Leaves 27 (11) - November 2025

        Newsletter of the
         INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT FORUM
         Volume 27, Number 11 --- 15 November 2025

Website: iefworld.org
Article submission: newsletter@iefworld.org Deadline next issue 10 December 2025
Secretariat Email: ief@iefworld.org Christine Muller General Secretary 
Postal address: 12B Chemin de Maisonneuve, CH-1219 Chatelaine, Geneva, Switzerland
Download the easier to read pdf version

From the Editor, Request for information for upcoming newsletters

This newsletter is an opportunity for IEF members to share their experiences, activities, and  initiatives that are taking place at the community level on environment, climate change  and sustainability. All members are welcome to contribute information about related  activities, upcoming conferences, news from like-minded organizations, recommended  websites, book reviews, etc. Please send information to newsletter@iefworld.org.

Please share the Leaves newsletter and IEF membership  information with family, friends and associates, and encourage interested persons to consider  becoming a member of the IEF.

Members Corner

IEF General Assembly 29 November 2025

IEF members and associates are warmly invited to attend and participate in the 29th IEF General Assembly which will be held on Saturday, 29 November, 2025. 

Your participation in the General Assembly is vital for the flourishing of the International Environment Forum! The IEF Board is eager to listen to your feedback about this past year’s activities, such as the in-person IEF conference, the monthly newsletter Leaves, the IEF website https://iefworld.org/, the online Climate Change course, webinars, etc. and welcomes your ideas and suggestions for the coming year. 

The General Assembly will be held online twice so that members and associates from all time zones can attend. You will find the times for both meetings in different time zones as well as the Zoom link in the email sent to you on 8 November. We hope that many of you will be able to attend!

IEF Annual Report

What is the IEF actually doing? What activities was IEF engaged in this past year? You can read all about it in the IEF 29th Annual Report that summarises the events and activities from 6 October 2024 to 29 November 2025 between two annual General Assemblies: https://iefworld.org/report2025 

IEF Election of Governing Board

IEF Members only will participate in the election of the IEF Board. Members, watch out for an email with the election call this weekend. You will vote for 7 IEF members to serve on the Board. Last day of voting will be 27 November so that our tellers will have enough time to count the votes before the IEF General Assembly on 29 November. 

We hope that we will have a strong turnout for the Board election this year! 

The IEF warmly thanks the tellers for their service: Michael Richards, Diana Cartwright, and Carmel Momen.

Passing of Peter Adriance 1947 - 2025

The International Environment Forum has lost one of its founding members and key supporters for many years, Peter Adriance. Peter, while Representative for Sustainable Development at the U.S. Bahá’í Office of Public Affairs, was a pillar of IEF in its early years, serving on the Governing Board, helping to organise its conferences, and contributing substantively to its work. He was an inspiration for many of us. 

Peter McLeod Adriance was 78 when he passed away in Montreal, Canada, on 7 November 2025, after a long illness. Born on 28 September 1947 in Albany, New York, he devoted his life to service, faith, and the pursuit of a more just and sustainable world. You can read a brief eulogy on the IEF website here: https://iefworld.org/Adriance2025 

More IEF Members Contributions to the Pre-Cop30 Dialogues, the Global Ethical Stocktake

Since last month’s issue of LEAVES, more reports of dialogues initiated by IEF members have been posted on the IEF website: 
• Two sessions of the 2025 G20 Interfaith Forum in Cape Town, South Africa, 10-14 August 2025, considered the Global Ethical Stocktake. 
• The Bahá'í Academy in Panchgani, India, organised A Collective Reflection On How to Build a Fairer and Safer Future for All. 
• Rhode Island Interfaith Power and Light held a dialogue at Brown University, in Providence RI, USA.

