ABSTRACT

However, the spiritual imperative is often overlooked. This is surprising since what each person believes – really and whole-heartedly believes – governs their behaviour and how they view the world. The world’s faiths have great diversity in their beliefs but have in common two central tenets:

The human race is a steward of the earth not its owner. Each person is responsible for sustaining and nourishing the earth as their legacy for future generations. It follows that selfish, short-term exploitation of the planet’s resources that causes irrevocable damage is morally wrong. ‘Love they neighbour’ is expressed in different ways but every faith highlights that each human being has a responsibility to others. Every decision about our way of life and how we interact with nature has to be tested against this belief. In spiritual terms, the fact that two-thirds of the world’s population live in poverty is not just an issue of social justice. It is a breach of that commitment to care for one another.