Leaves 9(1) March 2007

"Every man of discernment, while walking upon the earth, feeleth indeed abashed, inasmuch as he is fully aware that the thing which is the source of his prosperity, his wealth, his might, his exaltation, his advancement and power is, as ordained by God, the very earth which is trodden beneath the feet of all men. There can be no doubt that whoever is cognizant of this truth, is cleansed and sanctified from all pride, arrogance, and vainglory..."
- Bahá'u'lláh - (Epistle to the Son of the Wolf. p.44) -

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FROM THE EDITORS

Again there has been a one year gap between the last issue of Leaves and this one due to the workload of the secretariat. Priya Mehta in the UK started helping with this issue before she went to work in Sierra Leone, and I am hoping for more offers of help and contributions so there will be a more rapid flow of information in the future.

In the current issue we have several exciting reports from members who have represented IEF at international meetings, a report on the last IEF conference and how it has increased the visibility of the IEF, as well as the first pre-news on the next conference, and interesting tip about a book by a speaker at a previous IEF conference, and more.

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IEF CONFERENCES

NEXT IEF CONFERENCE IN CANADA!

The 11th Annual Conference will be held in Canada, most likely around the month of October. This is the first IEF event in Canada and we are just now in the initial consultation process with the local partners. Date and place will be announced as soon as possible.

REPORT FROM THE 10TH IEF CONFERENCE

The 10th IEF Annual Conference on the topic "Science, Faith and Global Warming" took place in the beautiful setting of Balliol College, Oxford University, England, with 66 participants from 7 countries in person and another 115 from 17 countries following through the e-conference on the Internet. This was the 10th anniversary conference of the IEF, and the second time that it has partnered with the Baha'i Agency for Social and Economic Development (BASED-UK).

Of all the problems of the environment and sustainability, global warming is the one that most fundamentally challenges Western society technologically, economically and socially. The conference programme started with a look at the science of climate change at global level, with all its complexity, uncertainty and controversy, adding the human dimension, particularly the impact on the poor in developing countries. Leading experts then looked at various facets of climate change, including the gender aspects, the response of governments at the international level, the possibility of a north-south climate community, the role of energy use in climate change, the implications for economic systems, and the ethical and spiritual dimensions. The final day was more interactive, with workshops on sustainable living, business and transport, aimed to move participants to action, asking what we can do in our own lives to reduce our impact on climate change.

With prestigious speakers like Dr. Augusto Lopez-Claros, Chief Economist of the World Economic Forum and Dr. Halldor Thorgeirsson, Deputy Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the conference shed a broader light on an issue that is now hitting the headlines everywhere, demonstrating the pertinence and credibility of the IEF approach. Even participants who have attended many conferences commented that this was one of the best, and that they were now going to consider seriously how to change their lifestyles and energy consumption.

A Conference Report with detailed descriptions of the presentations is available on the IEF web site (http://www.bcca.org/ief/conf10.htm), together with links to speakers' papers, audio recordings and presentations. The Bahá'í World News Service released an article on the conference (http://news.bahai.org/story.cfm?storyid=482) and the official Baha'i newsletter One Country printed an article on the conference in its July-September 2006 issue (Vol. 18, Issue 2, pp. 4-5).

IEF CONFERENCE ON YALE WEBSITE

A website of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies showcases the work in religion and climate change, and the 10th IEF conference is listed under the Baha’i Faith. See
http://environment.yale.edu/climate/working-groups/religion-ethics/current-climate-change-work-in-religion-and-ethics/

