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ECOLOGY AND ECONOMICS
[Speech at the Parliamentary Earth Summit on June 7th, 1992, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.]
Acute awareness of ecological crisis provides humanity with a challenge and an opportunity to bring about a change in the value system and orient itself to global thinking. Global survival depends on regarding the world as one with an integrated vision.
At the Parliamentary Earth Summit, we have in the last two days heard very powerful spiritual voices and profound observations of the leading Parliamentarians of the world. The other voices - the theme of today's deliberations – are equally important. They need to be heard. They need to integrate.
In this wide and varied world, there would always be a diversity of views, but we cannot and should not divide them into watertight compartments. We must emphasize what unites us more than what may seem to divide us.
In each sector of economic, social, political or cultural activity, humans have a tremendous responsibility to recognize the dangers inherent in the drift towards ecological decay and to act swiftly to remedy it. Human thinking has to become more outward looking and more comprehensive. We cannot remain self-centered and selfish. Let us integrate all the voices -the voices of spiritual masters, the voices of political leaders, the voices of the industrialists and businesspersons, the voices of artists, the voices of the media, the voice of the women, and the voices of the children and the voice of the indigenous and tribal people. Let a single stream emerge from the confluence of these different streams and help us develop in our
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