Plan aims to increase Sikhs' green quotient

Plan aims to increase Sikhs' green quotient
5 Jul 2009, 0407 hrs IST, Narayani Ganesh, TNN

NEW DELHI: EcoSikh is a five-year plan formulated by the US-based Sikh Council of Religion and Education (SCORE) to spread green knowledge
throughout the Sikh community and encourage environmental activism among Sikhs worldwide. "A grid and pledge, named Eco-Sikh, persuades all Sikhs to create a global network of cooperation to help execute an action plan that will help meet today's environmental challenges. It combines spirituality and practical action", says Rajwant Singh, SCORE chairman, who has launched a website, www.ecosikh.org.

Sikh leaders from around the world are committing themselves to reduce global warming, in collaboration with the UN Development Program and UK-based Alliance of Religions and Conservation. Addressing the EcoSikh meeting in Delhi, UNDP's director of development policy Olav Kjorven said "Thro-ughout history religions have helped people and civilizations interpret and understand events around them and to respond to new challenges in light of their spiritual heritage and moral compass... the leadership of religions is now required to meet challenge of climate change." He quoted from Guru Nanak's verse that likened the sky to a platter and the sun and moon to lamps.

Justice Kuldeep Singh said he was delighted that Sikh community was taking upon itself the noble service of forging environment-friendly practices. "As Sikhs we have a responsibility to revere the environment. A Sikh's life is incomplete if he does not revere Nature," he said. "Environmental ethics has always been an inherent part of India's precepts and philosophy and the environment has always been given an honourable place," he said. "But now we are only polluting it."

There are four factors we need to remember, said Justice Singh: that the earth is warming; that this is due to release of increasing volumes of greenhouse gases; that the climate is changing because of human activity and that we can only expect Hell on Earth if we don't take any action now.

with thanks : source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Plan-aims-to-increase-Sikhs-green-quotient-/articleshow/4739378.cms

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