The U.S. Bahá'í UN Office encourages people to  “Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy,” the theme of World Environment Day June 5.


The UN Environment Program website provides information on 12 Steps to Help You Kick Your CO2 Habit -- steps that can help individuals, organizations, businesses and governments reduce their negative effect on the environment by reducing their  "carbon footprint."

The U.S. Bahá'í UN Office, a non-government organization (NGO) that represents the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States at the UN, encourages individuals and groups wishing to participate in World Environment Day 2008 to visit the website and register their own activities.

Respect for the environment is engrained in the Bahá'í teachings. Bahá'u'lláh, the Founder of the Faith, established that “Nature in its essence is the embodiment of My Name, the Maker, the Creator.” He also said, “Nature is God’s Will and is its expression in and through the contingent world.”

In 1933, Shoghi Effendi, leader of the Bahá'í Faith from 1921 to 1957, wrote that “we cannot segregate the human heart from the environment outside us and say that once one of these is reformed everything will be improved. Man is organic with the world. His inner life moulds the environment and is itself also deeply affected by it.”

World Environment Day began in 1972 with the establishment of UNEP.

• For more on World Environment Day 2008, visit http://unep.org/wed/2008/english/.
• For more on U.S. Bahá'í initiatives on education for sustainable development see www.bahai.us/sustainable-development
• To read the Bahá'í International Community statement, “Conservation and Sustainable Development in the Bahá'í Faith,” visit  http://www.bic-un.bahai.org/95-0406.htm.
• For more on the U.S. Bahá'í U.N. Office, visit http://www.usbnc.org/dept/un.asp (requires login).