c. 1998 Religion News Service

UNITED NATIONS _ Arguing that economic and political approaches to environmental problems are failing, an interfaith and interdisciplinary group of scholars says the world’s religions must take a more active role in setting the global environmental agenda.

That is a key conclusion of a three-year Harvard University project that drew on the ideas of more than 1,000 scholars, religious leaders and activists representing 10 major religions. The results were made public at a news conference at the United Nations.

Organizers of the Harvard Project on Religion and Ecology, which conducted a series of conferences exploring the relationships between religion and the environment, said Tuesday the key to solving the environmental crisis may lie in redefining spiritual values and rethinking humankind’s fundamental responsibility to nature.

While respect for the Earth may be inherent in the moral teachings of many religions, these values are clearly missing at the corporate and government level, organizers said. “Religious values are critical in establishing a new balance of human-Earth relations, one that acknowledges human need for resources but restrains human greed,”said Mary Evelyn Tucker, an associate professor of religion at Bucknell University, who coordinated the conferences.

The group also announced the creation of an ongoing forum to bring together policy makers and scholars in what organizers say is the continuation of the broadest interfaith and interdisciplinary dialogue yet on environmental problems.

Religions included in the conferences and represented in the forum are Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Shinto, Jainism and indigenous traditions. But project leaders said other religious traditions may be included in the future.

The series of conferences was inspired by the 1992 World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity issued by the Union of Concerned Scientists, which concluded the environmental crisis was so dire it required the attention of religions as well as scientists, businesses and governments. “We are in the midst of what’s being called the `sixth extinction.’ All the others were caused by nature _ this one is man-made,”said Tucker.”The crisis is too large to say any one discipline can have answers. It needs an interdisciplinary approach and religion and ethics need to be at table.” Religious tradition is a powerful influence that has yet to be tapped in the environmental arena, said Larry Sullivan, director of the Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions.”Change won’t happen without religions because they are the touchstone of people’s deepest motivations,”said Sullivan.

Tucker said the environmental movement could be to religious groups in the coming millennium what the social justice and civil rights movement in America was to many denominations in the 1960s.”We need to reach the next level of concern, to extend a web of sensibility to the natural world and move ethics beyond human concerns to the natural world,”she said.

This trend may signal a”greening of religious thought,”as Tucker described it, but scientists say it may also mean the birth of a new ethical dimension in a field that traditionally has had an antagonistic relationship with religion.”There are broader implications of our work,”said evolutionary biologist Michael Novacek, a curator at the American Museum of Natural History and a participant in the Harvard project.”When you’re studying animals and plants that are eradicated in the five-year period you’re studying them, it strikes a chord. It’s more than scientific disappointment _ it’s an emotional loss.” He said the project already is helping change the relationship between science and religion and has made scientists more open to the idea of participating in an intellectual dialogue with theologians.”We are often pitted against religion especially with the rise of so-called `creation research.’ We were very skittish about what role science would play vis-a-vis religion,”said Novacek.

Scientists say while their research can provide the”index for ethics,”a way for people to understand the scope of the tragedy, only a global action plan that balances economics with conservation will reverse the present course of destruction.”I don’t think people can escape their moral ethical obligation to stewardship,”said Novacek.”What gives us a right to leave a charred Earth for our children?” The project’s findings cited examples of tangible results of the involvement of religious groups in environmental causes, such as reforestation, river clean-ups, recycling and energy efficiency programs, but participants say only by changing the way people of different faiths and different backgrounds approach environment problems _ and each other _ will there be progress in the long run.”Different religions and different disciplines can be kindred spirits on this; the work and the goal can be the same, that is, a planet fit for human life,”said Novacek.

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