Speech by Franz Nahrada

Video -introduced by Mary Carlin, Präsidentin der Earth Society Foundation

Good morning!

My name is Franz Nahrada, I have convened the Earth Day celebrations and Peace Bell Ringings at the United Nations in Vienna for 21 years from 1997 to 2018, 21 years filled with wonderful encounters and beautiful highlights but also, all in all, with a feeling of disappointment. ... While we were assuming that everyone must understand the simple message of Earth Day: that there is only one planet we live on and one shared atmosphere that we breathe, the new millennium brought us a slow but seemingly inexorable erosion of the very foundations on which a global covenant -as we thought - still was to be built .

In an interplay of hybris and repercussions the world started changing faster than we could ever dream of, and the incredible wisdom that the original Earth Day contains, seeking to bring to the world together, seemed to fade away. Instead as friends and partners countries began to act as adversaries and enemies again, communicate less and less possibilities and more and more red lines. We, the small community, which was faithful to the original Earth Day idea, we almost lost hope and motivation to continue (and there were of course some external circumstances that changed a lot for the bad.) . That lasted until to that point that we reached now (in 2025), because now we are in a moment in which the pain and the perception of danger has become so strong that only the conscious renaissance of Earth Day beyond all half-measures is the core message.

So what is this core message, why are we so convinced of the truth that this tireless preacher John McConnell? repeated again and again? The core message is that there can no separation between the behavioural, the social and the environmental question. The answer to the behavioural question is peace and cooperation; the answer to the social question is sharing not hoarding; and the answer to the environmental question is caring and regenerating the foundations of our life. You cannot save the climate if you do not also address war and the military; you cannot have peace if there are fundamental inequalities in this world; and you cannot have justice if people are excluded from the resources of the earth.

This is why the original Earth Day mantra "Peace, Justice and Care for the Earth" is not simply an enumeration of "goals", but points us to a complex interplay of the foundations of a future worth living.

And I am thanking the NGO Committee on Peace in Vienna that they help us to rejuvenate Earth Day in this spirit. We know that wars can never be won; to qoute German singer Reinhard Mey, "it has become clear that war is destroying all humans, even those who seem to emerge unscathed, because war destroys the souls of humans - every war does and also the ones they sell us as inevitable and just".

So what can we do? How can we bridge the gap to those who seem to be caught in what is known in psychology as the 'prisoners dilemma'? As you may know, the prisoners dilemma is a situation where individual self-interest leads to a worse outcome for all, despite cooperation providing the optimal choice for everyone. The prisoners are separated and interrogated and offered a deal to betray each other for personal gain. And the deal works when distrust grows, the fear of being betrayed by the other. - '''Now it is no exaggeration that the whole world is in a prisoners dilemma nowadays: "They want to take away our power, so lets attack them first". You all know ho universal this diabolic logic is. Iam not talking abhout any one in particular but about ALL of us.

It is definitely not enough to celebrate Earth Day once a year, it will not do much. It is good to feel there are likeminded people around the world, but we are still only a few. But I think there is an amazing possibility in this very brutal moment that history has bestowed upon us. We must answer the tendencies of absolute confrontation with a vision of absolute co-operation.

When I was starting Earth Day at the UN in the nineties, I was inspired by the vision of turning half of Austrias military training area (>100km²) in Allentsteig into a world Peace Village. Bringing together the best ecological solutions from the world, this village should demonstrate that we can each corner of this planet into a paradise with shared knowledge and technology. And I was inspired by Johnwho was with us at that time. And what he always underlined.

There is no win-loose in true cooperation. We have an incredible future ahead of us if we understand the breathtaking potential of deep cooperation not only between humans, but also with nature, enabled by global communication and knowledge sharing. And this is the only thing that, in my view, can make war obsolete.

I want to conclude my remarks by turning our attention to the bell. Many indigenous people used sound to receive information from their environment, to communicate with each other, to heal and to transform. They believed, and still believe, that sound is the creative, generative force that brought the universe into being.

In vibrational medicine, unique tones create the perfect condition for deep meditation, creative thinking and intuitive messages. The pure sound waves emanating from singing bowls arouse our ability to hear with more than just our ears. We feel the sound of Tibetan singing bowls just as we help perceive our ears. It is a regeneration process, connected with a spiritual awakening that could have a profound effect on illnesses, suffering and all aspects of our lives.

Together with the cosmic message of a new cycle, the equinox and the bell blend to a powerful symbol. Thank you.