Dr. Iyad Abumoghli's Introduction to Faith for Earth: A Call for Action

I am privileged to have this opportunity to welcome you to Faith for Earth, A Call for Action, the new, revised edition of Earth and Faith, last published twenty years ago. It is an honor to have worked in partnership with the Parliament of the World’s Religions to produce this book.  

Faith for Earth describes the essential, unshakeable reverence that all religions have for creation and nature, and provides an introduction to the world’s major life support systems. I hope it will give you information and inspiration to learn more about our planet, to share your knowledge and commitment to care for it, and to become part of the flourishing global interfaith movement that is increasingly bringing people together to protect and sustain life on Earth.  

In the last 60 years, more than 40% of the world’s civil wars have been linked to control over natural resources such as land, oil, and water. Climate change is on track to make this situation worse, with unprecedented new impacts on the functioning ecosystems we depend upon for survival, as well as on where people can live and grow food, build cities, practice their faith, and raise their children in peace and health. The security implications of climate change are being recognized at the highest levels, and UN Secretary-General António Guterres has put it at the heart of our conflict prevention agenda.  

The Secretary-General announced in April 2020 that “the global crisis we are facing today due to the COVID-19 pandemic is the gravest challenge since the establishment of the UN 75 years ago,” but it also remains an irrefutable fact that climate change continues to be one of the most systemic environmental threats that humankind has ever faced.  

We are in a race against time that will require political will, innovation, inclusion, tolerance, values and ethics, financing, and partnerships. We are calling on everyone—countries, cities, the private sector, individuals, and faith-based organizations—to strengthen their actions to mitigate climate change, restore ecosystems, and protect the health of the planet without delay. The world has the scientific understanding, the technological capacity, and the financial means to do this. We need to trust our abilities and act accordingly.  

Let us adopt an integrated approach to tackling the cry of the planet and achieving sustainable development. The private sector is already taking various actions to ensure environmental sustainability through sustainability budgeting and innovations. Many in the financial sector know that investing in a clean energy future and nature-based solutions will pay dividends. 

We need to think about how we commute and about the sustainability of our houses and buildings. Are we encouraging means of mass transportation? Are we reducing the need to commute by encouraging working from home and using smart phones and computers for transactions? Do our buildings produce their own energy? Do they recycle their own water? Are we treating and recycling our waste and moving to adopt a circular economy with zero waste?  

Are we eating healthy food? Are we buying locally grown vegetables? Or are we importing off-season produce from countries that are thousands of miles away?  

Technology is on our side. Our challenge is not that we do not know what to do—it is how quickly we can do it. The problem is massive, and such large and complex challenges will require transformational thinking, integration, and big movements. But it will also require progress on myriad smaller and manageable scales. We need faith-based organizations to be part of the global accountability and monitoring system to achieve sustainable development goals, and we need a common ethical system of values no matter what religion we believe.  

I write this with hope and optimism because I am convinced that the love for power and greed that led us to where we are today can be overcome by the power of love, science, and faith.  

The UN has adopted Global Action for People and the Planet, its global environmental agenda, through 2030, but the faith agenda is eternity. Our concern should not be the just next generation; it should be all generations to come. We must make a global pact, on behalf of the natural world, to bring the values of faith to the practices of people and decisions of politicians. We need to work with the environment to avoid new global catastrophes. I call upon all the faith communities in the world to lead by example and join our Coalition in putting our Faith for Earth into action today.  

~ Iyad Abumoghli, Ph.D. Eng. Director, Faith for Earth Strategic Engagement with Faith-based Organizations Executive Office United Nations Environment Programme - Nairobi, Kenya