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Only a World Government Can Truly Tackle Climate Change

David Langness | Dec 10, 2014

PART 4 IN SERIES Capitalism

The views expressed in our content reflect individual perspectives and do not represent the authoritative views of the Baha'i Faith.

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David Langness | Dec 10, 2014

PART 4 IN SERIES Capitalism

The views expressed in our content reflect individual perspectives and do not represent the authoritative views of the Baha'i Faith.

…let us strive like flowers of the same divine garden to live together in harmony. Even though each soul has its own individual perfume and color, all are reflecting the same light, all contributing fragrance to the same breeze which blows through the garden, all continuing to grow in complete harmony and accord. Become as waves of one sea, trees of one forest, growing in the utmost love, agreement and unity. – Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 24.

When you see a tree growing and developing, be hopeful of its outcome. – Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 111.

The Baha’i writings, filled with beautiful organic metaphors, encourage us all to become trees of one forest. When you think about it, and even when you look at it from a scientific point of view, that metaphor contains an enormous amount of spiritual wisdom.

old-growth-forestIn forest ecology, we now know that a mature old-growth forest fosters enormous biological diversity, which supports thousands of species and sustains the life of living creatures not only within, but far beyond the borders of the forest itself. A healthy forest generates breathable air, stores carbon, produces nutrients, purifies water, maintains soils, provides habitat for a wide variety of species and even germinates and sustains rare plants that can become cures for disease. An amazing meta-organism, a healthy, highly intricate and biodiverse forest ecosystem represents the apex of nature’s synergy and interdependence.

We human beings, all of us trees in the forest of humanity, have a similar ecosystem. We rely on one another for our sustenance and continued existence. None of us could exist entirely alone, outside the wide web of human society. We each produce what others need. Our healthy growth and development depends on the health of the community around us. Like a thriving forest biome, worldwide human ecology links together in a mutually supportive, advantageous and interdependent chain of life.

But instead of recognizing the scientific and spiritual facts of our interdependence and unity, we continue to violate the deep connections that relate us to each other. We wage war on one another, whether with weapons or with wealth. We artificially separate ourselves by skin color and social class. We draw arbitrary borders and boundaries across the Earth and then make them centers of conflict. We employ and enforce materialistic, consumption-based economic systems that enrich a few and impoverish many. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, we continue to wage war on the natural world, extracting the Earth’s fossil fuels and burning them, creating a hotter and hotter planet and gradually destroying our own home.

These self-defeating behavior patterns do not have to continue. We have the power to change them.

Now, with clear scientific proof from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in their most recent report, we know that humanity’s collective path must lead in a different direction, toward a sustainable, healthy environment. But the inability or unwillingness of contending national governments and profit-making multinational corporations to chart a path toward an environmentally responsible human future has become increasingly clear.

The climate change crisis clearly demonstrates that we have reached the end of the usefulness and utility of nationalism. Unless we curtail the dominant global paradigm of unfettered national sovereignty and find ways to regulate and control unbridled market-based capitalism, the Earth and its peoples will suffer terribly.

We can best and most effectively address our world-encircling environmental challenges, truly global in nature, only with a global approach. We must act, and act quickly. We have no other choice.

As a species, Baha’is believe, we can take action in our collective best interests, stand and grow together like trees in one forest, and oppose the winds of despair blowing across the face of the Earth–by hearing, considering and actively supporting Baha’u’llah’s call for a unified world:

The fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race, and to foster the spirit of love and fellowship amongst men… Our hope is that the world’s religious leaders and the rulers thereof will unitedly arise for the reformation of this age and the rehabilitation of its fortunes. Let them, after meditating on its needs, take counsel together and, through anxious and full deliberation, administer to a diseased and sorely-afflicted world the remedy it requireth…. It is incumbent upon them who are in authority to exercise moderation in all things. Whatsoever passeth beyond the limits of moderation will cease to exert a beneficial influence…

Please God, the peoples of the world may be led, as the result of the high endeavors exerted by their rulers and the wise and learned amongst men, to recognize their best interests. How long will humanity persist in its waywardness? How long will injustice continue? How long is chaos and confusion to reign amongst men? How long will discord agitate the face of society?…

The winds of despair are, alas, blowing from every direction, and the strife that divideth and afflicteth the human race is daily increasing. The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be discerned, inasmuch as the prevailing order appeareth to be lamentably defective. I beseech God, exalted be His glory, that He may graciously awaken the peoples of the earth, may grant that the end of their conduct may be profitable unto them, and aid them to accomplish that which beseemeth their station. – Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 215.

