Monday, February 21, 2005
Islam and Conservation
Back in college, I took a seminar on religion and spirituality. One environmental physics professor who worked on developing solar energy for use in city buildings believed that no serious environmental and conservation efforts would be possible without a spiritual and religious element. His position was that taking care of the environment means giving up things we could otherwise have. It means consuming less, it means wasting less. And his point was that people can't do these things unless it is a part of a larger moral picture, and a part of a belief system to which they have strong conviction. It was so long ago, I've forgotten most of what he said. Here's a story from the BBC, although poorly written and missing important information such as what are the Islam ethics, that talks about Imams in Zanzibar succeeding in making a spiritual argument for conservation to fishermen: Eco-Islam hits Zanzibar fishermen. ¶ 2/21/2005 09:41:00 AM
Back in college, I took a seminar on religion and spirituality. One environmental physics professor who worked on developing solar energy for use in city buildings believed that no serious environmental and conservation efforts would be possible without a spiritual and religious element. His position was that taking care of the environment means giving up things we could otherwise have. It means consuming less, it means wasting less. And his point was that people can't do these things unless it is a part of a larger moral picture, and a part of a belief system to which they have strong conviction. It was so long ago, I've forgotten most of what he said. Here's a story from the BBC, although poorly written and missing important information such as what are the Islam ethics, that talks about Imams in Zanzibar succeeding in making a spiritual argument for conservation to fishermen: Eco-Islam hits Zanzibar fishermen. ¶ 2/21/2005 09:41:00 AM