally unacceptable from a Native American Perspective.
177
approach to energy-water-food security recognizes this interlinkage and
complexity and is therefore more conducive to sustainable solutions.
Naming and Responding to The Ethical Issues:
One of the important insights from Jeffrey Sachs’s analysis of poverty as
an ethical issue is that poverty is a complex reality and that failure adequately
to recognize this complexity has led to simplistic responses that do little to
ameliorate the problem. In many instances the “cures” prescribed to end
poverty are worse than the “disease.” For Sachs, some strategies of ending
poverty are reminiscent of old methods of treating headaches that involved
the use of leeches and which, instead of curing them, often led patients to
bleed to death5. Recognizing the nexus between water, energy and food
insecurity is a step in the direction of understanding the complexities and
intersectionality of the ecological crises humanity faces today.
A second reason why efforts to end poverty in its multiple dimensions is
elusive is that the solutions given are “a one T-shirt fits all.” Often designed
elsewhere, these do not adequately take into consideration the social,
political, cultural and historical context where the “T-shirt” is to be worn.
Such an approach is at best ineffective and can also lead to deadly
consequences as was the case with the “uniform T-shirt” of structural
adjustments programs which were designed by World Bank and IMF and
imposed on developing countries without regards to historical, cultural or
social political circumstance. The results were catastrophic and even today,
many countries in the global south are still reeling from the impact of the
SAP-ED economies.
Instead of this simplistic “one T-shirt fits all” approach, Sachs proposes
“Clinical Economics,” an alternative model for dealing with poverty, and
which borrows several strategies from the practice of medicine as follows:
n
Economists must recognize that economic scenarios, just as the human
body, are complex. They must recognize that just as failure in one part of
the body (say, kidney failure) can cascade into failure of other parts of the
body, so also, failure in one sector ( a drought or a flood for example) can
cascade into disastrous consequences in regards to food access. The nexus
5 This “leech” effect was best exemplified by the Structural Adjustment Programs, austerity measures in
the 1980s-1990s imposed by IMF and World bank ostensibly to help nation-states in the global
south, particularly Africa, get out of debt and therefore out of poverty.
178
n
Second, just as in medicine one needs to diagnose root causes instead of
prescribing a cure purely on the basis of “symptoms,” so also is it
imperative to identify root causes of a crisis (specifically the climate
change crisis) if sustainable solutions are to be found.
n
Third, just as it is prudent to treat all medicine as “family medicine”, where,
instead of just treating the individual showing the symptoms, efforts are
made to diagnose the possible root causes of the individual’s ailment in
family dynamics and relations, so also economists must probe for possible
“root causes” of impoverishment of certain nation states in the actions of
other nation states who are all members of the “global family portrait” of
nations as Sachs describes it. They would probe, for example, how some
nations’ efforts to increase their food and water security by importing food
grown in other countries or leasing land elsewhere to grow it affects the
sending countries’ own food and water security.6
n
Fourth, good development practices demand constant monitoring and
evaluation of proposed solutions. In some instances, todays’ solutions
become tomorrow’s problems. In other instances, the solutions may look
good on paper and in policy making board-rooms but end up not
working well on the ground.
n
Finally, development analysts and practitioners must develop a code of
ethics and as I have argued elsewhere referencing Sachs, they should take
on their work with a sense of responsibility and accountability particularly
to the chief clients … the poor.7
6 Consider for example the problematic of “virtual” water extraction and consumption, say by
growing flowers and using Lake Naivasha waters to irrigate the said flowers and exotic food crops
which are exclusively for export and which might compromise local food security while boosting
that of the importing countries. For details of the problematic of “virtual” water extraction from
Lake Naivasha in Kenya’s Rift Valley, see Padraig Carmody: The New Scramble for Africa: Polity,
2012:143-146
7 For details of the notion of clinical economics and its relevance for diffusing the ethical challenge
of radical impoverishment in Africa, see Hinga, T.M:Becoming Better Samaritans:The Quest For New
Models of Doing Social Justice in Africa: In Linda Hogan, ed. Applied Ethics in a World Church. Orbis
Books 2008:85-97. In the same essay, I proposed what I called a “Better Samaritan “approach to
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Responding to Ethical Challenges: Insights from
“Clinical Economics”
“Clinical economics” analyses have yielded several clues as to why the
crises arise and why they endure. Here I highlight several clues pertinent to
the quest for sustainable solutions to issues of energy, water and food security
as follows.
n
Monocultures of the mind 8 and “disappeared” Indigenous-local knowledge.
Probing the underlying causes of rapid loss of biodiversity at a global,
even planetary scale, ecofeminist Vandana Shiva identifies as a root cause
the disappearance of local knowledge systems and their approaches to
nature. In their approach, they see nature (e.g. forests and rivers) as a
partner in human’s quest for flourishing instead of seeing nature as a
“resource “to exploit, or extract for commercial profits. Shiva observes
that for Indigenous peoples, forests are not merely “factories” for timber;
rather “forests provide food and livelihoods through critical inputs to
agriculture, through soil and water conservation, through inputs of
fodder and organic fertilizer”9. She further notes that indigenous silvicultural10 practices are based on sustainable and renewable maximization
of all diverse forms and functions of the forest and trees” and that “this
knowledge is passed from generation to generation, through participation
in the process of forest renewal and of drawing sustenance from the
forest ecosystem.”