Read more about the Ethical Stocktake dialogues here: https://iefworld.org/GlobalEthicalStocktake 

Public Discourse at BBC Sunday Morning Live

Monica Maghami was invited to join BBC 1 on hashtag#SundayMorningLive on 2 November, speaking as an international regulatory lawyer in hashtag#sustainability, bridging the divide between the Global North and Global South, on behalf of the UK Baha’i Office of Public Affairs. She was part of a great panel that brought narratives together with the optimistic tv presenter Sean Fletcher and panelists Matthew Phillips, Dase Aghaji, and Edward Rennie.

Monica emphasised that at this pivotal moment in human history, prioritisation, impact-driven action, and principled collaboration are more essential than ever. We need a shared vision that empowers institutions, communities, and individuals to work collectively, selflessly, and purposefully for the common good. You can watch her 2-min. segment here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7391390171340120064/ 

Fourth Annual Ottawa Environment Fair

The Fourth Annual Ottawa Environment Fair occurred on the cool, crisp day of October 25th, 2025.

While overall attendance was modest this year at around 50 people, meaningful conversations were abundant and rich with opportunities to share common spiritual values in the context of an effective approach to addressing the overarching challenge to humanity manifested in the climate crisis.

This year’s Fair enhanced and well reflected the ongoing development of intimacy between the Baha’i community and that of diverse like-hearted organizations and individual leaders in the larger environmental advocacy community.

For the Ottawa Environment Forum, (Formally the Ottawa Cluster Environment Group) this event remains a core offering of our group as we transition to encouraging the application of spiritual values in addressing the climate crisis in multiple areas and neighborhoods around the vast urban, suburban, and rural space that constitutes the city of Ottawa.

Those interested in learning more or in establishing a spiritually inspired, multifaith environment group in their own community are invited to contact us at email: info@OttawaEnvironment.ca or visit www.OttawaEnvironment.ca 

The following organizations participated in the event: Community Action for Environmental Sustainability (CAFES), Rotary Ottawa South, Veg Ottawa, Ecology Ottawa, Plant Based Treaty, Gentle Ways for Our Planet, Greening Sacred Spaces, Ottawa Environment Forum

Humans on Earth – a Ballad of Our Time

On 29 October, the University of Rhode Island Symphony Orchestra performed the world premiere of the piece Humans on Earth - A Ballad of our Time, composed by IEF General Secretary Christine Muller.

Humans on Earth - a Ballad of Our Time tells the story of humanity’s destruction of nature with climate change and the loss of biodiversity, and it deplores the suffering of many people because of environmental problems and injustice. However, - the story goes - it does not have to be this way. A higher consciousness of the interconnectedness of all things can help us build a better world. The composition ends joyfully with the words: We are one. The Earth is but one country and mankind its citizens.

You can compare the musical structure with a quilt consisting of small patches or contrasting musical sections. The beginning reminds us briefly of nature with waterfalls, cuckoo and chickadee sounds.

Later segments describe sea-level rise, flooding and the vanishing of insects. Once the music completely leaves the tonal system to describe the unraveling of natural systems and of social order.

All the musical themes come together towards the end when the soprano sings: The welfare of any segment of society is intricately bound up with the welfare of the whole.

The concert livestream was recorded and is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r50k-yLIQR0 
The 11 min. piece starts at 1:06:10.
For more information, go here.

Women and Climate Change Resilience

On 17 October 2025, IEF President gave a talk at an all day seminar at the Palais des Nations during Geneva Peace Week, organised by Widows Rights International on Widows and peace: The role of war widows in striving for peace.

The climate catastrophe is already happening everywhere. We are at war with our planet and the Earth system, creating a new kind of war widows and vulnerability in a time of rapid change and social disintegration. But unlike refugees fleeing war or persecution, climate displaced persons have no legal status or recognition. The recent International Court of Justice advisory opinion on climate responsibility has called for this legal gap to be addressed.

