宗博季刊第115期

國際交流 23 On April 22nd, 2020, in celebration of Earth Day, the Panchamama Alliance organized “Voices of the Earth,” an online gathering of some of the great thinkers of our time to look at how we might come out of the Corona pandemic ready to regenerate our planet and our global social institutions. Named after Panchamama, the Earth goddess revered by the indigenous people of the Andes, the Alliance was created by Lynne and Bill Twist in 1985 in a partnership with the Achuar people from the Ecuardorian rainforest. Since 1997, the Alliance has worked with Indigenous people of the rainforest to defend their rights and homeland. Lynne Twist is a board member of the Fetzer Institute, which has supported Interfaith programs of MWR and GFLP in the past. Here are some highlights of the Earth Summit that featured 22 speakers, as well as musical presentations throughout the day. The video of the entire summit can be found via the link https://landing.pachamama.org/earth- day. In his introductory words, Arkan Lushwala, a Peruvian indigenous leader, encouraged listeners not to lose heart in the midst of the environmental, and now the Corona Crisis. We now have the opportunity to slow down, to go deep inside and to synchronize our rhythm with the rhythm of the Earth, to receive the healing power of the Earth. Paul Hawken is a renowned environmentalist, author, and entrepreneur, whose 1993 book The Ecology of Commerce was voted the No. 1 textbook on ecology and business in US business schools. His 2017 book Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming is a New York Times Bestseller. Paul spoke about how the Corona crisis lays bare the frenzy of society as well as its injustice in not providing adequate health and social services to all. Now is the time to regenerate the social systems and social justice in an integrative way. Hawken emphasized how the crisis is bringing out the best in many of us. Jojo Mehta, Co-Founder and director of the campaign “Stop Ecocide,” convincingly explained the urgency of making ecocide an international crime, since there is no baseline rule at the International court that forbids serious damage to nature. CEOs of the most destructive industries will not want to be seen on the same level as war criminals. Such a law will give courts and police the power of prosecuting polluting industries and actors. It will also change our deeply entrenched mind-set of separation between humans and the natural world, and help us to discover and act on the truth that we are all part of an interconnected wider web of life. Charles Eisenstein, renowned author of such books as Sacred Economics, The More Beautiful World our Hearts know is Possible, and Climate: A New Story, reminded us that the world we long for, especially now in this time of social distancing, is that world of interconnectedness with the Sacred, the natural world and with each other. As long as our civilization is based on our delusion of separateness, we will not be able to overcome our basic challenges and multiple crises. All speakers of the Forum see this time of crisis as wake-up call and encourage us to go deep within ourselves, to return to the source of clarity and reflection, to bear the pain of isolation and loss of so many lives, to reevaluate the priorities we have to set for our own lives, and unleash the power of the love and compassion, to heal the Earth and each other, so that the “more beautiful world our hearts know is possible” can become a reality.