REPORTS ON PAST EVENTS

COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The fourteenth session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-14) was held at the UN Headquarters in New York from 1-12 May 2006. Seven IEF members were active in CSD-14, which addressed the themes of energy for sustainable development, air pollution, industrial development and climate change. The IEF prepared and distributed two statements on "Ethics and the Energy Challenge" and "Air Pollution - A Broader Perspective". IEF also assisted in the drafting of an article on "Summoning the Will for Sustainable Development" by Peter Adriance for BIC in the daily newsletter Outreach 2015 published by Stakeholder Forum. Sylvia Karlsson gave a talk on "Short-term Sacrifices for Long-term Gains - How Do We Change the Time Horizon of Governments?" for the Earth Values Caucus, from which she prepared an article for Outreach 2015 published on the opening day of the ministerial segment. IEF was active in supporting the Science and Technology Major Group and Education Caucus activities, with both of whom we are closely associated. A policy brief on indicators of sustainability that Arthur Dahl had drafted for SCOPE was distributed by UNESCO to all the delegations. The themes for CSD 15 in April/May 2007 will be the same but now governments will move from reviewing implementation to negotiating policy. The IEF will again send a small delegation. For those interested to learn more about the CSD discussions see http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csd/policy.htm

NEWS FROM THE CONSUMER CITIZENSHIP NETWORK

The IEF has since 2005 been a member of the Consumer Citizenship Network (CCN), a thematic network of 124 institutions from 29 countries funded by the European Union in cooperation with UNESCO, UNEP and international citizenship and consumer organizations. It is an interdisciplinary network of educators who have a common interest in consumer citizenship. In May 2006, the IEF organized a plenary symposium on "Fostering Commitment and Consistency" at the Third CCN Conference in Hamar, Norway (the proposal for the symposium had been submitted in December 2005 to the conference call and it was accepted). Arthur Dahl spoke on "Scientific Foundations for Commitment and Consistency", Wendi Momen spoke on "Values Underlying Commitment and Consistency", and Sylvia Karlsson concluded with "Institutionalizing Sustainable Consumption".

The CCN has now received another 3 years of funding from the EU and has launched a new range of task groups and activities. Our member Pavel Hruby from the Czech Republic has joined one of the working groups on Further development of indicators of responsible consumption. The next CCN conference will be held in Sofia, Bulgaria in May 2007 and two or three IEF members will attend and contribute to the conference. Reports will hopefully follow from them! Any member residing in Europe who is interested in the work of the CCN please contact the IEF Secretariat who can provide more information on how to engage.

UNEP NORTH AMERICAN CIVIL SOCIETY CONSULTATIONS

IEF member Paula Posas represented the IEF at the UNEP North American Civil Society Consultation in Washington DC, hosted by the United Nations Foundation from 2-3 November 2006. The meeting was one of six regional civil society consultations organized by UNEP to prepare for the Eighth Global Civil Society Forum and 24th UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GC/GMEF). Here are some extracts from her report.

At the 2-day meeting, we were not only tasked with writing the North American Civil Society Statement but with electing two Global Civil Society Committee representatives (a new innovation to maintain year-round continuity and follow up) and two resource people on globalization and gender to attend the events in Nairobi. The 40-60 people present over the two days primarily represented environmental organizations with a focus on conservation, development, law, ecotourism, gender, water, chemicals management, and conflict resolution. The Bahá’ís were the only religious group represented. The consultation overall was accurately billed as an opportunity to learn about and share views on the key issues to be addressed at the February GC/GMEF. The first part of the event was dedicated to explaining process issues and our role as North American Civil Society. Then a member of the UNEP Regional Office for North America contextualized and a specific resource person delivered comprehensive, informative presentations on each of the following four key topics to be discussed at the upcoming GC/GMEF: (1) globalization, ecosystem services, and human wellbeing, (2) gender and environment, (3) water and environment, and (4) chemicals management. These presentations were followed by useful question and answer periods. On the second day, individuals split into four groups (corresponding to the key topics) to highlight priority items, express civil society concerns, and offer creative ideas from civil society for tackling the challenges presented by these issues, taking into account existing agreements and current circumstances. The level of input from the participants was very high, and each of the four groups strove for and largely achieved consensus, as apparent in the presentations of approximately 1-page statements each in the plenary following the working group sessions. There was ample opportunity for each person’s voice and concerns to be heard and incorporated throughout the event. I felt honored to participate in this important event and see how civil society input could make its way into high level discussions. I was also very pleased to see the earnest, dedicated, and skillful efforts of UNEP staff to make the consultation happen in a meaningful and effective way. They communicated that they were in a learning process with us and that they were open to any suggestions for improving the process. The Global Civil Society Committee, for example, was an outcome of last year’s North American Civil Society recommendations, so there is evidence of their responsiveness to input.