2004 Nobel Peace Laureate, the Late Prof. Wangari Maathai, herself also
an ecofeminist, made a similar “clinical diagnosis” as she probed for root
causes of ecological crises, specifically the food and energy crisis in
Africa. She concluded that part of the problem is that Africans have
accepted or been forced to accept the thesis that their cultural, ethical
and spiritual knowledge base systems are inferior and unworthy.
According to her, in accepting this thesis, it is as if Africans have boarded
the “wrong bus” and are therefore failing to reach their intended
destination, namely, enhanced flourishing beyond mere survival. Ecological
disasters are partly linked to this failure to apply the indigenous knowledge
systems which were more ecologically friendly. The cure, according to
Wangari, is to replenish the earth by retrieving and applying what she
calls “spiritual values for healing the earth and ourselves.”11 Such values
flow from Indigenous religion and spirituality, one of the three main
faith traditions that Africa has inherited from history.12
Closely related to “monocultures of the mind” syndrome is the problem
of silo thinking, i.e., the failure to recognize the interconnectedness of
everything. Such “silo” thinking is apparent for example in efforts to
address the energy crisis in the global north where, fearing the depletion
of fossil fuels, “innovative” ways of extracting such oil now include
hydraulic fracking. While this method of accessing oil mitigates against
the anxiety of running short of fuel, fracking raises concerns about water
pollution and displacement of those human and nonhuman animals, flora
and fauna who happen to be in the path of such fracking.13 Silo thinking,
also shows up in the development of biofuels to reduce the carbon foot
poverty, an approach which goes beyond charity to probe and address social injustices and systemic
root- causes that impoverish millions in Africa and elsewhere, particularly in the global south
8 Shiva uses the phrase “monocultures of the mind “as a metaphor to describe single track thinking
that privileges the “western “knowledge system as the only viable knowledge base for development. Such mono-cultural thinking thrives while diverse “local/indigenous knowledge systems”
are disappeared ” through being ignored, demonized and even outright repressed by “dominant
systems. Shiva argues that mono-cultural mindsets results in loss of biodiversity and subversion of
ecosystems on the ground.
9 For details of this analysis, see Vandana Shiva: Monocultures of the Mind: Perspectives on Biodiversity &
Biotechnology. Zed Books 1997 (3rd Printing) Chapter 1
10 silvi-culture is the art and science of establishing, growing and managing healthy and quality
forests that meet the diverse needs and values of the communities. Shiva suggests that indigenous
silvi- cultural practices were more sustainable and since they were more friendly to biodiversity
and they do not commoditize the forests.
11 She makes the case for retrieving and applying indigenous African ethical knowledge in her book:
Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values For Healing Ourselves and The World: DoubleDay 2010
12 Ali Mazrui, refers to “Africa’s Triple Heritage” of Indigenous African Religions, Christianity and
Islam. More recently, particularly under globalization, Africa has encountered other spiritual heritages (e.g. Hinduism and Confucianism) whose worldviews also yield moral wisdom which could
complement the moral insights embedded in the Triple Heritage for an enhanced and even more
viable ecological ethics and practice.
13 The Current Standoff about the Dakota Pipeline exemplifies both “monocultural thinking” that
has led to the “disappearing “of Native American’s worldview and its more ecofriendly ethics as
well as “silo “thinking which privileges access to fossil fuel while seemingly disregarding issues of
water safety, not only for the current generation but also for future generations. From the Perspective of a Native American worldviews,the current generation did not inherit current resources
from the past generations; rather we are borrowing them from the future generations!
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181
prints. The use of food crops such as corn and palm oil to produce “food
for cars” succeeds at the expense of creating food insecurity for humans
and animals. Land that would be used to produce food crops is surrendered
to the growing of biofuel crops including the controversial jatropha.
Some trees and shrubs such as the controversial “Mathenge” in Kenya,
originally planted for re-forestation turned out deadly for livestock but is
now touted as a resource for biomass power generation14.
A third, (possibly tap) root cause of the crises we have at the nexus of
energy food and water is consumerism and greed, both individual and
corporate. The realization that Greed is a root cause of issues humanity is
facing recently led some has led some activists convene a conference
emphasizing the imperative to “get off the greed” so that others can get
safely on the grid!15 The same recognition led to an anthology published
by Orbis books in which authors from various faith traditions reflected
on how the moral wisdom from the traditions can be applied to
“subvert greed”16 considered a major cause of multiple crises particularly
under globalization.
economic, military and technological clout and power.
