Some Friends may have difficulty connecting environmental concerns with those of peace and social justice. This is an attempt to bridge that gap, to make that connection.

Our Whole Culture Has Become Disconnected--People vs. Environment. Historically Friends have led the way or at least been in the forefront in working for peace, justice, and the relief of human suffering. Friends strongly identify with peace witness. But collectively, Friends haven’t been quite as active in efforts to heal and restore our planet. Sure we’re concerned about the natural world, but we suffer from the same disconnection that plagues our culture: that humans are separate and distinct from, and even above, nature.

For most folks the environment is something "out there." We use it, we play in it, we enjoy the scenery, and we go home. Many Friends recognize the need for earth stewardship but seem content to address environmental concerns simply with personal life style choices: If we recycle our trash and compost our garbage, we’ve done our part. But it’s first things first: we’ll end war and human suffering, then we’ll save the planet.

The reality is that the social systems which receive Friends’ attention exist within ecological systems. We would all agree that certain "societies" are definitely part of the environment. Honeybees, wolves, and rabbits all have complex social structures: They work together for the good of the society, and we are clear that they are integral parts of ecosystems: pollinators, predators, and prey. But our culture doesn’t seem to understand that we too are a society that exists within the limits of an ecosystem.

A major cultural shift in perception is needed. But such change is not without precedent.

In 1632 (when George Fox was eight years old), Galileo published his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, offering a new perspective on the earth’s relationship to the sun and the planets. Such a radical departure from conventional wisdom was upsetting to say the least. It challenged the anthropocentric perspective of the church and the world. It was so unsettling that Galileo was imprisoned--for speaking truth to power.

But just as the Copernican model (painfully) replaced the Ptolemaic, we need to replace the environmental "it’s out there for our use" perspective with an ecological "we’re in it, we’re part of it, and we’re dependent upon it" point of view. It’s another difficult but necessary lesson in humility. We and our social systems are part of and dependent upon the natural world--we rely on the pollinators (and many others) for our daily bread. Whatever we do "out there" has reverberations. In this new light, we might reinterpret, "Whatsoever ye do to the least of My brethren, ye do unto Me."

To Work Effectively for Peace, We Must Address Environmental Issues. Environmental concerns are Peace concerns, for two reasons. First, environmental degradation creates the conditions for human conflict. Stress to the ecosystem ultimately is stress to human society. Can we keep peace if exploding populations compete for scarce water? How much human suffering will result as the airborne by-products of fossil-fueled consumption change weather patterns, turning arable lands into deserts, spreading tropical diseases, displacing nations? Where is justice when historic homelands of indigenous people are clear-cut, bulldozed, and exploited for extraction of resources for energy, recreation, and fast food for the fortunate few?

Long before the systems of the planet buckle, democracy will disintegrate under the stress of ecological disasters and their social consequences....it is the poor, precarious, nations of the developing world that would face the threat of totalitarianism first. In many of these countries, where democratic conditions are as fragile as the ecosystem, a reversion to dictatorship will require only a few ecological states of emergency. Their governments will quickly find democracy to be too cumbersome for responding to disruption in food supplies, water sources, and human health--as well as to a floodtide of environmental refugees from homelands that have become incapable of feeding and supporting them.

The second reason may not be so obvious to a culture with a long history of taking from the land and sea with little concern for the consequences, and with an arrogant attitude that stems from the misinterpretation of "dominion." Such mindless exploitation is not only poor stewardship, it constitutes war on the environment. It upsets the natural harmony; it creates ecological discord. Peace on earth must also be peace with earth.

To Save the Environment, We Must Work for Peace. Environmentalists are beginning to realize that the best way, and perhaps the only way, to end the assault on the environment is to solve the great human social problems: injustice and disparity of wealth. The majority world is concerned about the environment but has a higher priority: day-to-day survival.

In Earth Odyssey, Mark Hertsgaard traveled the globe to learn about environmental attitudes. He wrote: "Environmentalism has been one of the ascendant social forces of the twentieth century, but it will not succeed in the twenty-first century if it does not deliver economic well-being as well as ecosystem salvation. Virtually everyone I met during my travels said that, as much as they wanted a clean environment, their first priority had to be keeping themselves above water economically. No one wanted to drink dirty water or see acid rain destroy forests, but for most people, these were remote problems compared to the daily struggle for food, clothing, and shelter."

Injustice and disparity, most of the world is struggling to survive, is also the root cause of war.

Scriptural Bases for Peace on Earth and with Earth. As foundations for our Testimonies of Peace and Justice and for environmental stewardship, we have Jesus’ great commandments, the second greatest of which tells us to "Love your neighbor as yourself." When we allow the air, water, and land to be fouled with pollution, we are not loving our neighbor.

