210 Why shouldwe be concerned?
held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992; indeed, they form the background
of many statements emanating from the United Nations or from official
national sources. We are not short of statements of ideals. What tend to
be lacking are the capability and resolve to carry them out. Sir Crispin
Tickell, a British diplomat who has lectured widely on the policy impli-
cations of climate change, has commented ‘Mostly we know what to do
but we lack the will to do it’.^41
Many recognise this lack of will to act as a ‘spiritual’ problem (using
the word spiritual in a general sense), meaning that we are too obsessed
with the ‘material’ and the immediate and fail to act according to gen-
erally accepted values and ideals particularly if it means some cost to
ourselves or if it is concerned with the future rather than with the present.
We are only too aware of the strong temptations we experience at both
the personal andthe national levels to use the world’s resources to grat-
ify our selfishness and greed. Because of this, it has been proposed that
at the basis of stewardship should be a principle extending what has
traditionally been considered wrong – or in religious parlance as sin –
to include unwarranted pollution of the environment or lack of care
for it.^42
Those with religious belief tend to emphasise the importance of
coupling together the relationship of humans to the environment to the
relationship of humans to God.^43 It is here, religious believers would
argue, that a solution for the problem of ‘lack of will’ can be found.
That religious belief can provide an important driving force for action
is often also recognised by those who look elsewhere than religion for a
solution.
One of the main messages of this chapter is that action addressing
environmental problems depends not only on knowledge about them
but on the values we place on the environment and our attitudes to-
wards it. In the chapter I have suggested that assessments of envi-
ronmental value and appropriate attitudes can be developed from the
following:The perspectives of balance, interdependence and unity in the natural
world generated by the underlying science.
A recognition – some would argue suggested by the science – that
humans have a special place in the universe, which in turn implies that
humans have special responsibilities with respect to the natural world.
A recognition that to damage the environment or to fail to care for it
is to do wrong.
An interpretation of human responsibility in terms of stewardship of
the Earth based on ‘shared’ values generally recognised by different