Responsible management of the earth’s resources as a spiritual issue

[Jim]

NOTE (added in an edit): This thread is in the General Discussion forum, not the General Debate forum.

@David T called my attention to a curiosity in Internet discussions. There is intense interest in responsible management of the earth’s resources, and there is intense interest in spiritual issues, but there doesn’t seem to be much interest in responsible management of the earth’s resources as a spiritual issue. He also gave me this link:

Alliance for Wild Ethics

That interests me because I think that understanding it as a spiritual issue is part of what is needed, to stop the ravaging. That includes an understanding of how the ravaging of the earth’s resources, and all other current issues, are intertwined with each other and with the need for a certain kind of love, for the earth and all its people.

Some other reading on this topic:

Exploring Synergies between Faith Values and Education for Sustainable Development

Spiritual Dimensions of Sustainable Development Project - Earth Charter

Alliance of Religions and Conservation

 

[Valjean]

But didn't God give man dominion over the earth? Didn't he make it all for us to use? Isn't He going to make all things new again after we muck it all up?

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

But didn't God give man dominion over the earth? Didn't he make it all for us to use? Isn't He going to make all things new again after we muck it all up?

I am going to derail your derail. Not everything in matters spiritual have to do what a god as God. There are other ways to look at the scared than just through God. How about that Nature is scared?
So spiritual as only through God limits the spiritual to some certain cultural traditions and if we look at as wide as possible there are other ways to do it than "traditional western style dominance". So here it is from God to as wide as possible in a western tradition:
7th Principle: Respect for the Interdependent Web of All Existence of Which We Are a Part

Peace

 

[Jim]

@Valjean @mikkel_the_dane I added a note to the OP.

 

[Valjean]

I am going to derail your derail. Not everything in matters spiritual have to do what a god as God. There are other ways to look at the scared than just through God. How about that Nature is scared?
So spiritual as only through God limits the spiritual to some certain cultural traditions and if we look at as wide as possible there are other ways to do it than "traditional western style dominance". So here it is from God to as wide as possible in a western tradition:
7th Principle: Respect for the Interdependent Web of All Existence of Which We Are a Part

Peace

I agree. Nature is God, for all intents and purposes. Preserving Earth's ecosystem and biodiversity should be our prime directive -- so to speak.

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

I agree. Nature is God, for all intents and purposes. Preserving Earth's ecosystem and biodiversity should be our prime directive -- so to speak.

Yes. So if we are to discuss and not debate, then how to we combine the spiritual and the environment?

Well, how about a list of different aspects, that all combine into different angles of the same?

Example:
Lessen your energy and resource footprint. (More room for nature)
Think of future generations. (If we destroy nature, we make it harder for future generations)
See the wonder in nature and preserve it. (Leads to preservation and sort of more spiritualism)
Less materialism as a consumer and find out joys in life. (More room for nature because of less use of resources and sort of more spiritualism)

Edit after posting: There are more than these, of course.

I don't know, if that is one way to do it?

What I am try to get at, is this: The more angles you present that leads to the same, the more chances you have of hitting one that hits home with a given individual. Maybe?

 

[Audie]

God will make a new one. Adam and Eve spoilt
this one.

Of so say the "spiritual" ones.

 

[Stevicus]

NOTE (added in an edit): This thread is in the General Discussion forum, not the General Debate forum.

@David T called my attention to a curiosity in Internet discussions. There is intense interest in responsible management of the earth’s resources, and there is intense interest in spiritual issues, but there doesn’t seem to be much interest in responsible management of the earth’s resources as a spiritual issue. He also gave me this link:

Alliance for Wild Ethics

That interests me because I think that understanding it as a spiritual issue is part of what is needed, to stop the ravaging. That includes an understanding of how the ravaging of the earth’s resources, and all other current issues, are intertwined with each other and with the need for a certain kind of love, for the earth and all its people.

Some other reading on this topic:

Exploring Synergies between Faith Values and Education for Sustainable Development

Spiritual Dimensions of Sustainable Development Project - Earth Charter

In order to "stop the ravaging," the first thing that has to happen is that people have to stop breeding so much.

Most cultures seem to view the birth of a child as some kind of spiritual thing, but once they're alive, then they need to be fed, clothed, housed, etc. - all of which require the "ravaging" of resources. The ideas of "feeding the hungry," "clothing the naked," etc. - these are spiritual ideals, too.

