COP 18 Workshop Calls for Value-Based Approach

Doha, November 28 (QNA) Participants at the Religious Values and Their Effect on Facing Climate Change at Dry Lands workshop asserted the importance of focusing on the cultural commons as an approach to dialogue, after it was hampered by country-specific dynamics and competition. Participants at the workshop, which took place late Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 18) and the 8th meeting of the Kyoto Protocol Parties (CMP 8) currently in progress in Doha, focused specifically on the importance of religious values which promote cooperation. The workshop showcased a film telling the story of a Muslim African tribe dispersed at many parts of a continent. The conclusion evoked by the film revolved around aboriginal people, their influence, and shaping factors. Local value systems could provide invaluable solutions to the climate change problem, the workshop has shown. In a statement distributed by Issa Hassan al-Sharqi from Bahrain s Society for Cultural Renewal, the so-called Destructive System of Extravagance was blamed for a great part of the world’s current suffering. Globalization has caused consumerism, being the natural result of production, as it has become common to tell people to "consume for a good economy", al-Sharqi said. Without hard work and dedication, the world will enter into a whirlwind of natural disasters, he added. Before globalization, values were more based on production and saving, now changes are quick and piles of trash as well as recurrent sales prevail, he posited. Extravagance eventually leads to over-spending, which has polluted the environment threatening modern civilization altogether, leading the world to call for sustainable development, al-Sharqi suggested. For a significant transition, a deep cultural transformation needs to take place, this is in addition to greater emotional control, he added. In religion, there is a concept on Allah the Almighty or God providing nature for humans, but in the modern day world, the trend is to fight nature, he said. The correct approach needs to be based on values and cooperation, al-Sharqi concluded. (QNA)