Such “silo” thinking is apparent in the
global north where, fearing the depletion
of fossil fuels, “innovative” ways of
extracting oil now include hydraulic
fracking, which raises concerns about
water pollution
14 Efforts to address deforestation and lack of vegetation cover in dry regions in Northern Kenya led
to the introduction of a shrub in the mesquite family. It ended up being detrimental to livestock
causing goats that fed on it to lose their teeth … The livestock owners took their concerns to
court and the tree got a catchy name—Mathenge… “the goat (destroying) shrub.” Recently there
has been a proposal to turn this controversial and invasive shrub into feedstock for biofuel. for
details see: http://www.reuters.com/article/kenya-energy-biomass-idUSL5N11L40H20150916
15 This was the title of a conference organized in 2014 by IDEX (International Development Exchange
16 See Paul Knitter et al: Subverting Greed: Religious Perspectives on the Global Economy.
So what is to be done about this challenges and by who?
It seems to me that at the very least, if sustainable solutions to the crises
at the nexus of energy-water and food are to be achieved, strategies that
transcend mono-cultural and silo thinking need to be designed.
Transcending monocultures of the mind entails humility in recognizing
that diffusing the complex and urgent crises at the energy-water-food nexus
in the age of climate change calls for all hands on board. No one person,
people, or nation has the “master” key to these issues. Diversity of ideas,
voices, talents are needed. A “multi-faith” approach (such as the one
embraced by Green Faith or the Parliament Of World Religions) to
nurturing “global responsibility” in the quest for energy- water- and food
-ethics reflects a step in the right direction. An approach that acknowledges
and nurtures all peoples’ moral agency and talents will yield a diversity of ideas
that will complement one another and cumulatively make for better traction
as humanity navigates the rather slippery road towards a sustainable and
livable future.Ways of subverting greed as well as ways of leveraging our power
to enhance rather than subvert human and other forms of flourishing also
need to be found. Technological and scientific power, while a good to be
celebrated, will not on its own diffuse the crises unless those who wield
such power wield it with a sense of moral duty to protect, particularly those
most vulnerable and hence “powerless.” Put more positively, the
empowerment of those at the bottom of power pyramids (The Bottom
Billion) will be a necessary ingredient in the quest for suitable solutions.
182
183
Finally, there is also impunity which seems to spring from confusing
what we can do and what we ought do. Technological and scientific
breakthroughs in recent times have placed enormous power in peoples’
hands in unprecedented ways. The power is sometimes used recklessly
and with a sense of impunity. Issues of what we ought to do with the
tremendous power that humanity has gained particularly recently
becomes part of the problem as humanity seeks sustainable solutions to
the various yet linked ecological crises. Many violent conflicts that are an
ecological bane in Africa as elsewhere are often symptomatic of culpable
“muscle flexing” and “chest thumping” by those who have political,
Solar Power needs to be complemented by People’s “Power,” a regaining of
their sovereignty where this has been eroded by the many disempowering
forces in the context of which they precariously live.
Towards Morally Viable Solutions: Tapping Into Afro
“Theo-Ethics.
For a Christian seeking to participate in the quest for morally viable
responses to the ecological crises, Christian Theo-ethics based on Biblical
teachings provide a major resource. The biblical mandate is clear: Love of
God and Love of neighbor are key ingredients in the ethical tool kit. Perhaps
in the age of globalization and climate change the question who is my
neighbor is still valid and urgent. Asked to clarify who is the neighbor to be
target of love, Jesus’s answer some 2000 years ago suggested that the
neighbor is not necessarily the one geographically close to you or with
whom you have a relationship. Rather, the neighbor is anyone in need and
vulnerable.Today, the neighbors Christians are mandated to love are probably
ones they may never see or relate to personally since these may be people
on the other side of the globe, who have suffered deadly disasters due to
climate change as this was the case recently with hurricane Matthew which
devastated Haiti, yet again.The Christian moral duty to respond to neighbors
in need despite distance is clear.
Christians seeking to nurture and embrace ecological conscience and
practice have a great resource both in the Bible, and what Pope Francis, in
his encyclical Laudato Si’ calls the “Gospel of Creation,” embedded in the first
biblical account of creation which celebrates humans created in God’s
image and therefore having agency, the capacity to discern right from wrong
and the duty and freedom to do the right thing. The Gospel of creation is
also embedded in the second creation story (Genesis Chapter 2) in which
humanity is gifted the earth with the mandate “to till and to keep it.” They
may use it but are also expected to be responsible stewards of it. For
Christians, greed and extreme materialism are discouraged,while thrift and
sharing of resources particularly with the poor are exalted. Matthew Chapter
25 remains a guide for many seeking morally viable responses to the plight
of the vulnerable: the hungry, the homeless, the imprisoned and the
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displaced. Serving such vulnerable people, without considering “a reward”
is tantamount to loving God.
For Catholics, the biblical mandates have been interpreted and amplified
in Catholic social teaching often captured and summarized in Papal encyclicals.
