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 they
know the answers to these questions they need to be helped to
gradually apply these answers to everyday behavior. It is to the
solution 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 CHANGE
KIRIBATI
MALDIVE ISLANDS
MARSHALL ISLANDS
TUVALU
TERRITORY OF TOKELAU
Ajeltake, Majuro Atoll -1978
 Marshall Islands from Google Earth
Population - 64,000 Approximately - 1,225 Islands 29 Atolls 5 Single Coral Islands

69.84 sq. miles of Land

LAE ATOLL
17 ISLANDS

TOTAL LAND =.56 sq.mi

LAGOON = 6.33 sq.mi.

POPULATION-250-300
Lae Atoll
Majuro Atoll - Government Center
Majuro Atoll
Approximately - Government
26,000 people Center
64Approximately
Islands 27,000 people
64 Islands
Lagoon - 113 sq. miles
Lagoon
Total - Area
Land 113 sq. milessq. miles
- 3.54
Total Land Area - 3.54 sq. miles
Ebeye Island, Kwajalein Atoll
80 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?
Major Effects of Climate Change

Sea Level Rise

Destruction of Coral Reefs
Sea Water Contamination of Fresh Water Lens
Increase in Typhoon Activity and Intensity
More Frequent & Severe El Nino Activity
Increased Temperature of both Air and Water
Seasonal Rain Pattern Changes
Erosion - Lagoon Side Majuro Atoll
 Average Elevation
7 ft.above sea
level for the
entire country.

Usually land
is only 1-2
feet above
high tide
sea water
level.
 Environmental Refugees
Geneva Convention of 1951 on the
Status of refugees gives no protection
or status to the new refugee problems
caused by the environmental crisis.
If 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 Environmental
Refugees: “Policies that
cause harm to people but
are pursued in full
knowledge of their
damaging consequences
should be classed as
environmental persecution.”
Will another country accept physically stateless people?
Ethical and Moral Implications
Acceptance of the
oneness of mankind
is the first
fundamental
prerequisite 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
 EQUITY
THE 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 the
environment, 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 ACHIEVEMENT
ON EARTH OF A HEAVENLY CIVILIZATION!"
'Abdu'l-Baha