Washington, Oct 7: An eminent Sikh American represented the Sikh community at a multi-faith climate change event hosted at the Vatican by Pope Francis as part of his effort to rally support for major measures to preserve the ecology in the upcoming UN climate conference.
“The crisis of climate change is the shared concern of humanity. It would not spare anybody of its drastic impact based on one’s economic status, same is the true for nations. If one nation sinks, we all sink,” said Dr Rajwant Singh who represented the Sikh community at the event.
Leaders representing Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Jainism, Sikhism joined this initiative to build a strong momentum before the summit which is scheduled to take place in Glasgow, Scotland from October 31 to November 12.
Singh, president of EcoSikh, a global environmental NGO, also sang a hymn written by Guru Nanak Dev. The words of Gurbani “pavan guru pani pita, mata dharat maha (water is father, air is teacher, and earth is mother)” reverberated off the walls of the Vatican.
Singh added: “Just as we don’t dishonour our mother, father, and teacher – why would we dishonour these gifts from our creator?”
According to a press release, many participants appreciated the change EcoSikh is creating by generating awareness at the grassroots level and planting “sacred forests”. It has established 365 forests in India and other parts of the world.
“COP26 in Glasgow represents urgent summons to provide effective responses to the unprecedented ecological crisis and the crisis of values that we are presently experiencing, and in this way to offer concrete hope to future generations,” said Pope Francis at the event.
Alok Sharma spoke about the Hindu perspective of humans being part of nature while Satish Kumar from the UK represented the Jain viewpoint, said the release. (PTI)
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