Climate Change

The greatest threat to the world today is that we are destroying it. The Human race never faced such a global crises like the one by the destruction of the environment. Scientists are confirming that our actions have induced global warming and climate change. For example, in the name of human consumption every second an area the size of a football pitch are cut down. More than half of the world’s rainforests have already been destroyed.

Acid rain devastating life in the forests, lakes, rivers, mountains and it’s also a serious health hazard to us.

Many areas of the great oceans have been overfished so that now some species are near extinction, e.g. whales. We need to keep in mind that animals have also their communities and nations. The Koran confirms this:

“No creature is there crawling on the earth, no bird is flying with its wings, but they are nations like unto yourselves. “ Chapter 6: 38

Marked short- term fluctuations in weather can have serious effects on health. Extremes of heat and cold can cause potentially fatal illnesses, e.g. heat stress or hypothermia, as well as increasing death rates from heart and respiratory diseases. 150 000 people die every year from climate change.  

God says in the Koran:

“Corruption has spread far and wide over land and sea, due to the action of humankind. God is giving them a taste of their own actions as a means of finding a way back to Him” Chapter 30:41

Alternative sources of power are energy from the sun, tide and winds. We as human being have a responsibility towards our body, the society and towards the nature.

God says in the Koran:

“It is He who has appointed you guardians in the earth, and has raised some of you in rank above others, that He may try you in what He has giving you.“ Chapter 6: 165

We Muslims believe that human being were appointed guardian of the earth.

Furthermore God says in the holy Koran:

“We have offered the responsibility  (freedom of choice) to the heavens and the earth, and the mountains, but they refused to bear it, and were afraid of it. But the human being accepted it.” Chapter 33: 72

There is an adage from Taiwan by Cheng Yen which says:

“Life becomes meaningful when we shoulder responsibilities. Avoiding responsibilities make our life empty. “

Increasing numbers of Christian theologians and ethicist are responding to the environmental challenge as the world gets hotter, stormier, unequal, crowded, more violent, and less biodiverse. The multiple traditions of Christianity take competing and cooperative forms and convey an emphasis that can be either constricting or liberating.

The reason why we are facing nowadays this problem is by our own rapidly changing lifestyles, particularly in the last 50 years. The enormous demands we have been making on the earth’s resource and the way we’ve been changing the natural world are the reasons. Climate change is a long term problem, which affects every single human being living today and the future generation.

Cheng Yen said:

“Having 2 hands and refuse to work is no difference than having no hands at all.”

We’re now living in the West, a secular society. The reasons why people change the nature are to get more of it. The earth has been manipulated so that more grows. And the more grows the more you can sell, and the more you can sell the more you’ll earn and the more money you’ll have. That’s the reality of capitalism.

Day for day we go out and buy food, but are we aware of the things we eat? Is it really healthy to eat fruits and vegetables? If it’s not organic, it won’t give us anything we need. It will just damage our body, because it’s not real food. We’re asking ourselves why there are so many diseases. It’s simply because of what we consume. It’s the chemicals we use, the Gen-manipulated food we eat and obviously the pollution.

But that’s the system of capitalism and secularisation we’re living in. And one does not have to be a Muslim to understand this.

Everything is persuading us to buy, to consume and the desire to posses more and more. But does material things make us really happy? Is it really this what our souls and bodies need?

“Life is full of illness, disease is illness, social unrest is illness, and even family dispute is illness. That is why social order rests on family education, and family education rests on individual integrity.”  By Cheng Yen