Ria is currently volunteering and learning about permaculture at the Bumi Langit, a permaculture community in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. She previously wrote a master’s thesis on waste management at the Center for Religion and Cross-cultural Studies, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM).Â
Prior to attending the CIP and LSE summer school, Ria participated in a joint workshop with the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies at UGM—an LSE event delivered in partnership with the UK Foreign Office. She offers her reflections on her time in Cambridge: Is environmental destruction truly the collapse of nature itself, or rather a reflection of a deeper crisis—the moral crisis of humanity?
Religion, spirituality, and climate change
During the five-day Religion and Climate Futures Summer School (July 1-5, 2024), I gained a deeper understanding of how the climate crisis can be seen as a manifestation of a wider moral and spiritual crisis. The discussions were rooted in the belief that climate change is not just an environmental or scientific issue but also a profound crisis of the human heart and spirit. I learned that environmental degradation reflects humanity’s greed and disconnection from the ecosystems that sustain life. To address this, a deep spiritual transformation is essential – one that reorients human values toward greater care and reverence for the planet.
One area discussed was ecotheology, which explores how religions can contribute to solving the climate crisis. Through these discussions, I discovered the significant role sacred texts play in fostering ecological responsibility. Religions like Islam and Christianity emphasize stewardship, the caring for and honoring of God's creation, which includes both the natural world and all living beings. This helped me realize that religious teachings can be a powerful tool in forming a holistic response to climate change, through principles such as moral responsibility, sustainability, and deep respect for all forms of life. By integrating spiritual and religious wisdom with environmental action, we can foster a more meaningful response to the climate crisis, one that addresses the root causes – both the moral and ecological – of our current global challenges.
Reflections on life through the summer school experience
At the same time, this program also helped me deepen my knowledge on permaculture, building on all I have learned while volunteering at Bumi Langit. During the program, I gained a better understanding of how a permaculture approach is closely intertwined with spiritual values. This brought to my mind Japanese author Masanobu Fukuoka and his book The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming. One of the key ideas that stood out in his work is that permaculture is not just a method of farming; it is about how humans live in harmony with nature. I learned that regenerating soil, water, and other ecosystems are not merely technical tasks but also spiritual acts that honors God's creation.
Moreover, during the summer school, I had the opportunity to explore how social movements, based on religious and spiritual values, can mobilize collective action in addressing environmental crises. A concrete example I learned about was the environmental awareness movement in Aceh, where local religious leaders encourage communities to coexist with nature, including living in harmony with elephants (acehnesia.com). I see that religion can be a source of strength in broader social movements, encompassing various dimensions including spirituality, culture, and economics.
Through the summer school I also gained a deeper understanding of water as a key element in the climate crisis. In some sessions, I learned about how water, both as a physical resource and a spiritual element, is crucial for human life. Discussions on water efficiency in Cambridge, for example, taught me about the importance of the relationship between humans and water, yet how modernity has often separated us from nature. This is where the role of religion resurfaces, helping to re-establish a closer spiritual connection with nature and its elements, including water.
Universities and permaculture
In Indonesia, the connection between universities and permaculture communities is still minimal. Yet, universities play an important role as places of learning for students and can serve as collaborative platforms to support environmental restoration movements. In Cambridge, there are places for informal knowledge exchange to create a collaborative environment where new ideas can flourish and be applied more broadly.
One of the most memorable moments was visiting a permaculture community in Cambridge. This community was made up of diverse Cambridge residents, including students, who manage civic land into gardens using permaculture principles. They grow a variety of vegetables, fruits, and trees in a polyculture system. They also created composting toilets to process waste into fertilizer. Seeing the garden filled me with joy because, in Indonesia, organic farming and permaculture movements have limited youth involvement. This experience gave me an insight into how the permaculture approach can serve as a means for students to learn and respond to the environmental crisis. It reminded me of Andrew Millison’s project at Oregon University in the United States (workspace.oregonstate.edu).
This experience led me to reflect on the permaculture communities in Indonesia, which are quite numerous, but their movements are still fragmented due to limitations within their respective spaces. Besides these fragmented community activities, the interconnection between communities, government, and universities is also not yet optimal. I see the importance of building bridges between these different parties, so they can support and complement each other, creating a stronger collective movement ecosystem. In Indonesia, permaculture communities hold valuable local knowledge, but without support from institutions or broader interaction, this knowledge often circulates within a limited scope.
Contemplating the climate crisis
My first journey to Europe became a time of reflection on what environmental destruction truly means. Throughout the trip, I observed nature from the height of the airplane, passing over vast stretches of greenery, urban areas, and finally deserts. What I saw during the journey reminded me of my childhood in my hometown. I recalled the memories of walking home from school through fields of rice paddies, passing rivers, fish ponds, tall wild grass, livestock grazing in the fields, and trees that formed a green canopy replacing the sky. Now, the changes have become real – environmental degradation is happening everywhere. A fleeting thought that crossed my mind was the discussion of anthropocentrism, which places humans at the center of reality, leading to a loss of direction. Nature is seen as an object to be exploited without the responsibility of stewardship. Then, it occurred to me – if this is indeed the end of times, the way to heal our wounded identity is to return to the essence of our human nature. Reflecting on the destruction of the environment means embarking on a journey toward intellectual and spiritual depth.