WORLD RELIGIONS & ECOLOGY
IN THE NEWS
March 2010: The Year of the Tiger
As the New Year of the Tiger gets under way, Asian faith leaders consider how best to promote efforts to promote the protection of the remaining, but dwindling, numbers of the great cat. Daoists have prohibited food or medicinal ingredients from endangered species as one element of their eight-year plan, as do the Shanghai Buddhists. Pointing out that “human beings are far more dangerous than tigers,” the leader of the Tibetan Buddhist Kagyupa group likewise has urged his followers to shun products containing tiger parts and to do whatever possible to stop illegal animal trade: “Within the forest ecosystem there are natural protectors, and the tiger is one of them.” They are joined in their efforts by a variety of others pursuing similar agendas. For example, the government of Nepal announced the establishment of a National Tiger Conservation Authority, to be backed by a Wildlife Crime Control Committee; it also has expanded the Bardia National Park by some 350 square miles. In January, Thailand hosted an international conference on the matter of tiger conservation: the intent of the First ASIA Ministerial Conference (AMC) on Tiger Conservation: Enforcement, Trade, Landscapes and Financing was to update the National Tiger Action Plans of tiger-range countries in coordination with law enforcement, financial and land use-planning agencies; to identify needs ranging from political to financial and to secure these with the support of the international community; and to define a Global Tiger Stabilization and Recovery Support Program for effective resource mobilization. A Global Tiger Initiative Summit is planned in November 2010. At present, possibly only some 3,200 tigers remain in the wild. Failure is not an option.
WORLD RELIGIONS AND ECOLOGY: ARCHIVES
WORLD RELIGIONS AND ECOLOGY
Scholars of world religions Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim note, “Religions have developed ethics for homicide, suicide and genocide; now they are challenged to respond to biocide and ecocide.” “What,” they ask, “is our moral responsibility toward future generations? … Can religious and cultural perspectives help solve environmental challenges?”
After decades of environmental action and subsequent involvement of world religions, the ethical dimensions of the environmental crisis are becoming more obvious. While not every activity that is ethical or moral can be legally mandated, Earth jurisprudence asks important questions upon which world religions might shed light:
What human behaviors are consistent with the laws of the natural world?
What ethical norms support a legal framework that protects the flourishing of the Earth community? How do the vision and values articulated in the ecological statements and activities of the world religions contribute to the health and well-being of people and ecosystems? How does Earth jurisprudence, as a legal response, promote mutually enhancing human-Earth relationships?
BAHA’I
BUDDHISM
CHRISTIANITY
HINDUISM
INDIGENOUS TRADITIONS
ISLAM
JAINISM
JUDAISM
SHINTOISM
SIKHISM
TAOISM
ZOROASTRIANISM