FIELD NOTES: The United Nations (Via Religion and Its Affiliated Agencies) to the Rescue in the Cause of Conservation?
Issue: Vol 10 No. 4 (2016)
Journal: Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture
Subject Areas: Religious Studies
DOI: 10.1558/jsrnc.v10i4.32179
Abstract:
Environment-focused institutions aflliated with the United Nations and other non-governmental agencies have long sought to mobilize religious individuals and groups to construct environmentally sustainable societies. Often, those involved have come from the world’s academic, religious, and political intelligentsias. Two major conferences in 2016 continue the pattern, which, generally speaking, is characterized by religionists and scholars sympathetic to specilc traditions contending that, properly understood, the world’s religions promote environmental concern. Social scientilc studies regarding the role of religion in environmental behaviors question these earnest hopes. Indeed, comprehensive reviews of pertinent studies suggest that such assertions may represent a form of strategic essentialism designed to spur religious peoples to engage in something that, given their traditions’ foci, does not come naturally to them, namely, putting a priority on environmental conservation.
Author: Bron Taylor
References :
Erdbrinkmay, Thomas. 2016. ‘Iranian Students Lashed 99 Times Over Coed Party’, New York Times. 27 May. Online: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/28/world/middleeast/iranian-students-lashes-party.html
Kennard, David, and Patsy Northcott (dirs.). 2011. Journey of the Universe. Film. USA: KQED. Online: https://www.fandor.com/films/journey_of_the_universe.
Pedersen, K.P. 1998. ‘Environmental Ethics in Interreligious Perspectives’, in S.B. Twiss and B. Grelle (eds.), Explorations in Global Ethics: Comparative Religious Ethics and Interreligious Dialogue (Boulder, CO: Westview Press): 253-90.
Posey, Darrell Addison (ed.). 1999. Cultural and Spiritual Values of Biodiversity (Nairobi, Kenya: United Nations Environmental Programme).
Sponsel, Leslie E. 2012. Spiritual Ecology: A Quiet Revolution (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger).
Swimme, Brian, and Thomas Berry. 1992. The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era: A Celebration of the Unfolding of the Cosmos (San Francisco: Harper Collins).
Taylor, Bron. 2005. ‘Religious Studies and Environmental Concern’, in B. Taylor (ed.), Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature (London: Continuum): 1373-79.
Taylor, Bron. 2010. Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future (Berkeley: University of California Press).
Taylor, Bron. 2016. ‘The Greening of Religion Hypothesis (Part One): From Lynn White, Jr. and Claims That Religions Can Promote Environmentally Destructive Attitudes and Behaviors to Assertions They Are Becoming Environmentally Friendly’, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 10.3: 264-304. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v10i3.29010.
Taylor, Bron, Gretel Van Wieren, and Bernard Daley Zaleha. 2016a. ‘Lynn White Jr. and the Greening-of-Religion Hypothesis’, Conservation Biology 30.5: 1000-1009. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12735.
Taylor, Bron, Gretel Van Wieren, and Bernard Daley Zaleha. 2016b. ‘The Greening of Religion Hypothesis (Part Two): Assessing the Data from Lynn White, Jr., to Pope Francis’, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 10.3: 305-75. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v10i3.29011.
Taylor, Bron, Ian Maclean, and Heather Eaton. 2005. ‘United Nations’ “Earth Summits”’, in Bron Taylor (ed.), Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature (London: Continuum): 1680-83.
UNEP. 2016. Environment, Religion and Culture in the Context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Nairobi, Kenya: United Nations Environment Programme).
UNESCO. 1988. Man Belongs to the Earth: International Cooperation in Environmental Research (Paris: UNESCO-MAB).
UNESCO. 2005a. Conserving Culture and Biological Diversity: The Role of Sacred Natural Sites and Cultural Landscapes (Paris: UNESCO).
UNESCO.2005b. Intangible Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development (Paris: UNESCO).
World Commission on Environment and Development. 1987. Our Common Future (Paris: United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development).