Widows and single women with children are among the most vulnerable groups to the multiple impacts of climate change, both in urban and rural areas. The poor have limited resources, face systemic barriers, and lack access to sustainable options. Rising food prices are often the result of climate change, making it harder to meet their family's needs. Whether attempting to feed their families with smallholder agriculture, or artisanal crafts or trading, they live a precarious existence. Excessive heat, extreme weather events that may alternate long periods of drought, and heavy rainfall with flooding and mudslides, can ruin crops. An Indian NGO recently reported that a successful project for 20 years to help poor rural women support themselves with sustainable agriculture was recently wiped out overnight by unusual heavy rainfall and massive flooding.

Makeshift lodgings are easily destroyed by cyclones, floods and strong winds. Such vulnerable women can easily become climate displaced persons. If you thought there were problems now with rejection of migrants and refugees, imagine the much greater flow of desperate people as heat and drought make large areas uninhabitable and sea levels rise. A report to the UN Security Council estimated that 900 million people will lose their homes permanently from rising sea levels. Some island nations will disappear completely. Tuvalu recently saw the coral reefs that built their atoll nation decimated by an excessively hot ocean. Imagine what it would be like to lose not only your home but your country and culture permanently to the rising sea. In Africa, conflict, which may be aggravated by climate change impacts, is often a cause of food insecurity and displacement.

Poverty and environmental degradation are intimately connected. The poor seldom have either the knowledge or the time for environmental restoration or more regenerative agriculture. With global warming, invasive species and disease-carrying insects spread to new areas, threatening traditional practices and family wellbeing. The urban poor often live in highly polluted areas with few waste disposal options, with major impacts on their health, especially of women and children.

On the other hand, women are more likely than men to adopt more environmentally friendly behaviours when given the opportunity, so there is potential through training to help them to cope more effectively. In a poor remote Indian village with increasing drought, the villagers terraced their sloping farmland, with an upside trench to hold rainwater and recharge groundwater, and trees on the outer edge to control erosion and provide a windbreak.

Where there is community solidarity, the burden of supporting single women and their children can be shared within the community. The Bahá'í process for community education for children, pre-adolescents, youth and adults based on spiritual principles builds cooperation and solidarity. In particular, after devastation in conflict, when the proportion of war widows may be high, old barriers may drop, and close collaboration among the survivors may be the key to effective reconstruction, while adapting to climate change and restoring resilience.

Family-led environmental initiatives foster belonging

The Baha’i World News published a comprehensive report with beautiful pictures about this wonderful initiative here: https://news.bahai.org/story/1828/australia-family-led-environmental-initiatives-foster-belonging 

The Australian Faith Ecology Network posted the following shorter article about this event in their November Newsletter:

Reflecting on the Family

By Dallas Edwards

A group of families from Sydney’s Northern Beaches have come together for a two-day retreat at the Sydney Baha’i House of Worship to explore how families are fundamental building blocks towards peace.

This retreat embraced families from diverse backgrounds and focused on what our ‘family’ can look like, and how that extends to our community and the natural world. The camp also provided the community with the opportunity to team up with like-minded organisations and further the community-building process.

Collaborating with Bush to Bowl – a First Nations organisation focusing on connecting the Northern Beaches with Indigenous culture – the program featured a smoking ceremony as well as a nature walk through the Temple grounds, and artistic expression with a shared mural. Families learned about native plants, bush foods, and the deep Cultural knowledge that surrounds them.

In all its community-building efforts, the Baha’i community strives to understand and consult with local community members, which pairs also with FEN’s principle of ‘Listen to and Learn Wisdom from the Elders’ found in the the ‘Ten ways to care for biodiversity’ framework.

This camp was one way in which the Northern Beaches community could build on their regular Baha’i moral and spiritual educational programs unfolding on the Temple grounds, and in their efforts towards creating a vibrant and peaceful neighbourhood.

Source: From the November Newsletter of the Australian Faith Ecology Network

A Planet on the Brink
The 2025 state of the climate report

The Scientists Warning team has published their 2025 State of the Climate report in Bioscience on 29 October 2025. William J. Ripple, Christopher Wolf, Michael E. Mann, Johan Rockström and their co-authors are alarming in their observations and conclusions, of which excerpts follow.