These become veritable “manuals for applied ethics” regarding certain issues
of social concern. Such issues include the quest for peace, which is the
subject matter of the encyclical Pacem in Terris while the Rights of the
Worker are dealt with in Rerum Noverum. The whole question of economic
development is tackled in Populorum Progressio. Most recently, building on
prior social teaching on various issues, Pope Francis issued an encyclical in
which he persuasively and passionately argued the case for “integral ecology,”
a morally viable approach to ecological ethics and practice. He proposes an
approach which overcomes “silo” thinking and which respects and engages
the agency and input even of the most vulnerable. Laudato Si’ has become
a major resource for Catholics seeking viable solutions to the complexities
of the ecological crisis exacerbated by climate change.
For the African Christian, however, a second resource reinforces and
complements the biblical mandates and Church social teachings. This is in
the form of African indigenous ethics which flow from the indigenous African
world view. While monoculture thinking has historically relegated African
Indigenous knowledge systems, including ethical knowledge systems, to the
periphery, it is increasingly recognized that part of the reason why multiple
and intersecting crises haunt the continent is the failure to embrace and
follow through with the ethics flowing from the African world view. Several
concerned African scholars and ethicists including Wangari Maathai cited
above, have persuasively made the case for a retrieval and application of Afroindigenous ethics.
Sambuli Mosha, another key African scholar, passionately makes a similar
case for retrieval of indigenous ethics in his book Heart Beat of Indigenous
Africa.17 In the book, Mosha outlines key features of the African worldview,
a veritable African “creedal statement”: namely, i) Belief in God ii) Belief in
the intrinsic unity between the individual and community iii) Belief that
17 For details see: Sambuli Mosha: Heartbeat of Indigenous Africa: A Study Of Chagga Education System:
Garland Publishers 2000:pp7-15 (here he outlines the four aspects of the African worldview and
proceeds in chapter 3&4 to discuss the virtues of Ubuntu that flow from it.
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the universe is a living, interdependent and interconnected whole, iv) and
belief that the universe and humanity is in constant process of formation
and transformation.
According to Mosha, from this worldview flows a viable ethical system
and “cardinal virtues” which constitute a moral heartbeat and compass for
Africans seeking true Ubuntu or authentic humanity and human flourishing.
These 6 virtues are: Reverence, Self Control and Silence,18 Diligence,
Courage and Communality. The latter, Mosha argues, is the “master virtue”
since it builds community, the platform in and though which other “virtues”
are applied and lived. Applying the ethics flowing from the African
worldview becomes a strong resource for Africans forming their conscience
regarding matters of ecological ethical concern. Belief in the
interconnectedness and interdependence of everything and the moral
mandate for reverence for all, would support integral ecology as Pope
Francis teaches.The notion that the individual is a unity with the community
and that a person is a person through others subverts the radical individualism
that has been a bane in the quest for viable solutions. Courage to name and
shame structures of injustice and problematic power dynamics is supported
both by the African ethics as well as the traditions of prophets of social
justice in the Bible, including Jesus himself who modelled prophetic courage
even to the point of martyrdom.
would need to commit to locate and respond to “root causes of the crisis of
hunger, water insecurity and energy poverty.” While the specific
“incarnations” of the ministry of the granary would vary to accommodate
local contexts, histories and cultures, such a ministry would in my humble
view have some key defining features which I restate here as follows:
n
It will be a prophetic ministry in the in the footsteps of biblical prophets of
old and socially engaged scientists and ethicists of the present like Wangari
and Shiva who are determined to discern and name and ways in which
“the harvest is stolen,” forests destroyed and granaries rendered empty
and increasingly non-existent. In the context of climate change, such a
ministry would name and challenge behavior (greed, denial, indifference
and fear) that amplifies climate change and triggers instability and
displacement of whole communities and massive loss of life.
n
Such a ministry must play a role in monitoring and evaluating proposed
solutions and demand solutions that acknowledge the nexus between
energy, water and food security as discussed above. In its monitoring and
evaluating role, the prophetic ministry of the granary would need to be
articulate and vigilant on behalf of the most vulnerable, both currently
vulnerable as well as future generations. It would be articulate in calling
for the moral duty to protect those most vulnerable to the vagaries of
climate change. It would be on the side of the most vulnerable as they
demand reparations and restitution given the fact that those who have
suffered most from the disasters occasioned by anthropogenic climate
change are the least polluters of the atmosphere and have the smaller
carbon foot prints.19
n
The prophetic ministry of the granary would need to be creative, resourceful
and entrepreneurial by tapping the diverse resources in terms of knowledge systems
available in Africa, including but not limited to Western science and
technology. However, such a ministry of the granary would be wary of
the over emphasis on western scientific knowledge while ignoring or
Conclusion: Some Practical Considerations, A Modest Proposal
and Call to Action
I close this essay by recalling a recent article in which I analyzed the issue
of food security (or more accurately lack of it) in the African context. I
made the case for the development of what I called a “(Social) Ministry of
the Granary,” a faith-based platform through to seek sustainable solutions
towards energy, water and food security and sovereignty. Such a ministry
18 This refers to voluntary silence that precedes authentic speech and which allows one to listen
and hear the other in true dialogue.. it is the silence that precludes hate speech because it allows
one to think through what they say and only speak to build not to subvert the dignity of the other
in contexts of dialogue. It is the silence that keeps confidentiality but which is does not hesitate
to speak the truth on the basis of “facts” gained through careful listening. It is in this context
that theologians in Africa have called for a listening and hearing church, a “church with long
ears…”(see for example Elochukwu Uzukwu’s book:A Listening Church: Orbis 1996)
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19 For example, citizens of places like Kiribati and the Catlett Islands have a minimal carbon foot
print, yet their very homelands are threatened by rising sea levels due to climate change.