IEF AT CONFERENCE ON THE
REFORM OF INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

IEF President Arthur Dahl, on behalf of the International Environment Forum and the CSD Education Caucus, participated in the International Conference for the Reform of International Institutions: Dialogues Between Different Levels of Governance and Civil Society Actors, held at ILO Headquarters in Geneva on 20-21 November 2006. The conference was organized by the World Forum of Civil Society Networks - UBUNTU and the World Campaign for In-Depth Reform of the System of International Institutions. This is his report:

The conference consisted principally of over 30 plenary presentations by government diplomats, officials of international organizations, trade union leaders and representatives of non-governmental organizations. Issues discussed included the system of international institutions (particularly the UN, Bretton Woods institutions and WTO); new democratic global governance; development, finance and trade; peace, human rights, human security and disarmament; short-term reforms, and the next steps forward. Two sessions were devoted to parallel dialogues on regionalization, other levels of governance and civil society, innovations in financing for development, and multistakeholder work. The conference raised many fundamental structural and functional issues that prevent the international system from operating effectively, such as the primacy given to national sovereignty, the unsustainability of neoliberal globalization, and the lack of international democracy and taxation.

In the dialogue on civil society, I pointed out that there is a widespread fear of global governance, and that efforts at international institutional reform need to be accompanied by grass-roots educational efforts in world citizenship so that the peoples of the world identify with international institutions, see them as expressing their hopes and values, and support the decisions taken. There needs to be education for individual rights and responsibilities in an international system, with an emphasis on ethical issues and building bridges across civilizations, religions and cultures.

Despite the lack of time for any real discussion, the conference succeeded in its aim to identify the weak points in the current system and to explore visions of the necessary reforms. The organizers see it a step in building social and political momentum to initiate a process of reform of the international institutions involving as many actors as possible.

COMING EVENTS

ONLINE CONFERENCE

From Anthropocentrism to Ecocentrism: Making the Online E-Conference: 14-30 April 2007. EcoRes Forum, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to the free exchange of knowledge and ideas concerning society and climate change, invites to the first in a series of online e-conferences focusing on the ethical, political and socio-cultural aspects of climate change. The series, which will be offered free of charge, starts off in April 2007 with a two-week dialogue on a topic of increasing urgency: expanding and accelerating an ecocentric philosophy among societies around the world. See http://www.eco-res.org/shift_econf.html

RESOURCES

NEW BOOK

“Inspiring Progress: Religions' Contributions to Sustainable Development”
by Gary Gardner, Director of Research at Worldwatch Institute (and keynote speaker at the 2003 ESD seminar in Orlando).

The book is about the role of religion in bringing about a sustainable world. The introduction opens with the story of Tony Deamer, the Baha'i in Vanuatu who has pioneered the use of coconut oil for fuel. Gardner notes that Deamer's "life story embodies both a challenge and a hope for human advancement in the 21st century. The challenge is to redefine 'progress:' to revamp economies and societies to work in harmony with the natural environment and serve all people. The hope is that religious communities and religious leaders worldwide will recognize--as many increasingly do--the powerful contributions they can make to this work and lend their considerable influence to it. Engaging the world's religions in an effort to re-imagine human societies can help ensure that the gains of the 20th century spread to all people into the indefinite future." This book is a "must read" for anyone interested in the role of religion in advancing sustainability. I commend this book to your reading! Warmest greetings,

 

WATCHING ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE ‘FROM ABOVE’

