The Fuji Declaration calls for ‘awakening the divine spark in the spirit of humanity.’ For me, this means awakening our human compassion, our connections to one another, and the creativity needed to move back from the precipice of global devastation caused by greed, environmental destruction, militarism and nuclearism, and to restore our planetary home to the paradise it was meant to be.

Humanity is challenged as never before, and our future, if there is to be one, resides in the seeds of the action we take today. Inaction is not acceptable. We must awaken to who we truly are and to the beauty and abundance we are capable of creating. We must set aside the complacency and divisiveness that have enveloped us and, working across all forms of difference, unite to build a peaceful and harmonious home on Earth in which the dignity of every person will be recognized and upheld.

It is late, but it is not too late. The future is clouded, but there is still light. We are in serious danger, but there is still a way forward. Let us join together, as called for in the Fuji Declaration, and build a world we can be proud to pass on to future generations. This is the great and noble challenge of our time, and we are the ones privileged to be here to accept that challenge.