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demonizing Indigenous knowledge. Such ignoring and disdain for
matters African has not only been demeaning to Africans, it has also
robbed them of much needed resources in terms of practical contextoriented knowledge. Infusing systems of food, water and energy
production with Ubuntu ethics of solidarity and distributive justice would
enhance efforts to challenge unethical systems of food water and energy
production and distribution fueled by greed. In other words: a ministry
of the granary would be innovative, creative, and entrepreneurial by reclaiming,
nurturing and applying pertinent knowledge and ethical systems
conducive to just and sustainable solutions.
n
n
A ministry of the granary would nurture a prophylactic ethic responding in
a proactive rather than simply reactive manners to multiple “inconvenient
truths” in our midst. It will raise questions about unfair distribution of
benefits and burdens that result from anthropogenic climate change. Since
people can be manipulated through food scarcity and since famines and
water scarcity can be manipulated for profit or other ambiguous goals
such as proselytization or for votes, the ministry of the granary will go
beyond bringing relief to victims of hunger. It will also ask hard questions
about long term root causes and investigate who benefits and who gains
from hunger and famine. Given the subtle causes and systems that
exacerbate hunger, a ministry of the granary would proactively devise
strategies for grappling with the complex structures of power and
privilege in the age of globalization.
Finally, the ministry of the granary would function as a platform for
awakening empowering and mobilizing the genius of people in the pew. The
global church including the church in Africa has plenty of talent in the
pew and a great diversity of professionals: lawyers, scientists, engineers
and ethicists and theologians and ethicists are to be found among the
laity. Such talent would be mobilized through the ministry of the granary.
This approach would also facilitate the reclamation of sovereignty and a
sense of ownership on matters of food, water and energy security
problem of water, food and energy poverty cannot be solved exclusively from
boardrooms, conferences and halls of power. Neither is there a technological
magic bullet. Rather, profound insight and success can be achieved in
partnership with the laity and ordinary people who regain much needed
sovereignty by becoming advocates and ministers of the granary on their own
behalf and on behalf of the most vulnerable including non-human animals
and indeed plant life not only vulnerable but threatened by extinction.
Transcending monocultures of the mind
entails humility, and calls for all hands on
board.
Walking the Talk: Opportunities For Faith In Action To
Replenish and Heal The Earth and Ourselves:
The Paris Agreement of December 2015 which coincidentally came into
force today (4th November 2016) is a document designed to facilitate
action that will mitigate and / or help humanity adapt and develop resilience
in the face of climate change. The agreement makes certain observations
and acknowledges and takes into consideration certain realities which will
shape and inform the action taken so that mitigation does occur, and
resilience is enhanced for all but particularly the most vulnerable, mainly in
the developing world including Africa. Here I highlight several of these
observations and acknowledgements and explore how these can become
opportunities for sustainable faith-based action in search of security and
sustainability at the nexus of energy, water and food.
1.The agreement recognizes the need for “an effective and progressive
response to the urgent threat of climate change on the basis of the best
available scientific knowledge.”
I conclude by reiterating that navigating the energy-food-water nexus
sustainably in the age of climate change requires all hands on board. The
The agreement also expects each party (country) “to prepare,
communicate and maintain successive “Nationally Determined
Contributions” that they intend to achieve. Considering the point I
made earlier that the Church (and one would add Mosque and Temple)
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has members with tremendous knowledge, skills and talent in all spheres
including scientific knowledge, one action would be to identify and
mobilize the talent in the pews and perhaps, in partnership with universities
and other institutions of higher learning and research, ensure that the
best scientific knowledge is available so that actions taken are evidence
based and scientifically sound and therefore more likely to succeed.
Church members who have pertinent expertise could also be mobilized
and supported (morally and financially) as needed to help in the
preparation of viable, accurate, consistent, transparent NDC’s as a matter
of urgency. Here, as Jeffrey Sachs recommends, a keen sense of ethical
accountability by all, including ethical accountability in research that
would inform policy, would be enhanced by a tapping of the applied
ethics in the various religious traditions.20
Part of the reason why multiple and
intersecting crises haunt the continent is a
failure to embrace the ethics flowing from
the African world view.
2.The Agreement recognizes “the importance of education, training,
public awareness and right to information and cooperation at all levels.”