As of September 2006, Google Earth - Google's 3D virtual world browser – will feature the UNEP: Atlas of our Changing Environment, offering satellite images of 100 environmental hotspots from around the world. The project builds on the success of UNEP's very popular hardcover release One Planet, Many People: Atlas of our Changing Environment. Most of the locations feature imagery from almost 35 years of global coverage produced by the Landsat programme. Using this invaluable record of our planet's recent past, UNEP: Atlas of our Changing Environment documents hotspots of environmental change around the world. To access the UNEP material on Google Earth, one must first download the free programme to one's own computer. The UNEP material can then be accessed via the "Featured Content" section under "Layers"; see http://earth.google.com

ARTICLE ON RELIGIONS AND ENVIRONMENT

An article entitled "The Greening of the World's Religions" is available online for a short period of time:
 http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=kVbM5bfJckhC6jqGbK23CJf4fGstpfHx
It is written by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, founders of the Forum on Religion and Ecology who teach religion and ecology at Yale University. They are editors of the Harvard book series on World Religions and Ecology. More information on the Forum on Religion and Ecology is available online at (http://www.religionandecology.org).

THE GREAT TRANSITION INITIATIVE WORKING PAPERS

The Great Transition Initiative (GTI- http://www.gtinitiative.org/) is a collective endeavor by scholars and activists who share a broad commitment to addressing the major problems confronting humanity: poverty, security, and the environment. GTI's mission is to imagine, assess, and advance a great transition to a global future of enriched lives, equity, solidarity and a healthy planet. It takes seriously the slogan of progressives everywhere that "another world is possible," but proposes that such a world must first be imagined creatively as a plausible human project. Two IEF members have been active in GTI, which has just released the GTI Paper Series on the Global Future which covers a number of the big questions for the future of humanity and the planet.

See: http://www.gtinitiative.org/default.asp?action=43

OARE - INCREASED ACCESS TO ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

To help reduce great disparities in scientific resources between developed and developing nations, Yale University, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and leading science and technology publishers have launched a new collaborative initiative to make global scientific research in the environmental sciences available online to environmental scientists, researchers and policymakers in the developing world for free or at nominal cost. Through Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE), more than 200 prestigious publishers, societies and associations will offer one of the world’s largest collections of scholarly, peer-reviewed environmental science journals to over 1,200 public and nonprofit environmental institutions in 106 developing nations in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean and Eastern Europe. For more information about OARE, visit http://www.oaresciences.org/.

ONLINE SUSTAINABILITY “MATCHMAKING SERVICE”

To engage students in creating the solutions for our sustainability challenges as their course assignments or thesis, this web-based system matches up those who need help with sustainability projects (e.g. non-profits, faculty members, businesses and government planners) with students and graduates eager to participate in sustainability-related projects. Students can connect with faculty who offer credit, and thus enhance the service learning potential in sustainability learning and action. Those with projects can post a call for volunteers, and once volunteers are accepted and the project begins, the person posting the project receives a free website for posting of the project’s progress. This website is designed by the Society for College and University Planning in collaboration with the US Partnership on Education for Sustainable Development.

See http://www.playagreaterpart.org/

NEW MEMBERS

(as of March 2007)

In the past year we have welcomed the following new members into the IEF:
Kurt Austria (Israel)
Roger Coe (USA)
Emilia Dahl (Bulgaria)
Greg Dahl (Bulgaria)
Vered Ehsani (Kenya)
Lars Friberg (Germany)
Delia Cristina Garcia (Colombia)
Daniel Gilliéron (Switzerland)
Steven Hall (USA)
Greg Lepard (USA)
Bruce Liggitt (UK)
Mona Marie Matepi (Cook Islands)
Christine Muller (USA)
Lev Rickards (USA)
Sherri van der Weg (USA)
Graham Walker (UK)
Guilda Walker (UK)
Niki Ziai (USA)

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UPDATE YOUR ADDRESS

Please send information to the secretariat on changes of address etc. We are "losing" members whose email starts bouncing because they have not informed us of their new address.