"We are hurtling toward climate chaos. The planet's vital signs are flashing red. The consequences of human-driven alterations of the climate are no longer future threats but are here now. This unfolding emergency stems from failed foresight, political inaction, unsustainable economic systems, and misinformation. Almost every corner of the biosphere is reeling from intensifying heat, storms, floods, droughts, or fires. The window to prevent the worst outcomes is rapidly closing. In early 2025, the World Meteorological Organization reported that 2024 was the hottest year on record. This was likely hotter than the peak of the last interglacial, roughly 125,000 years ago. Rising levels of greenhouse gases remain the driving force behind this escalation. These recent developments emphasize the extreme insufficiency of global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mark the beginning of a grim new chapter for life on Earth."

Key Highlights of the report:

• The year 2024 set a new mean global surface temperature record, signaling an escalation of climate upheaval.
• Currently, 22 of 34 planetary vital signs are at record levels.
• Warming may be accelerating, likely driven by reduced aerosol cooling, strong cloud feedbacks, and a darkening planet.
• The human enterprise is driving ecological overshoot. Population, livestock, meat consumption, and gross domestic product are all at record highs, with an additional approximately 1.3 million humans and 0.5 million ruminants added weekly.
• In 2024, fossil fuel energy consumption hit a record high, with coal, oil, and gas all at peak levels. Combined solar and wind consumption also set a new record but was 31 times lower than fossil fuel energy consumption.
• So far, in 2025, atmospheric carbon dioxide is at a record level, likely worsened by a sudden drop in land carbon uptake partly due to El Niño and intense forest fires.
• Global fire-related tree cover loss reached an all-time high, with fires in tropical primary forest up 370% over 2023, fueling rising emissions and biodiversity loss.
• Ocean heat content reached a record high, contributing to the largest coral bleaching event ever recorded, affecting 84% of reef area.
• So far, in 2025, Greenland and Antarctic ice mass are at record lows. The Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets may be passing tipping points, potentially committing the planet to meters of sea-level rise.
• Deadly and costly disasters surged, with Texas flooding killing at least 135 people, the California wildfires alone exceeding US$250 billion in damages, and climate-linked disasters since 2000 globally reaching more than US$18 trillion.
• Climate change is endangering thousands of wild animal species; more than 3500 species are now at risk and there is new evidence of climate-related animal population collapses.
• The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation is weakening, threatening major climate disruptions.
• Climate change is already affecting water quality and availability, undermining agricultural productivity, sustainable water management, and increasing the risk of water-related conflict.
• A dangerous hothouse Earth trajectory may now be more likely due to accelerated warming, self-reinforcing feedbacks, and tipping points.
• Climate change mitigation strategies are available, cost effective, and urgently needed. From forest protection and renewables to plant-rich diets, we can still limit warming if we act boldly and quickly.
• Social tipping points can drive rapid change. Even small, sustained nonviolent movements can shift public norms and policy, highlighting a vital path forward amid political gridlock and ecological crisis.
• There is a need for systems change that links individual technical approaches with broader societal transformation, governance, policies, and social movements.

Read the important Conclusions from this report here: https://iefworld.org/climate2025

SOURCE: for the full paper, see https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaf149 or download the paper at: https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/biaf149/8303627 

Coral Reef Tipping Point Report

As environmental destruction continues and the climate change and biodiversity crises accelerate, the concept of tipping points is being widely discussed. A tipping point is where a change in a system has gone so far that the system is destabilised, and positive feedbacks accelerate the decline towards total collapse, so that return to a desirable state becomes impossible in the reasonable future.

We have previously reported on a tipping points warning in July 2025. Now the Global Tipping Points Report 2025 has been published on 16 October 2025 (available at https://global-tipping-points.org/). Some of its key message follow.

