THE WORLD COMMISSION on Environment
and Development acknowledged that
to reconcile human affairs with natural laws
'our cultural and spiritual heritages can reinforce
our economic interests and survival
imperatives,.l But until very recently, the
role of our cultural and spiritual heritages in
environmental protection and sustainable
development was ignored by international
bodies, national governments, policy planners,
and even. environmentalists. Many fear
that bringing religion into the environmental
movement will threaten objectivity, scientific
investigation, professionalism, or democratic
values. But none of these need be displaced
in order to include the spiritual dimension in
environmental protection. That dimension, if
introduced in the process of environmental
policy planning, administration, education,
and law, could help create a self-consciously
moral society which would put conservation
and respect for God's creation first, and relegate
individualism, materialism, and our
modem desire to dominate nature in a subordinate
place. Thus my plea for a definite
role of religion in c