Multimedia

In addition to this sampling,  you can view a YouTube playlist of Baha’i Faith and Ecology videos here.

“Recasting humanity’s relationship with natural world”
Bahá’í International Community
June 15, 2022
“Will humanity act on the truth that its own destiny and that of the planet are irrevocably intertwined? Or will still greater calamities be required to move it to action?” asks the Bahá’í International Community (BIC) in a statement it recently released on the occasion of Stockholm+50.

Baha’i-inspired International Environment Forum at Stockholm+50
June 1-5, 2022
The recordings as well as brief reports about the conference are available here.
Follow link to view videos

“Environmental Justice”
Northern Virginia Baha’i Center Sunday Programs
October 2, 2020
Dr. Sohrab Kourosh speaks on a new vision of environmentalism through the lens of current environmental disasters and a Baha’i spiritual understanding of environmental justice.
Follow link to view video

Episode 59: The Spirituality of Climate Change
Baha’i Blogcast with Rainn Wilson
December 2, 2020
In this podcast episode, Rainn Wilson talks about climate change and issues relating to the environment with Arthur Dahl, Christine Muller, and Afsaneh Angelina Rafii. These three Baha’is have been passionately involved in environmentalism in some way, shape, or form, and discuss a range of issues relating to the environment including both practical, and spiritual themes that need to be addressed.

In Pursuit of Hope in a Time of Crisis with Arthur Dahl
Wilmette Institute
April 25, 2020
As COVID-19 sweeps the world, fear and panic are natural responses. The world was already in a mess, and now mass suffering is impacting everyone. For young people, their future already overshadowed by the climate catastrophe, hope may seem impossible. Yet this cloud does have a silver lining giving hope, which we can explore together. Dahl’s recent book In Pursuit of Hope suggests ways to arm ourselves for the environmental, social and economic challenges we are now facing and those still to come. At the individual level, all the great spiritual traditions speak of trial and suffering as paths to spiritual growth and refinement of character as we fight our inner battles. From the perspective of systems science, in a globalized world in which human organization has to adapt to a new scale of functioning, a process of rapid and often chaotic change is necessary to sweep away old institutions no longer adapted to the new reality, allowing a new and better system to emerge bringing justice and sustainability.

Baha’i Blogcast with Rainn Wilson
Episode 41, Halldor Thorgeirsson
January 16, 2020
In this episode, Rainn Wilson speaks with Halldor Thorgeirsson, the Chair of Iceland’s Climate Council and retired Senior Director of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCCC).

Mary Hansen: Seeking justice and oneness in environmental issues
Baha’is of the United States
April 26, 2019
Mary Hansen shares her thoughts on how the Baha’i Faith sustains and inspires her in the face of environmental advocacy challenges, as well as suggestions for ways individuals, families, and communities can help.

Navigating the Storm: The Transition to Sustainability with Arthur Lyon Dahl
Wilmette Institute
September 6, 2015
This Baha’i web talk explores the issue of living sustainably and why the Baha’i community supports sustainability.

The Baha’i International Community’s Approach to Sustainable Development
Baha’is of the United States
2014
Representatives of the Baha’i International Community’s United Nations Office, Daniel Perell, Ming Hwee Chong and Julia Berger, discuss how their work to advance sustainable development relies upon the identification and application of spiritual principles (e.g. trusteeship, generosity, trustworthiness, love, empathy, compassion) and the fostering of genuine consultation (a process of collective, non-adversarial decision making), among diverse players on key contemporary issues. Reaching consensus at the international level can directly influence progress at the local level.

Perspectives: One Common Homeland
Some people subscribe to the notion that societal change needs to be radical, revolutionary, or even violent. But change may require only a shift in world view. Carl Murell, Baha’i Representative to the United Nations, discusses the increasing acceptance of the once controversial idea that the earth is one common homeland.

15th Annual International Environment Forum (IEF) Conference
Bahá’í Centre of Learning
Tasmania, Australia
The 15th International Environment Forum (IEF) Conference took a deeper look at the ethics and science needed to cope with adverse climate change. It explored creative responses that individuals, communities and institutions can make to preserve our planet while living the principle of the oneness of humankind to save our world. The conference was held in the Bahá’í Centre of Learning for Tasmania. This location was selected because the building is a model of environmental sustainability.

Perspectives: Spiritual Responses to Climate Change
Baha’is of the United States
2014
International Society of Doctors for the Environment Representative to the UN, Elizabeth Bowen, and retired Official for the UN Environment Program, Arthur Dahl, discuss the importance to finding spiritual responses to the problems we encounter with Climate Change.

Tanna After Cyclone Pam
International Environment Forum
2015
The island of Tanna in Vanuatu was hit by cyclone Pam in March 2015, causing great destruction. This video about the Baha’i communities on Tanna includes sequences made 3 days after the cyclone describing what they experienced and how they responded. The efforts of the Bahai’s to build local capacity and responsibility increased the community’s resilience in the face of a disaster that was certainly aggravated by climate change. It provided the starting point for the International Environment Forum side event at COP21 on 5 December 2015 on the topic “Community resilience in the face of climate-driven extreme events, a Vanuatu case study.”

Header photo: Top of the dome of the Chicago Baha’i House of Worship, Wilmette, Illinois