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Comments

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  • Mike LaRana-Feliz Banjo
    Apr 14, 2017
    -
    And their plan IS Agenda 21.
    Rosa Koire goes into the agenda in her videos, a professional land developer who was forcef to find out why she was having to deal with roadblocks that agenda 21 forces on us. Look for her online videos, this affects the future freedom of all !
  • Mike LaRana-Feliz Banjo
    Apr 14, 2017
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    the Rothschilds and other mega rich International Bankers whose GREED knows No Bounds: the so called Climate Movement is meant to set up an all encompassing CONtrol Grid world wide.
    foreignpolicyjournal.com/2011/03/24/a-rothschild-plan-for-world-government/
  • Pat Wiggins
    Dec 13, 2016
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    TU Again straight from Gleanings, and yet, so timely!
    Again, TU.
  • Dec 11, 2014
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    I pray that collectively enough of us make the choice to change our blessed Mother. Thanks David!
  • Dec 10, 2014
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    This was a common practice until the power that be came alone and took ownership of knowledge. I am afraid to say that the current men dominance of the Baha'i Faith (the Universal House of Justice) only serves a very sinister agenda. A world government where everyone is going to be the SAME..unified under one ideology...one that have been 100% created and manipulated for total control of this planet. Climate change is an agenda, a very sinister one, created to inflict further fear and control to all of us! Why aren't you bringing awareness of
    Geoengineering or better known ...as Chemtrails? Why aren't you exposing the true agenda behind Monsanto?
    Read more...
    • Chukutem Okos
      Mar 9, 2018
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      If it's true that what we don't understand can kill us, why don't we make real effort to understand the planet EARTH and the laws that govern it properly so that we don't die a shameful death----- the death that we collectively can avert. Our struggle to understand things will fail if we don't make effort to understand how GOD has been directing human affairs through SPECIAL BEINGS called the MANIFESTATIONS of GOD ,the latest but not the last of which is BAHA'U'LLAH. Let's try to understand what GOD wants us to do now by ...studying all the solutions brought to mankind by BAHA'U'LLAH and see if applying them collectively through the guidance of the UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE will help us or not.
      Read more...
    • Roya Akhavan
      Sep 11, 2017
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      I think the Baha'i idea is a "Federation of Nations," and not a "World Government." The Baha'i teachings (please see the writing of Shoghi Effendi on this) promote a democratic federation of nations akin to the federation that came about in the United States among different states. The UHJ's role is one of service, not one of power. That is the new framework in all Baha'i administration. The construct of "power over others" has been completely abandoned. The main construct is "service to others," regardless of whether one is an elected member of an institution ...or not. P.S. I am a critic of companies like Monsanto and all other businesses that pursue unethical agendas.
      Read more...
    • Jane Abrams
      Jun 3, 2017
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      Ruth. Your understanding of the Baha'i Faith and all it encompasses is not accurate in the least. Please educate yourself, if you are so inclined. <3
  • Dec 10, 2014
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    Almost certain the moderator of this article is going to remove my comment. If truly a lover of fairness and justice, then whoever manages this website, will leave the comment.
    I used to be a member of the Bahai Faith. I love the the writings of Baha'u'llah and Abdul Baha (at least the translations one hope have been properly translated). After I break away from being a member of the Faith, I set myself to a mission, to know truth! I know in my heart that all knowledge is in essence Syncretic. I know in my heart Baha'u'llah was ...a good man trying to do his very best to pass a very old message...an ancient one...that we are all one...BUT unfortunately the controllers of this world has not allowed the TRUE message of Baha'u'llah (and many others) to shine through!! The Rothschild and the Rockefeller of this world have hijacked true knowledge. I have evidence Baha'u'llah was into Hermetism! Baha'u'llah, like most noble people of the past, were educated into the mysteries schools of Astrology, Cosmology, Alchemy, Geometry, Gematria and so forth.
    Read more...
    • Sep 9, 2018
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      I think there is a misconceived idea here. Bahá'u'llah was , first of all, a Muslim. Even if you don't believe in His position, at least you need to understand that the canopy of Islam is unity of God, regardless of our idle fancies. If you really understand this, you will surely know that as a Muslim. He didn't have another deity of God aside from God Himself. There is plenty of evidence that the world has many secrets and that one should be investigating them. However, there is also plenty of evidence that try to deceive people from coming ...together to make a better world is unforgiven. So it was when the Jews were killed in Egypt and when the Christians were killed in Rome. Respect their sacrifices by respecting what you don't believe. <3
      Read more...
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