What do we owe the Earth? Leviticus 25: 23-24 makes clear that the gift of life on his planet comes with obligations: “Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land.”

The idea is universal and is expressed in every major tradition:

In the Tao Te Ching, chapter 48: “”Mastery of the world is achieved by letting things take their natural course. If you interfere with the way of Nature, you can never master the world.”

The Quran, chapter 30, verse 41: “Corruption has appeared throughout the land and sea by [reason of] what the hands of people have earned so He may let them taste part of [the consequence of] what they have done that perhaps they will return [to righteousness]”

Hinduism’s Vedic hymn, the Yajurveda verse 36:17, a universal prayer for peace urges, “Let there be peace in the heavens, the Earth, the atmosphere, the water, the herbs, the vegetation, among the divine beings and in Brahman, the absolute reality. Let everything be at peace and in peace.”

Buddhist leader the Dalai Lama, in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, exhorted people to recognize that, “Because we all share this small planet Earth, we have to learn to live in harmony and peace with each other and with nature.”

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