Abstract

Climate change demands a reassessment of global development models that have created a planet in environmental peril. Globalization has left a toxic footprint demanding a new paradigm to address poverty and basic hygiene. Fairness, as a definition of global justice, presupposes environmental sustainability for all living systems. The rights of future generations to clean water, healthy food, and housing, if compromised by the present generation, constitutes an infringement of basic human rights. Human conduct in the pursuit of any type of sustainability only becomes possible when derived from the intrinsic rationality of the universe as a whole and not in opposition to it. What we are suggesting here is a new model to re-develop human civilization based upon the guiding principles of natural law. Time is of the essence. Estimates vary significantly, but climate change refugees are expected to increase substantially in this century which will put considerable pressure on developed nations like the United States to take them in. Where the pulpits and the politicians have fostered the myth of economic development versus environmental protection, the new paradigm will require them to look deeper into their beliefs to find ways to heal the wounds of a beautiful planet and build a new future for human civilization based upon natural law.