This is an anthropocentric justification for environmental stewardship: take care of the earth for your neighbor’s benefit. But there is a higher order justification, one consistent with our new ecological perception. We find this directive--to care for the natural world for its own sake--in the first and greatest commandment, "Thou shall love God with your whole heart, your whole mind, and your whole self."

John Woolman wrote: "I was early convinced in my mind that true religion consisted in an inward life, wherein the heart loves and reverences God the Creator and learns to exercise true justice and goodness, not only toward all people, but also toward the brute creatures; that as the mind was moved on an inward principle to love God as an invisible, incomprehensible being, on the same principle it was moved to love God in all God’s manifestations in the visible world; that as by God’s breath the flame of life was kindled in all animal and sensitive creatures, to say we love God as unseen and at the same time exercise cruelty toward the least creature moving by God’s life, or by life derived from God, was a contradiction in itself."

It follows that the best way to honor the greatest commandment, to love God, is to care for God’s "manifestations in the visible world"--God’s Creation.

Peace Witness is Eco-Witness; Eco-Witness is Peace Witness. For peace activists, for environmental activists, the goals are the same: harmony in the world--social order and natural order. We can't solve the eco-crisis without addressing the root causes of both human conflict and environmental degradation: social and economic disparity; and we can't achieve peace without dealing with such global problems as climate change and exponential population growth. Unless we come to terms with the great ecological problems, we’re in for bad times.

We have great urgency. The child born in October of 1999 who caused our human numbers to reach six billion, will not have reached puberty by the time the seven billionth child is born. This rapid increase in our numbers does not mean that you’ll never be lonely again; it means human suffering from famine and from war over scarce resources. And global warming is not just the robins arriving a few weeks earlier; it is an unprecedented rate of climate change such that few species (including homo sapiens) will be able to adapt without great suffering.

We must unite--peace activists and tree-huggers-- to take away the occasion of all wars.

 Kim Carlyle is a member of Asheville (NC) Friends Meeting and a co-founder of Quaker Eco-Witness. He is also active with the North Carolina Council of Churches’ Interfaith Climate Change Campaign and serves on the steering committee of Friends Committee on Unity with Nature.

When we love the Lord with all our hearts, and his creatures in his love, we are then preserved in tenderness both toward mankind and the animal creation; but if another spirit gets room in our minds, and we follow it in our proceedings, we are then in the way of disordering the affairs of society....

                        --John Woolman, On Loving our Neighbors as Ourselves, 1772

Oh, that we who declare against wars, and acknowledge our trust to be in God only, may walk in the Light, and therein examine our foundation and motives in holding great estates! May we look upon our treasures and the furniture of our houses and the garments in which we array ourselves and try whether the seeds of war have any nourishment in these our possessions or not. Holding treasures in the self-pleasing spirit is a strong plant, the fruit whereof ripens fast. A day of outward distress is coming, and divine love calls us to prepare against it.

                        --John Woolman, A Plea for the Poor

The grass is rich and matted, you cannot see the soil. It holds the rain and the mist, and they seep into the ground, feeding the streams in every gorge. It is well tended, and not too many cattle feed upon it; not too many fires burn it, laying bare the soil. Stand unshod upon it, for the ground is holy, being even as it came from the Creator. Keep it, guard it, care for it, for it keeps people, guards people, cares for people. Destroy it and people are destroyed.

                        --Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country, 1987

(According to the Project on Environmental Change and Acute Conflict--PECAC:) "Scarcities of renewable resources are already contributing to violent conflicts in many parts of the developing world. These conflicts may foreshadow a surge of similar violence in coming decades, particularly in poor countries where shortages of water, forests, and, especially, fertile land, coupled with rapidly expanding populations already cause great hardship." Mass migrations (15 million people) in Bangladesh have led to fierce ethnic clashes. Of the claim that such conflicts are nothing new, PECAC says: "We maintain...that renewable-resource scarcities of the next 50 years will probably occur with a speed, complexity and magnitude unprecedented in history. Entire countries can now be deforested in a few decades, most of a region’s topsoil can disappear in a generation, and acute ozone depletion may take place in as few as 20 years."

                        --Paul Hawken, The Ecology of Commerce, 1993

While the richest industrialized nations of the world are responsible for the vast majority of global warming pollution, the least-developed countries and poor communities in the U.S. are already suffering the effects, and will be most severely affected in the future...

                        --Dr. Walker-Smith, Indiana Faith-Based Climate Change Campaign, 1999

Look, this is really simple. The single greatest threat to the national security of the United States is the rapidly deteriorating global environment....There’s not a chance that the victims of "failed states" and climate change are going to stay where they are. The most massive migrations in history will follow if nothing is done. In your children’s lifetimes.