Triglav Circle—Le Bourg, Ougny, 58110 France

An NGO in consultative status with ECOSOC, the Triglav Circle was established in the wake of the World Summit for Social Development held in Copenhagen in March 1995. The Circle focuses on the ethical and spiritual dimensions of development seen as a process requiring the use of different sources of knowledge and the design of integrated policy.
Written statement submitted to: The Office for Intergovernmental Support and Coordination for Sustainable Development of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs: For the: 2020 ECOSOC High Level Segment (HLS) for NGO’s in consultative status with ECOSOC on the “Accelerated action and transformative pathways: realizing the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development.
“The 2030 Agenda is our roadmap and its goals and targets are tools to get there.”, Secretary-General António Guterres
The focus of the Triglav Circle is on Goal 12, Target 12.8 “By 2030, ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature.”
This target raises the principal question: What information and awareness are essential to the realization of sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature?
• First it is necessary to consider how the world understands ‘nature.’
• Second it is necessary to consider the indicator 12. 8. 1: The extent to which [i] global citizen education and [ii] education for sustainable development [including climate change education] are mainstreamed in [a] national education policies [b] curricula [c] teacher education and [d] student assessment.
First : What is the nature the world is to harmonize with?
‘Nature’ is more difficult to define than ‘environment’ because it has different connotations depending on the level of human perception and the values assigned to it at each level. Fundamentally, as a word, ‘nature’ has been spoken since the 13th century. It originated in Old French as nature, referring ‘to being, and principle of life; and in Latin as ‘natura’ referring inter alia to the universe, and literally ‘birth,’ from ‘natus’ meaning ‘born.’ From the late 14c. the connotations of ‘creation, the universe;’ and ‘nature personified- Mother Nature’ were added. And from the 1660’s ‘nature’ also refers to the “material world beyond human civilization or society.”1 In common parlance today, ‘nature’ can have both physical and metaphysical connotations, terms whose meanings are often intertwined. For example nature has been described as a composite of visible and invisible parts of an infinite organism. Tangibly, nature is embodied in trees, rivers and other
1https://www.etymonline.com/word/nature

visible natural entities; it is defined as embracing all living and non-living things—humankind included; nature includes the mysterious processes whereby the visible world comes into existence; or this
natural world as it exists with or without human civilization; and it may be considered the sum of all the phenomena of the universe. Nature is Life, the Creator, even God.
Discourse on what it means to be ‘in harmony with nature’ contrasts its instrumental value as resources for human use and consumption, with its extrinsic value as a phenomenon of beauty perceived in landscapes and works of art to be preserved and sequestered, or its intrinsic value, which is ‘in and of’ its own substance—independent of human appreciation. Significantly, its intrinsic value, commonly revealed in philosophical thinking, cannot be ignored because there are many unknown, even unknowable phenomena of life and the universe veiled in its transcendent or metaphysical dimensions that have relevance for continued human existence. These have been recognized by some of world’s most eminent thinkers down through the ages.
Laws governing the universe are substance to the intrinsic value of nature. Nature operates imperceptibly as it inspires sensitive observers to question their thoughts and ideas born while alone with nature; or to receive and appreciate intuitions communicated by Nature’s Consciousness. The forces of Nature, perceived for example by the author in his writing of the Hidden Life of Trees and other authors writing deep works on nature, may awaken receptive readers’ imagination, poetic inspiration, and intuitions about unseen but existent ideas. The music of the spheres, as expressed in more than a thousand different ways in bird songs, provokes human thinking to transcend physical impressions and to find peace, serenity and nourishment for the soul. Many grand symphonies of the late 18th, 19th and 20th centuries have been inspired by enchanting sounds emitted by living and non living phenomena of Nature. Great works of art communicate their deep understanding of Nature communicated in their imitations of Life. The intrinsic values of nature perceived and introduced into the political discourse on problems confronting contemporary societies—affluent or destitute—enrich policy perspectives with reflections on thoughts evoked by the Heart and its Love of the nature that feeds and shelters humanity.
Second: What will be the content of Global citizenship education for development in harmony with Nature?
If education is limited to the known mysteries of the physical universe and taught within the confines of scientism and naturalism it is unlikely to bring about any semblance of efforts to harmonize with nature even on the most obvious material connotations of Nature. Science according to Einstein is a refinement of everyday human thinking always subject to change and endless haggling over so called facts. Not to deepen understanding with such insights of reality fed by Nature and the universe, is to “wrestle in the dark with an unknown opponent.” All the more so because as physicist Brian Greene notes: “assessing life through everyday experience is like gazing at a Van Gogh masterpiece through a coke bottle.”2
Sadly this is just what the international community has been doing—assessing life through the green glass of a coke bottle. Since the 1960’s “environment politics” dominates the political discourse concerning nature. From the first World Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in
2 Brian Greene, The Fabric of the Cosmos, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004)5.

