Chapter XXIV of Rio Plus 20 Document by Cho Tab Khen Zambuling (Alfredo Sfeir-Younis)
XXIV: The Quality Of The Environment: Material And Spiritual Transformations
It is important to insist that all forms of interaction take place within the environment. Thus, the quality of the environment has become a major determinant of our material and spiritual transformations. Thus, as global warming exists, and this deteriorates the quality of the environment, we are greatly jeopardizing those processes of transformation. Here we address both separately for presentational purposes only.
The Material. For a long time now, humanity paid attention mainly to our environment and natural resources from the perspective of reproducing “quantity” of output: how much do we have. How much forest can we cut or how much fish can we catch, or how many animals can we hunt, or how much oil or minerals can we get out of a mine. Long ago as hunters and gatherers, human beings had to know how much was available for their survival and the furthering of their welfare.
However, during the last centuries, as population growth expanded rapidly, now reaching over six billion, and as the industrial revolution deepened, we went from a process of spatial expansion to a rapid process of intensification. The use of lands, forests and other natural resources brought us into a strategy consisting mainly of a maximization of output per-unit of resources available (e.g., land). In this process of intensification we have been over exploiting (cutting) the natural forests, killing the wildlife, using fragile marginal lands, destroying our biodiversity, polluting the air and water, depleting our ozone layer, and the like. Rapidly, we have had to move from a notion of “quantity” of output to one of “quality” of life. The more we intensify at the margin, the more it becomes important to maintain the quality of our whole natural environment.
Today, the material form of evolution that humanity has embarked upon depends more and more on our capacity to maintain the quality rather than the quantity of our environment (if this expression can be used in a general way), though they are, to a large extent, inseparable. Nevertheless, at this juncture in human history, the amount of physical raw material embodied in one unit of output seems to have diminished a great deal. Now, it is human knowledge that constitutes the principal embodiment in production. Thus, environmental quality is even more important (see below). However, we are not diminishing the importance of quantity in the management of our environment. In particular, to maintain the quality of human life and of all living beings we still demand to draw on what constitutes a major dependency from fuel oils and other non-renewable resources. Quantity still constitutes a strategically relevant element of natural resources management. Excessive intensification of fragile ecosystems has led to deserts and the creation of wastelands. It is essential not to devalue the importance of proper management of these areas.
A material evolution or revolution that is unsustainable must be stopped and everyone must shift towards new production and resource management systems. We are fully aware that many people are aware of the tangible possibility of an environmental collapse in many parts of the world. The areas where such a collapse may take place are often called “hot spots”, where people are, or will be, suffering from famines, and are affected by unstable weather conditions, flooding, land slides, mud slides, and other dangerous natural phenomena. The life and food chain of all living beings depend on the quality of the natural environment. Any material evolution is also intimately related to quality, and this is to be preserved at all costs.
The Spiritual. Spiritual transformation only makes sense in our state of human life on the planet; this is to say, as human body, mind and soul. In this context, spirituality embraces all those principles, instruments and actions that make us remember our mission on Earth and to execute that mission. The mission has to do with the nature of your spiritual transformation in the realm of the spirit. The life experience on this Earth is an important one that is to contribute directly to your spiritual evolution. The mission may be simple or complex. But, most people do not remember their mission and therefore they are unhappy and unfulfilled.
Spirituality happens within the multidimensional space of multiple interactions within our environment. These interactions may be between humans themselves, between humans and living beings and between humans or living beings with nature. All these different forms of interaction are interconnected to our spirituality, be it individual or collective spirituality. That is why it is so important to preserve and enhance our human and natural environments. These are the containers of our interactions and, thus, determinants of our spiritual evolution.
In this regard, there is a fundamental law that it is important to consider here: “there is a direct correlation between the complexity of your mission and the quality of the environment”. Another way to express it is that “the more complex your mission is on Earth, the more fundamental it is to be part of a high-quality natural and human environment”. The corollary of such a law is fundamental to be understood. The destruction of the environment is limiting our capacity to evolve spiritually. Thus, the destruction of the natural environment is not only an issue of material welfare but of spiritual welfare as well. In addition, the quality of the environment is essential in decisions regarding reincarnation on this planet. This is so because reincarnations are always linked to decisions regarding space and time and, thus, they are also linked to the quality of the environment. All of this, in turn, becomes of keen interest to those souls who are in line to reincarnate as a major step towards being able to fulfil their spiritual evolution.
Global warming and ozone layer depletion are major environmental problems that are changing every aspect of human life on the face of the Earth. Both at the material and spiritual levels, not addressing global and inner warming it will greatly limit our human evolution.
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