Bahá’u’lláh’s statement that “The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens”, highlights the Bahá’í perspective of world citizenship and essential commitment to take care of the earth’s environment and its sustainable development. Development, in the Bahá’í view, is an organic process in which “the spiritual is expressed and carried out in the material.” As with the environmental challenge, the Bahá’í view calls for ground-up organic answers that are consistent with the development of the spirituality of all people. For example, community growth and development will need to respond to the genuine need of all people to have close contact with the natural world. This should influence all aspects of development.
According to Bahá’í Writings “We cannot segregate the human heart from the environment outside us… Man is organic with the world. His inner life moulds the environment and is itself also deeply affected by it” which necessitates its protection and sustainable development for current and future generations.
Bahá’í Writings shows that the world reflects the qualities and attributes of God, and describes that nature has come into existence through the God’s love, will and power: “Nature is God’s Will and is its expression in and through the contingent world.” – Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, also, elucidated on the existence of mutual linkages among all created things “By nature is meant those inherent properties and necessary relations derived from the realities of things. And these realities of things, though in the utmost diversity, are yet intimately connected one with the other.” – Tablet to August Forel, pp. 11-12. Therefore, it is the responsibility of human beings, as the noblest of all creatures and custodians’ of the earth, to respect and protect the nature.
To understand nature as a sign of God’s sublimity, which would attract great respect for the natural world and its sustainability, Bahá’u’lláh wrote: “Whatever I behold I readily discover that it maketh Thee known unto me, and it remindeth me of Thy signs, and of Thy tokens, and of Thy testimonies. By Thy glory! Every time I lift up mine eyes unto Thy heaven, I call to mind Thy highness and Thy loftiness, and Thine incomparable glory and greatness; and every time I turn my gaze to Thine earth, I am made to recognize the evidences of Thy power and the tokens of Thy bounty. And when I behold the sea, I find that it speaketh to me of Thy majesty, and of the potency of Thy might, and of Thy sovereignty and Thy grandeur. And at whatever time I contemplate the mountains, I am led to discover the ensigns of Thy victory and the standards of Thine Omnipotence”.
With respect to Environmental Sustainability, the Bahá’i International Community (BIC) in its 2008 publication titled Eradicating Poverty: Moving Forward as One wrote: “It has been widely acknowledged that economic prosperity has come at a tremendous cost to our natural environment. In fact, no country has emerged as a major industrial power without a legacy of significant environmental damage, affecting the security and well-being of its own populations and, equally significantly, those of developing nations. The growth-driven economic paradigm rooted in national interests at the expense of social and environmental variables and international well-being is under increasing scrutiny. Challenging ethical questions of resource distribution and responsibility for damages force governments to develop institutional mechanisms and implement policies that consider the prosperity and health of the global community and that of future generations. On an institutional level, a global entity with a strong scientific advisory capacity is needed to streamline reporting and decision-making processes, including the voices of non-state actors. It must coherently link environmental issues to social and economic priorities, for none of these can advance in isolation. At the educational level, curricula must seek to develop a sense of responsibility towards the natural environment as well as foster a spirit of inquiry and innovation so that the diversity of human experience can be brought to bear on the challenge of creating an environmentally sustainable development pathway”.
Also, in the face of current degradation of moral standards in favour of materialism across the world, including the reckless destruction of the Environment, Bahá’u’lláh’s divine warnings are notable: “O heedless ones! Though the wonders of My mercy have encompassed all created things, both visible and invisible, and though the revelations of My grace and bounty have permeated every atom of the universe, yet the rod with which I can chastise the wicked is grievous, and the fierceness of Mine anger against them terrible.”
Reciprocally, Environmental Sustainability is linked with Social Sustainability and Economic Sustainability. The Bahá’i International Community in its Statement titled Seven Year Plan of Action on Climate Change described that “Bahá’ís believe that the crucial need facing humanity is to find a unifying vision of the nature and purpose of human life. An understanding of humanity’s relationship to the natural environment is an integral part of this vision”.
Read More
Bahá’i Faith Statement on the Environment
Century of Light
Tablets of Baha’u’llah page 142
Tablet to Dr August Forel by Abdul-Baha
Seven Year Plan of Action on Climate Change – Bahá’i International Community
Bahá’í International Community