Earth’s climate and nature are already passing tipping points as global warming approaches 1.5°C. Already at 1.4°C of global warming, warm water coral reefs are crossing their thermal tipping point and experiencing unprecedented dieback, impairing the livelihoods of hundreds of millions who depend on them. Parts of the polar ice sheets may also have crossed tipping points that would eventually commit the world to several metres of irreversible sea-level rise affecting hundreds of millions. Crossing tipping points reduces Earth’s ability to cope with human interference, further amplifying impacts, making it a fundamental human rights issue.

Overshooting 1.5°C puts the world in a danger zone where further tipping points pose catastrophic risks. Climate change and deforestation together put the Amazon rainforest at risk of widespread dieback below 2°C, threatening incalculable damage to biodiversity and impacting over a hundred million who depend on the forest. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is also at risk of collapse below 2°C, which would radically undermine global food and water security and plunge northwest Europe into severe winters. Preventing climate tipping points should be a legal imperative.

Every fraction of a degree and every year over 1.5°C matters for preventing climate tipping points. To minimise the magnitude and duration of global temperature overshoot above 1.5°C, global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions need to be halved by 2030 (compared to 2010 levels), reach net zero by 2050, and then net greenhouse gas removal needs to occur. This requires unprecedented acceleration in decarbonisation, rapid mitigation of short-lived climate pollutants – especially methane emissions, and rapid scaling of sustainable and equitable carbon removal from the atmosphere.

For warm-water coral reefs, the Amazon rainforest and other ecosystems at risk of tipping, reducing non-climate stressors can help increase their resilience to tipping. For coral reefs, this includes reducing overfishing and nutrient loading. For the Amazon rainforest, reducing deforestation and forest degradation are key. These local actions can give communities some agency over the fate of their ecosystems. Ultimately, however, global warming will need to be reduced below 1.5°C towards 1°C to prevent the permanent loss of coral reefs.

A headline from this report widely cited in the press is the first documented crossing of a climate tipping point for one of Earth's ecosystems, coral reefs. This is of significant interest to IEF as one of our members, Austin Bowden-Kerby in Fiji, has raised the alarm by providing direct documentation of massive coral reef destruction in the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu from high ocean temperatures, reported on by IEF here.

SOURCE: drawn in part from Global Tipping Points Report 2025 Summary at https://global-tipping-points.org/ 

UN report linking severe climate and poverty underscores urgency of global action

The 2025 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report revealed that nearly 80 percent of the world’s poorest populations—approximately 887 million people—reside in regions exposed to extreme heat, flooding, and other climate hazards, dramatically illustrating the asymmetrical burden of climate change on the most vulnerable. The findings sharpen calls for coordinated global policies to close protection gaps and bolster climate resilience. 

The report stated that these vulnerable populations are disproportionately concentrated in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid zones, which together cover about 40 percent of the earth’s land surface. The report also emphasized that structural inequalities amplify exposure, stating that those in poverty often occupy the least desirable lands—floodplains, eroded slopes, or high-risk zones—because they lack the resources to afford safer locations.

The disproportionate exposure has multiple cascading effects: poor households spend a far larger share of their income repairing damaged homes after floods or storms; disruptions to agriculture hit subsistence farmers hardest; water scarcity compounds existing health vulnerabilities; and recovery capacity is severely limited by a lack of access to credit, insurance, or social safety nets. The UN warned that without transformative policy shifts, climate change will widen inequality and entrench cycles of deprivation.

The report emphasized that climate adaptation must be treated as integral to development, not merely an adjunct to mitigation efforts. The new UN findings provide urgency and data to international and national climate negotiations. The findings encourage policymakers to scale up adaptation funding, ensure climate finance reaches marginalized communities, adopt plans that incorporate justice and equity, and strengthen early warning, land use planning, and resilient infrastructure. Without such steps, the report cautions, climate change will not only deepen poverty, but also undermine global goals for sustainable development and human rights.

Source: Excepts from JURISTnews: https://www.jurist.org/news/2025/10/un-report-linking-severe-climate-and-poverty-underscores-urgency-of-global-action/