Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
7
It has been proposed that it is time to commence a completely new phase in
international environmental protection. In 1999, I was fortunate enough to
have had the interesting experience of hearing the ideas of former Vice
President of the International Court of Justice, Christopher Weeramantry,
when he visited the University of Lapland's Faculty of Law. He had also taken
the opportunity to express his ideas in his dissenting opinions during his tenure
at the Court.
Weeramantry's opinion is that our relationship to the environment will only
change when most of the world's religion-based belief systems change. He
argues that any religion can be interpreted from the holy scriptures in many
different ways and that all religions share the same basis when you look deeply
enough. If the religions that affect human everyday life choices are not rein-
terpreted, the status of the environment can never improve, because 95 per
cent of the world's population adheres to one religion or another.
The belief systems of most religions make reference to a very basic outline
of the human role in creation; they also guide everyday environmental
choices. Weeramantry lived as he preached: he was both Christian and
Muslim. Weeramantry had many interesting ideas. However, it seemed diffi -
cult to believe that Christians and Muslims, for instance, would be able to fi nd
any common ground - at least not any time in the near future.
Even though I found Weeramantry's ideas interesting, I am more excited
by how quickly our views and conceptions of the environment have changed
in a relatively short period of time, for international environmental protection
at the state level did not really take off in earnest until the 1970s. The envi-
ronmental sciences have taken our ideas a long way. We have realized the
importance of ecosystems - mostly through increased ecosystem service
thinking - and we no longer see ourselves as somehow detached from the
ecosystems of which we are intrinsically a part.
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