This is a clear window of opportunity for churches, mosques, and temples
to play their role in process of formation and conscietization. There are
in churches examples of ready made platforms in and through which
conscientization, awareness-building and the making of transformative
leaders in the area of climate change can happen.These include the many
groupings focused on one or other “apostolate” in the Catholic church
(e.g. those focused on the rights of the worker or on peace ( e.g. Pax
Christi).The Small Christian Communities (Mwaki in the Gikuyu context)
20 This tapping into faith based applied ethics is already happening for example in the quest for
viable “healthcare ethics” in which the morality of various actions and options(e-g using feeding
tubes for the “brain dead” and is ns is measured against the ethical ideals and moral imperatives
of faith.
190
comprise the church at its most grassroots level. Through this platform,
parishioners have been active on their own behalf, cushioning and
supporting each other particularly when tragedy happens to individual
members or to the community.Various prayer and welfare groups in the
church including, for example CWA (Catholic Women Associations)
chapters of which are to be found all over the African continent, can be
an avenue through which to operationalize the role of educating,
conscietization and mobilization of the laity, i.e the ordinary people,
particularly women. There has in fact been a precedent in the way
grassroots conscietization and mobilization through the church has
worked well in the case of HIV/AIDS Crisis.21
3. The Agreement recognizes “the importance of integrated, holistic and
balanced non-market approaches to assist in the achievement of the
NDC’s in the context of sustainable development and poverty
eradication.” This is yet another opportunity for faith based action.
Churches, mosques, and temples are well placed to support the
development of non-market based alternatives to the often problematic
mainly for-profit “solutions.” Such non-market, non-profit solutions can
be developed and or supported through already existing faith-based
humanitarian and social action initiatives such as CRS (Catholic Relief
Services) which operates transnationally and which can help in the
coordination of interventions that mitigate against the impact of climate
change and enhance resilience in an integrated holistic glo-cal manner.
4. Article 9 of the agreement calls on developed countries to provide financial
resources towards adaptation and mitigation and specifically calls for
support for developing countries’ adaptation and mitigation efforts. Since
the church operates “Glo-cally”, and since it does mobilize and manage
financial flows within itself to serve certain ends as the church determines,
here is an opportunity for the faith groups in the global north to participate
in the mobilization of its own financial resources in support of the faith
21 Consider here the rather successful story of EHAIA Ecumenical HIV AIDS Initiative of the
World Council of Churches. For details of this initiative see https://www.oikoumene.org/en/
what-we-do/ehaia
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groups in the global south and its efforts to participate in local or national
climate change mitigation and adaption efforts.These groups can also play
a “prophetic” role in reminding the global north states of their obligations
and promises in this regards as per the Paris Agreement.
5. Article 7 invokes a global goal to enhance “adaptive capacity, strengthen
resilience and reduce vulnerability while also calling for recognition of
adaptation efforts in developing countries (eg efforts in reforestation or
reviving sustainable agro-forestry as is the reported in Malawi).The article
specifically recommends that adaptation action should be “country driven,
gender responsive, participatory and transparent.” Such action should “take
into account vulnerable groups and community eco-systems.” It should be
based on the best available science, including the science embedded in
traditional knowledge systems of indigenous people. Here is an opportunity
for the church to shift gears in terms of its attitude to local peoples, their
culture and knowledge systems. Instead of viewing these with suspicion,
the Church should create a mechanism for mapping and identifying
pertinent cultural and practical insights from the local indigenous
communities. Such insights could complement western science and
technology in enhancing adaptation and resilience. Examples of indigenous
knowledge include traditional methods of food preservation, methods of
agriculture that conserve soil fertility and biodiversity or methods of landuse and distribution that ensure access to water and land by all on the basis
of need rather than commoditizing it.
6.In Article 8, the agreement speaks of the importance of “averting,
minimizing and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse
effects of climate change. “It speaks of loss and damage in the wake of
climate change and the role of sustainable development in reducing the
risk. This is an opportunity for creating or scaling faith-based initiatives
toward sustainable risk reducing strategies.This would mean, for example,
establishing early warning systems at the local level so that people have
time to move out of danger’s way or to strategize on how to survive the
disasters. Such early warning systems can be developed in a way that
allows communication of the warning even in remote areas. Whatever
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resources available through the church infrastructure can be mobilized in
this direction. The reference to risk and damage also becomes an
opportunity for creating a platform through which to take stock of the
damage and risks and to speak and act on behalf of the vulnerable as they
try to recover from the damage or to flee from the path of disaster in
good time. Hard questions regarding reparation and restitution for those
unfairly hit by the impact of climate need at least to be raised even
though difficult to answer.“A Climate Watch Platform” concerned about
the ethics of climate change action, inaction or indifference would be an
appropriate place to raise those questions.
Food security in the African context calls
for the development of a “Social Ministry
of the Granary.”
7.Article 10 recognizes the importance of technology and calls for
“accelerating, encouraging and enabling innovation.” It encourages
deployment and dissemination of available innovations and the support
of developing nations to enable them adopt appropriate existing
technologies (e.g. solar and wind energy innovations). Further, it
encourages innovation by citizens of developing countries who have
talent too. Many developing countries have embraced technology as part
of the solution and have used it with remarkable success in some cases.22
The challenge for the church is how to help access and affordability of
the technology. In some cases, simple technology such the use of bio
digesters to generate biogas has been adopted on a small scale even by
enterprising peasants. Finding ways within and without the church to
help scale the accessibility and affordability of clean energy by leveraging,
accelerating and encouraging the use of innovations such as solar and
wind energy becomes yet another opportunity for faith communities to
22 Consider for example the palpably successful use of Mpesa, Mobile Money technology to conduct
business at all levels, particularly the grassroots levels in Kenya.
