The out climate change is an indicator of the change of inner climate

Today is "Blog Action Day" and the topic is on Climate Change.

As we have discussed in a previous blog that social progress or civilization starts with a set of moral values as its core. When people begin to believe in these core moral values and try to translate them into their daily life, the society will see a pattern of behaviors slowly taking shape. In turn, this totality of behaviors will guide us on how to construct our material development and environmental usage.

So according to this model, any environment or climate change is not purely material. There is always human factor or human contribution to the outer environmental change. And since man lives intimately within a given environment, thus his life and inner development are inevitably affected by the conditions of the environment in which he lives. Shoghi Effendi has described this reciprocal relationship beautifully in the following quote:

"We cannot segregate the human heart from the environment outside us and say that once one of these is reformed everything will be improved. Man is organic with the world. His inner life moulds the environment and is itself also deeply affected by it. The one acts upon the other and every abiding change in the life of man is the result of these mutual reactions."

Thus the outer environmental condition (good or bad) is actually a reflection of the state of inner climate that human beings collectively possess. It is then not far fetch to say that the issue of climate change is essentially a spiritual issue.

Furthermore, the issue is not only spiritual in its nature, but also global in its scope. The climate change is not limited to any particular region. Its impact, if let continue and unchecked, will affect every corner of the world. It is therefore natural that the solution thus considered must not only include spiritual aspect but also require unified efforts from all of the inhabitants of the earth. This, as Baha’u’llah has pointed out more than 160 years ago, is not possible until and unless the oneness of human race is universally recognized and its unity is firmly established:

“The central spiritual issue facing all people, Bahá'u'lláh says, whatever their nation, religion, or ethnic origin, is that of laying the foundations of a global society that can reflect the oneness of human nature. The unification of the earth's inhabitants is neither a remote utopian vision nor, ultimately, a matter of choice. It constitutes the next, inescapable stage in the process of social evolution, a stage toward which all the experience of past and present is impelling us. Until this issue is acknowledged and addressed, none of the ills afflicting our planet will find solutions, because all the essential challenges of the age we have entered are global and universal, not particular or regional.” (From “Who is writing the future” by Baha’i International Community)

Improvement of environment not only needs the help of technological tools, but also requires changing of human hearts.