Islam and Environmental Ethics

Muhammad Yaseen Gada

Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom, 2024, 67 pp,

ISBN: 978-1-009-30824-3

Naresh Prajapati

Siddharth Prabhakar

 

In the modern discourse on environmental ethics, a tension often arises between scientific rationality and spiritual mandates. However, as global environmental crises become increasingly urgent, these challenges demand technological and policy-driven responses, as well as deep ethical reflection. The author opens with a sobering account of the contemporary environmental crisis. He supports his arguments with global environmental statistics that underscore the urgency of ethical and theological engagement with ecological degradation. Drawing on data, the author notes that air pollution alone is responsible for approximately seven million premature deaths annually. The oceans, too, are under siege, with 80 per cent of marine pollution originating from land-based sources, including plastic waste and industrial runoff. Access to clean water remains a global concern, as one in four people lack safe drinking water.