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be in solidarity with the vulnerable communities seeking resilience
through adoptive and mitigating technologies. Encouraging grassroots
innovativeness would enhance the sense of “ownership” that is crucial
for the success of any measures taken. Creative partnerships for global
North and Global south church ‘going green together” would be
consistent with the ethic of solidarity and communality that is central
both to Christian African Theo-ethics.
8. Finally, the whole document calls for “transparency” in dissemination of
information and in the determination and evaluation of actions to be
taken so that the actions are equitable and consistent with sustainability
and the flourishing of all, not just a privileged few. The question of
transparency is fundamentally a moral one. Initiatives to inspire,
incentivize, recognize and affirm transparency when it happens and to
challenge lack of transparency need to be found. I submit that the Church
is well placed to call on all people to act in good faith (as the Agreement
insists) and in good conscience. Perhaps an interfaith “Climate Change
Watch Mechanism which takes into consideration not only the
mechanical, technological aspects of climate change action but also the
ethical dimensions can be devised. In establishing such a climate watch
system, the church, mosques and, or temples would be exercising their
prophetic role. Needless to say, such a mechanism would only work if the
congregation itself is consistent in modelling the transparency it requires
from outside players and actors who are also working hard in search of a
livable future in the age of climate change.
urgently to walk the talk and take bold, morally viable steps and action “to
replenish the earth, our common home and to heal ourselves in the process,
to quote the late Prof.Wangari Maathai, whose prophetic voice called for
ecologically viable action by all, not just as a practical matter of survival but
a matter of conscience. In thus walking the talk, communities and individuals
of faith (or none) will be implementing Pope Francis’s call for all to become
better stewards for Earth, our Common Home. For Pope Francis, such
stewardship is not only a matter of practical concern, it is a moral obligation
for all who share this common home!
Through an interfaith “Climate Change
Watch Mechanism,” the church, mosque
or temple would be exercising their
prophetic role.
Ultimately then, the intersecting crises occasioned or exacerbated by
climate change become a Kairos for interfaith action. It is an opportunity
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A MELTING ARCTIC
IS A MELTING FUTURE
Hope from Spiritual Traditions
n R EVEREND HENRIK GRAPE
World Council of Churches/Church of Sweden Climate Coordinator
GREENFAITH.ORG I INTERFAITHSTATEMENT2016.ORG
In October of 2015, faith leaders and indigenous people from the
Arctic region in Europe and North America gathered at Storforsen,
Sweden. That meeting produced the Storforsen Appeal, which was a call
from all the participants to the leaders of the world to make bold decisions
in Paris later that year.1 Since then the Paris agreement has been praised
as a huge success, but it is a framework that needs to be filled with action
and a societal transition.
In April of 2016 came the good news of the prompt ratification of the
Paris agreement, but the more worrying part is that it is now jeopardized by
political development in Western countries, where nationalism and populism
seems to slow down the action for transformation that the world needs to
avoid dangerous climate change.
REVEREND HENRIK GRAPE is Officer on Sustainable
Development , Church of Sweden and Coordinator of
World Council of Churches Working Group on Climate
Change. Rev. Grape worked for more than 16 years at the
national level of the Church of Sweden on Environmental
issues. He was a member of the drafting team for the
Church of Sweden Bishops Letter on Climate Change,
and a member of the drafting group of the Uppsala
Interfaith Climate Manifesto 2008. Rev. Grape is a
member of the Enabling Team of ECEN (European
Christian Environmental Network) and Organizer of
conference 2015 on Climate Change Indigenous people
and faith communities in the Arctic. He has attended
most of the UNFCCC Conference of the Party meetings
since 2006.
If we think that climate change can be
solved only by changing our energy
system, which is an absolutely necessity,
we are not going to succeed.
Climate change is not anymore about the future. It is already here. In the
Arctic the temperature will rise more than the global average. A 2 degree
Celsius rise globally might be 6 degrees in the Arctic. And the evidences
that it is actually happening today are many. During Autumn 2016, the
temperature in the Arctic was shockingly higher than we ever seen before.
Some days with 20 degrees Celsius higher compared with the average
temperature at this time of the year cannot be ignored.
The Arctic is often pictured as wide areas with snow, glaciers, ice, polar
bears seals and spectacular views. This is true. Furthermore, the ice at the
poles is a regulator for the world climate and a melting Arctic will have great
impact on the planet.