But we have billions of people on this planet, and they all require resources to sustain themselves. The only way to reduce that is to reduce the number of people.

We should strive for negative population growth until the world's population reduces to under a billion.

 

[Audie]

In order to "stop the ravaging," the first thing that has to happen is that people have to stop breeding so much.

Most cultures seem to view the birth of a child as some kind of spiritual thing, but once they're alive, then they need to be fed, clothed, housed, etc. - all of which require the "ravaging" of resources. The ideas of "feeding the hungry," "clothing the naked," etc. - these are spiritual ideals, too.

But we have billions of people on this planet, and they all require resources to sustain themselves. The only way to reduce that is to reduce the number of people.

We should strive for negative population growth until the world's population reduces to under a billion.

Projections I have seen do suggest that there is a
trend that way. Whether it will happen in time is
another matter.

 

[sooda]

But didn't God give man dominion over the earth? Didn't he make it all for us to use? Isn't He going to make all things new again after we muck it all up?

Conservatives used to support conservation of earth's resources.

 

[Audie]

Conservatives used to support conservation of earth's resources.

Now none of them do?

 

[Jim]

I want to review the websites that I linked to, before I post any more about this.

 

[sooda]

Now none of them do?

That's debatable.. however, Trump leads the charge against climate change concerns.

Look at his position on our national parks. Look at Purdue..

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Purdue Disputes Man-Made ...
https://www.esquire.com/.../a28187258/agriculture-secretary-sonny-purdue-climate-change

Jun 25, 2019 · CNN Presents..."Ladies and gentlemen, your Secretary of Agriculture!" Perdue told CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich in the interview released Tuesday that "we don't know" the cause of climate change…

And more recently look at the devastating results of coal mining in Wyoming .

Two Wyoming coal mines close, send 700 workers home after bankruptcy filing
Two coal mines in Wyoming closed and sent 700 workers home Monday afternoon after their owner filed for bankruptcy, the ...


New Wyoming coal company abandons mines and miners
safety and environmental worries presented by huge open pit mines that aren’t actively managed by trained experts —

 

[Jim]

I’m browsing through the The Alliance for Wild Ethics website, and this intrigues me:

“We now know that the rich diversity of the Amazonian rainforest, for example, is at least partly the result of small-scale horticultural practices enacted by the native Indians of that region for many thousands of years before contact!”

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

That's debatable.. however, Trump leads the charge against climate change concerns.
...

You are pointing out a problem and turning this sort of into a debate. So let us discuss instead - what is the solution to this problem in regards to conservatives? How do you get them on board - at least some of them?

 

[sooda]

You are pointing out a problem and turning this sort of into a debate. So let us discuss instead - what is the solution to this problem in regards to conservatives? How do you get them on board - at least some of them?

You may have to just push ignorant people out of office.

 

[Jim]

More from the AWE website:

Motivated by a love for the more-than-human collective of life, and for human life as an integral part of that wider collective, we work to revitalize local, face-to-face community – and to integrate our communities perceptually, practically, and imaginatively into the earthly bioregions that surround and support them.

Such are the forms of creativity and culture that the Alliance for Wild Ethics seeds and encourages — practices that bring human groups into ever deeper accord with the exuberant nature that surrounds them, enabling community to thrive in reciprocity with a flourishing terrain.

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

I’m browsing through the The Alliance for Wild Ethics website, and this intrigues me:

“We now know that the rich diversity of the Amazonian rainforest, for example, is at least partly the result of small-scale horticultural practices enacted by the native Indians of that region for many thousands of years before contact!”

You mean how can that result in more diversity?

Yes, that is worth looking into. I don't know the answer.

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

You may have to just push ignorant people out of office.

And by pointing out they are ignorant, you add to the fight. This is not a debate. We try to unify. If you want to debate that they are wrong somehow, then IMHO think it belongs in another thread.

 

[sooda]

And by pointing out they are ignorant, you add to the fight. This is not a debate. We try to unify. If you want to debate that they are wrong somehow, then IMHO think it belongs in another thread.

I understand your point. They are not motivated by science or data or any sort of studies. They are motivated by money. In my family we are very money motivated too on the side of the conservationists. My brothers developed a method for quick, high pressure recycling of freeon gases.

A couple of years ago some young people got a million dollar science prize for developing a floating mechanism that would capture plastics in the ocean.

I'll leave you to your thread. Bye bye.