1972 to the latest World Conference Environment and Development, Rio+20, the term “Nature” rarely appears in world reports and texts of international declarations and national resolutions.
And in the SDG’s the word Nature appears once as the object of the catch phrase “in harmony with nature.” It is the word environment which displaced nature in the 1960’s that echoes in debates elaborating strategies for limiting damage to the earth while promoting industrialization and globalization as sustainable development. In national and international political forums, nature, represented as the environment, is demystified, disenchanted, and disaggregated. Its parts are reified in scientific terminology include biodiversity, biosphere, climate change, habitat, raw materials, pollution sinks, and ecology.
Sensitivity to the intrinsic values of nature’s creations inform humanity that only a holistic approach to the problems of the environment can restore harmony with nature. Only very limited understanding of natural phenomena, [whether animals, plants, or other living organisms or whether elements of the biosphere, — the atmosphere, the land or the sea], can be gained by reducing the study of nature to an examination of individual fragmented parts.
Thus a number of people share the strong belief that ‘Nature’ needs to reappear seriously in the discourse on earth politics. The tragic Covid19 crisis as well as diseases affecting forests, causing the disappearance of birds, and many insects, honey bees etc. are desperate calls for a deeper knowledge and understanding of Nature, and most importantly for the Love and respect of it.
The large cast of Nature’s advocates include philosophers, poets, artists, musicians in addition to natural scientists and a host of other thinkers. While no one would doubt the utility even necessity for analysis of disaggregated elements of nature to find solutions to discernable and discrete problems [even grand problems like climate change], it is important that educators and concerned citizens not lose sight of Nature as a holistic unity—the life force — foundational to this world. Intrinsic webs of life, woven together constituting Nature, are infinitely greater than the sum of their parts. For this reason a holistic approach must be taken in the development of plans and policies for sustainable development that give at least some meaningful degree of heed to understanding the ‘nature of nature’ and its different values. Failure to take into account this complexity can doom the best intended measures for overcoming environmental crises.
‘Nature’s proponents would shed the light of science, political philosophy, history, the arts and literature, and spirituality on the decision-making process. This other-sourced knowledge expands horizons of thinking, interjects values, stimulates creativity, appreciates the value of intuition, encourages imagination, and offers the poetic inspiration that moves hearts and minds to embrace Nature’s intrinsic values as fundamental to life. This direction of education and training is essential should sustainable development be truly in harmony with nature, as opposed to a mere balancing of natural resources with concrete carrying capacities of the earth to provide them.
Taking the example of the very lucid political economist and social critic, at the end of the 20th century, John Kenneth Galbraith, pondering the present situation and the notion of over-development, stressed the need for improving the arts of Living encompassing stimulation of the intellect, artistic creativity, meditative thought and character building. Although biologists, physicists, chemists have gained significant insights from deep knowledge of “proven” physical realities, many scientists are unable to predict nature’s behavior with full confidence and

assuredness. The humility that comes from recognizing that humankind’s world’s is but a glimmer of reality, as even Einstein implied, gives renewed validity to the importance of wider acquaintance with the universe for society’s well-being and humankind’s flourishing in the art of living. Even glimpses of reality, the awe they inspire and the respect they generate are better than ignorance for the continuity of life on the planet and should underpin efforts for living in conformity with nature.
Written and submitted by Barbara Sundberg Baudot, Coordinator/President of the Circle, April 2020.
Comments should be addressed to baudotjacques@gmail.com