Our Common Humanity in the Information Age. Principles and Values for Development

CHAPTER III 
RESPECT FOR NATURE AND SUSTAINABLE 
DEVELOPMENT

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37 
OVERVIEW 
Aliye P. Celik, Senior Advisor, Global Alliance for ICT and Development
In 2000 when heads of states and government gathered at the UN Headquarters in New 
York and thought about the six fundamental values, essential to international relations in 
the twenty first century, one of these values was the “Respect for Nature”. Respect for 
nature recommends prudence in the management of all living species and natural 
resources in accordance with the principles of sustainable development to preserve the 
natural resources saying that “the current unsustainable patterns of production and 
consumption must be changed in the interest of our future welfare and that of our 
descendents”.
The Millennium Development goal no 7, that relates to this value, aims at ensuring 
environmental sustainability. In order to have a sustainable development the current 
patterns of resource consumption and use need to change. Land degradation, loss of 
animal species, climate change, desertification need to be stopped and fisheries and 
marine resources should not be over-exploited. 
The rapid urbanization is presenting profound challenges to development. In the world’s 
growing towns and cities located in developing countries, there is a need to alleviate 
poverty, provide decent housing, infrastructure, clean water and sanitation. Creating 
environmentally friendly cities, affordable, decent housing, clean, efficient transportation 
and safe sanitation is a big challenge.
Deforestation, loss of species and habitats, inefficient use of energy, excessive emissions 
of carbon monoxide, lack of safe drinking water, sanitation, unsanitary living conditions, 
increase of slum dwellers are all problems to be addressed.
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The papers in this chapter express the need to preserve natural resources, clean the air, 
provide sustainable development to preserve human species.
In his paper, “A New Paradigm for Human Transformation: Respect for Nature and Other 
Core Values in the 21
st
Century”, Sfeir-Younis states that the development debate is 

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38 | Our Common Humanity in the Information Age 
moving into the debate of values and why our values are not helping us achieve the 
MDGs. Elisabet Sahtouris, PhD, in her paper “An Evolution Biologist’s Perspective”, 
blames western science and technology for humanity’s loss of respect for nature and fe els
that we have paid a heavy price for the technology gains we have made.
In “Respect for Nature, An Architect’s Viewpoint”, Hillier views his field – architecture 
– as both part of the problem and the solution because there are still enormous buildings 
being built in ignorance, where how much energy that building will consume or what 
external challenges it might have to face is not taken into consideration. In “Sustainable 
Finance”, Julie Fox Gorte talks about the interest of the finance sector in sustainability.
Tensie Whelan of Rainforest Alliance in “Sustainability, One Farm at a Time”, notes that 
the market is responsible for many of the negative aspects of the current society as when 
people harm nature it is not because they are essentially bad but because there are 
pressures on them to do so, thus we need to address these pressures and change them.
Roberto Savio in “Nature and Globalization” discusses the paradigm of development, 
international cooperation, social justice, respect of law and values, versus the 
globalization related to markets which is not related to values. In “Respect for Nature and 
Sustainable Development, Deliberations of the Youth Think Tank on Our Common 
Humanity”, Deepen Shah asserts that the youth is ready and available for the work that 
needs to be done in environmental protection.