What they desperately need, is to know how to live their lives -they need to know who they are, to what purpose they exist,and how they should act towards one another; and, once theyknow the answers to these questions they need to be helped to gradually apply these answers to everyday behavior. It is to thesolution of this basic problem of mankind that the greater part of all our energy and resources should be directed....

The Universal House of Justice, from letter dated November 19,1974

ATOLL NATIONS & CLIMATE CHANGEKIRIBATIMALDIVE ISLANDSMARSHALL ISLANDSTUVALUTERRITORY OF TOKELAU

Ajeltake, Majuro Atoll -1978

Marshall Islands from Google EarthPopulation - 64,000 Approximately - 1,225 Islands 29 Atolls 5 Single Coral Islands

69.84 sq. miles of Land

LAE ATOLL17 ISLANDS

TOTAL LAND =.56 sq.mi

LAGOON = 6.33 sq.mi.

POPULATION-250-300

Lae Atoll

Majuro Atoll - Government CenterApproximately 26,000 people64 IslandsLagoon - 113 sq. milesTotal Land Area - 3.54 sq. miles

Majuro Atoll - Government CenterApproximately 27,000 people64 IslandsLagoon - 113 sq. milesTotal Land Area - 3.54 sq. miles

Ebeye Island, Kwajalein Atoll80 acres of land - 12,000 people

What will you do today if you know that your way of life, your home, your city, your village, your land, your country, your culture will completely disappear in the next few decades?

WHAT WILL YOU DO NOW?

Sea Level RiseDestruction of Coral ReefsSea Water Contamination of Fresh Water LensIncrease in Typhoon Activity and IntensityMore Frequent & Severe El Nino ActivityIncreased Temperature of both Air and WaterSeasonal Rain Pattern Changes

Major Effects of Climate Change

Erosion - Lagoon Side Majuro Atoll

Average Elevation7 ft.above sea level for the entire country.

Usually land is only 1-2 feet above high tide sea water level.

Environmental RefugeesIf entire nations become uninhabitable or their populations have to be relocated, such as the peoples of many Pacific nations, Bangladesh, and other places, current immigration policies may well collapse under the strain.

Conisbee and Simms state in their book EnvironmentalRefugees: “Policies that cause harm to people but are pursued in full knowledge of their damaging consequences should be classed as environmental persecution.”

Geneva Convention of 1951 on the Status of refugees gives no protection or status to the new refugee problems caused by the environmental crisis.

Will another country accept physically stateless people?

Ethical and Moral Implications

Acceptance of the oneness of mankindis the first fundamentalprerequisite for the reorganization and administration of the world as one country,the home of humankind.

Universal House of Justice

What role do we play in this organic change? How do we “walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land” so that from our inmost being, the signs of oneness will manifest?

At the individual level, justice is that faculty of the soul that enables each person to distinguish truth from falsehood. It calls for fair-mindedness in one's judgment, for equity in one's treatment of others, and is thus a constant if demanding companion in the daily occasions of life.

Prosperity of Humankind

At the group level a concern for justice is the indispensable compass in collective decision making, because it is the only means by which unity of thought and action can be achieved …justice is the practical expression of awareness that, in the achievement of human progress, the interests of the individual and those of society are inextricably linked.

Prosperity of Humankind

EQUITYTHE ULTIMATE FUNCTION OF ECONOMIC SYSTEMS SHOULD BE TO EQUIP THE PEOPLES AND INSTITUTIONS OF THE WORLD WITH THE MEANS TO ACHIEVE THE REAL PURPOSE OF DEVELOPMENT: THAT IS, THE CULTIVATION OF THE LIMITLESS POTENTIALITIES LATENT IN HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS.

Bahá'í International Community

Resources must be directed away from those agencies and programs that are damaging to the individual, societies, and theenvironment, and directed toward those most germane to furthering a dynamic, just and thriving social order. Such economic systems WILL BE STRONGLY ALTRUISTIC AND COOPERATIVE IN NATURE; they will provide meaningful employment and will help to eradicate poverty in the world.”

Bahá'í International Community

Service to the friends is service to the Kingdom of God, and consideration shown to the poor is one of the greatest teachings of God. ‘Abdu'l-Baha

Whoso cleaveth to justice,can, under no, circumstances, transgress the limits of moderation. He discerneth the truth in all things, through the guidance of Him Who is the All-Seeing. The civilization, so often vaunted by the learned exponents of arts and sciences, will, if allowed to overleap the bounds of moderation, bring great evil upon men.

Bahá'u'lláh

... pervading all departments of life.... is the crass materialism, which lays excessive and ever-increasing emphasis on material well-being, forgetful of those things of the spirit on which alone a sure and stable foundation can be laid for human society. Shoghi Effendi

Say: Nature in its essence is the embodiment of My Name, the Maker, the Creator. Its manifestations are diversified by varying causes, and in this diversity there are signs for men of discernment. Nature is God's Will and is its expression in and through the contingent world. It is a dispensation of Providence ordained by the Ordainer,the All-Wise.

Bahá'u'lláh

LET YOUR AMBITION BE THE ACHIEVEMENTON EARTH OF A HEAVENLY CIVILIZATION!"

'Abdu'l-Baha