Dear Co-workers,
The Cycle of Conferences is placing a focus, beginning today, on the UN Biodiversity Conference part 1, online, 11-15 October 2021. This gathering is important preparation for the second part, scheduled to take place in Kunming, China, 25 April-8 May 2022. Both parts aim to reach agreement on a post-2020 global biodiversity framework, which is intended to be of comparable importance to the Paris agreement on climate change.
The Center for Biodiversity and Conservation reports that “the term biodiversity (from “biological diversity”)” refers to the variety of life on Earth at all its levels, from genes to ecosystems, and can encompass the evolutionary, ecological, and cultural processes that sustain life. Biodiversity includes not only species we consider rare, threatened, or endangered but also every living thing—from humans to organisms we know little about, such as microbes, fungi, and invertebrates.” Thus the theme of humanity’s relations with and responsibility for biodiversity on the planet directs our attention to every element of right human relations and to the principle of synthesis at the core of the interplay between unity and diversity.
It seems that humanity struggles with the thought that there can be more than one ‘right’ answer to how one should live in right relations to others and to the natural world. The urge to standardise and make uniform and homogenous is a problem of our time. Yet the universe stubbornly continues to generate an astonishing variety of life forms and relationships. Perhaps it is time for humanity to humbly accept that there is both reason and value in this fertile diversity, and to enter into calmer and more respectful dialogue with the other kingdoms of nature. Ideas such as ‘biomimicry’ and ‘regenerative culture’ point in the direction of learning to live within our means, and in harmony with our fellow species. This conference represents an important opportunity to move this form of thinking further into the mainstream of consciousness and into the norms of national and international behaviour.
Our lighted support of the Biodiversity Conference begins now, and continues until the 15th of October.
Headquarters Group
Cycle of Conferences
