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Spiritual leader says BP spill symbolizes humanity’s failure to respect the planet
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Dave Courchene
WINNIPEG--The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico symbolizes humanity’s failure to respect the planet, an Anishnabe spiritual leader says.
Dave Courchene, founder of the Turtle Lodge on Manitoba’s Sagkeeng First Nation, gave the opening address Monday morning at the G8 World Religions Summit at the University of Winnipeg.
"What we are presently witnessing in the Gulf of Mexico is truly tragic," Courchene said. "Nature has a way of showing us the brutality that can be found in man. We cannot continue to treat the Earth with disrespect."
Courchene warned that the greed reflected in our societies and economic structures has had detrimental impacts on the Earth, animals and people.
"Together we must find a way to live in this world that reflects love and respect for all life," he said.
"We must find a way to connect with spirit that can show us, teach us, inspire us, and guide each of us in how we should walk on the Earth."
The summit, attended by a reported 250 people, including 100 world religious leaders, is being held through Wednesday.
Eighty-four of those 250 are official delegates who will discuss and write a final statement to be presented to the forthcoming G8/G20 meetings in Toronto.
The religious summit’s goals include eliminating extreme poverty and hunger, establishing universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, combating HIV/AIDs and malaria, ensuring environmental sustainability and creating a global partnership for development.
Since 2005, religious leaders have met in the host country (but not always host city) of the G8 political summit to urge politicians to implement the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals, agreed to by 192 member states and to be achieved by 2015.
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