Islamic Horizons November/December 2021

ENVIRONMENT

Making Hijrah Toward Climate Justice It’s time to move beyond individual efforts BY ISNA GREEN INITIATIVE TEAM

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s a human society, we are currently consuming more than 1.5 times of Earth’s natural resources globally. In short, we are using up our natural resources faster than nature can regenerate them. Global Footprint Network’s Ecological Footprint Calculator (https:// www.footprintnetwork.org/resources/footprint-calculator/), introduced online in 2007 and refreshed in 2017, currently draws almost 4 million users per year. It calculates Earth Shoot Day, the date during any given year when humanity’s use of natural resources and services exceeded Earth’s ability to regenerate them. Humanity’s footprint first exceeded Earth’s biocapacity in the early 1970s and has done so every year thereafter. By 2019, the annual overshoot had accrued into an ecological debt that exceeded 17 years of Earth’s total productivity. This year’s overshoot day was July 29. So, due to our continued gobbling up the natural resources at an unsustainable rate, we’ve been living in ecological debt since that date. Americans, who make up just 5% of the world’s population, consume 25% of its resources. In the last decade, all of us have noticed the unprecedented increase in the number and frequency of heatwaves, storms, wildfires, droughts, tornadoes and hurricanes — all of which are directly related to our oceans rising due to the increase of global temperatures. Higher temperatures result in faster evaporation, and more water vapor results in more frequent and more torrential storms. The increasing temperatures are exactly why we need to make some serious changes now. It’s no exaggeration to say that the changes you make right now are necessary to safeguard the quality of life for future generations and, hopefully, to save this beautiful green planet that we call home. This year’s Islamic New Year (Aug. 9) coincided with the release of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC; htp://www.ipcc.ch) report, which lays out in stark terms the disastrous environmental impacts on the planet’s natural systems and worsening extreme weather events worldwide. The news was 42    ISLAMIC HORIZONS  NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

staggering — a code red for humanity (http://news. un.org/en/story/2021/08/1097362). Corporations, governments, as well as cultural and religious forces aren’t doing enough, and, in many places, are actually making things worse. While the Islamic New Year honors Prophet Muhammad’s (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) migration from Makka to Madina, it’s also considered a time for prayer and reflecting on the sacrifices that led to Islam’s beginning. But it’s far more than just that, for many Muslims view it as a constant process, mentality, philosophy and code of life — a constant activity designed to help us avoid that which is wrong and do what is right, even a state of mind. Given this reality, how can our global community put this wisdom into practice by caring about the ongoing devastation of our planet? Muslims around the world are united by a fundamental belief that all people, living things and Earth are sacred. The Prophet observed: “All of Earth is a mosque. God has created the universe in all its splendor, and our duty as human beings is to be stewards who cultivate the greater good for all people and all His creations.” Earth, as the Prophet taught, is our umm (mother), and we must respect, care for and protect her as we do our own birth mothers, for he said: “Take care of the earth for she is your mother. No one does good or evil on her except that she will