1 The Sorforsen Appeal file://knet.ad.svenskakyrkan.se/dfs01/Nationell_users/hengrape/Mina%20
Dokument/Divest/Storforsen%20Appeal%20-%20Future%20of%20Life%20in%20the%20Arctic.
pdf
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But the Arctic is also a home for indigenous people that have a long
history of making their living from the seasons with snow and ice. A stable
climate is a precondition for their possibilities to make a living. The people
of the Arctic, and especially the indigenous people, are some of the first to
experience a world with serious impact of climate change.They should also
be listened to by the rest of the world because they are warning us. Their
voices are telling the rest of the world that we have to make a systematic
change to avoid the most dangerous risk for next generation. Climate
change is already very visible in the Arctic and the witnesses of indigenous
people of the Arctic are many.
The answers to the climate threat are
not only politics and technology; it is in
its deepest sense a spiritual insight of
the interdependency that is pivotal to
humanity and other forms of life.
When church leaders and indigenous people met in Sápmi territory in
Storforsen, Sweden, we collected stories from the circumpolar district about
the climatic changes that were observed and it was very compelling All the
testimonies about what was observed became a litany: a litany that very well
corresponded with the scientific narrative about what is happening in the
circumpolar district. It was clear that both traditional knowledge keepers
and scientists are describing the changes that are occurring.
A melting Arctic is a melting future for the entire world and the voice
from the indigenous of the Arctic as well as the indigenous of the rest of
the world must be heard. The suffering of the land is clearly connected
with the effects on traditional livelihoods, the mental health of the people,
and the identity and wellbeing of all who live there. And as the Storforsen
Appeal says:
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“People of the North are witnessing these changes. Their stories
are a testimony of the relationship between humanity, land and
the Creator. The ancestors and Indigenous Peoples bear witness
to a worldview, spiritual relationships with the land, animals,
water, and the Creator, and traditional practices. We believe these
are indispensable resources for addressing climate change.”
From the witnesses and the scientific data the conviction is strong that
the power of change lies in the spiritual traditions. It lies in spiritual traditions
and the relations of a spiritual origin to the land, the living animals and to
the Creator. The answers to the climate threat are not only politics and
technology; it is in its deepest sense a spiritual insight: an insight of the
interdependency that is pivotal to humanity and other forms of life. We are
depending on ecosystems as well as cooperation between humans and
between life manifested in a multitude ways.
To be church in the Arctic is to be open and inclusive to the spirituality
of the indigenous people. There is richness in the insights and the
understanding of the Creation that is a gift to the world to share and to
reach another understanding of the richness, the fragility and the richness
of the region.
To understand all land, all of the cosmos as sacred and a sacrament infused
with meaning, makes it clear that all human beings are called to be
responsible caretakers, or as formulated from the Orthodox tradition, we are
all called to a priestly vocation, The traditions in the Arctic stress the
interconnectedness and the solidarity between humanity and the living
Earth.This is not a passive viewing, a romanticized attitude to the Nature. It
is more about an incentive to action. The Storforsen appeal says
“It is our hope that we can change and make peace with each
other and with the creation.The spiritual resources and traditional
knowledge of the Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic can serve to
overcome the climate challenge we are all facing today. Our
spiritual traditions and ancestral sources tell us human life is open
to the possibility of transformation. The wisdom of the elders
tells us that by forging good relationships with the Creator, each
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other and with nature, we enhance our capacity for peace,
transformation and reconciliation.”
The climate challenge is about making peace with each other and with
the Creation.This is the very core of the climate discussion that too often is
left out. If we think that climate change can be solved only by changing our
energy system, which is an absolutely necessity, we are not going to succeed.
This is the reason why faith communities play a central part to the
transformation that is needed to avoid the more dystopian visions of the
future. The reference to spiritual traditions and ancestral sources as a
momentum for transformation is a gift to a world that so easily get stuck in
a mindset that are driven by fear instead of trust, by the fear of losing what
there is instead of leaving for a better and more sustainable world.
This is hope in action — not in passive
contemplation. Our hope is not rooted
in prognosis; it has its origin in the
transcendent.
“Creation is alive with God and with the Spirit. Life is precious.
The future of seven generations is at stake. Therefore we also ask
faith communities and people everywhere to rededicate
themselves to stand in solidarity and support the peoples in the
North, who are now already survivors and leaders in responding
to climate change.”
This is a genuine contribution from the Arctic to the global threat we are
facing as humanity today. To stress that Creation is alive with God and the
Spirit and how precious life is, is a serious way of affirming the richness and
fullness of being gifted with the precious gift of life.This is hope in action-not in passive contemplation. Our hope is not rooted in prognosis, it has its
origin in the transcendent. This is the gift from the people of the Arctic in
our common work and struggle for a more sustainable, peaceful and just
future. This is the pilgrimage of our time in which we need all spiritual
traditions to come together and share if we are going to change the world.
Today we need more than ever to build trust between people of the
world if we are going to have a chance to overcome the climate challenge
and all other challenges that is formulated in the 17 Sustainable Goals. This
is the call from the Arctic and from indigenous people of the world: building
trust and creating relationships with the Earth and each other.
The Storforsen Appeal closes with an affirmation of the urgency of the
situation, but also the spiritually rooted hope that we can change our ways
on our pilgrimage for justice and peace.
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