Environmental Stewardship: A Synthetic Narrative of Western and Islamic Philosophies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64984/ijcd.1.1.2024.04Keywords:
Stewardship, Environmental ethics, Ecological equilibrium, Future generations, Divine AccountabilityAbstract
Environmental ethic to safeguard environment for future generations is the primordial challenge and a much needed debate faced by humanity today. Generation alpha are born with environmental challenges such as: global warming, scarcity of resources, food chain disruptions and loss of biodiversity etc. It has been proven time and again that the current generation has to reserve resources and conserve environment for generations yet to come. This task is undertaken by both ethics and religion as well. A common debate among environmentalists is regarding environmental stewardship, i.e. whether human beings are stewards (or trustees) on this planet to conserve and nurture its resources. In this paper, we will tend to seek the answer from both Western and Islamic perspectives. The first two sections will focus on this. The aim of this paper is to explore what Islamic and western morality has to say about the ecosystem; and how it enables us to restore the ecological balance on Earth. The last section would analyze and compare both perspectives in the light of plausibility of implementation; it would also preview future prospect for protecting our environment.
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