Category:Eco-ethics

From Green Policy
Jump to: navigation, search

Featured.png

Planet Citizen Vision of Living Earth
Eco-ethics @GreenPolicy360
Environmental protection & Planet Citizen Action


Blue Marble photo taken by the crew of Apollo 17 (1972).jpg

 

Planet Citizens / Scientists, Preserving & Protecting the Home Planet, Earth


GreenPolicy360 and StrategicDemands:

Earth Science Vital Signs


Living Earth.png


Earth Right Now | EarthPOV | Earth Observations


Steve Schmidt / GreenPolicy360 Siterunner: Eco-ethics is seen as a system of ethics, of values, principles, ideals that guide us as we act in our day-to-day lives. We see this as "vita activa", a life of action, politics, choices that we make individually and together. With your GreenPolicy360 founder, a young life of choices and political involvements led to what, in the 1990s I chose to call a 'values-based politics'. An eco-ethics and a green formative politics that became global resulted in a Green Platform, Green Politics, and continues on year after year, decade-to-decade. Here is a touch of this eco-story, now told with a personal perspective.

In the 1990s, in Santa Fe, a city named after St. Francis, I began drafting what became the founding platform of the U.S. Green Party. The U.S. Green Platform was, as I described it, a "values-based platform" and it was intended to set in place a foundation of values that Green politics shared. We looked to "key values" and an international Green parties "four pillars". As I wrote I envisioned a "politics of values" that could be applied to "the issues" of the day, the questions of the day, and this would, with integrity (as opposed to money-in-politics, influence-buying and/or opportunism) bring forward a "call to action" with Green positions. Not an ideologically determined document, drawn to be 'political correct', but a democratic statement reflecting life-affirming hopes and beliefs that was an eco-ethics, a vision of a better world and how to make a positive difference in our 'vita activa', our daily actions.

It's always good to see how our day-to-day choices and actions are part of multiple threads, a tapestry woven by kindred groups and causes, religions and movements. So, with respect, let's look at some who share eco-ethics, a 21st century vision, a legacy we hope to send forward to coming generations.

 

A 'Values-based' Green Politics


Earth Day Memories on the 50th Anniversary


Earth Summit 1992.jpg


Earth Charter -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Charter

The Earth Charter is an international declaration of fundamental values and principles considered useful by its supporters for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the 21st century. Created by a global consultation process, and endorsed by organizations representing millions of people, the Charter "seeks to inspire in all peoples a sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the well-being of the human family, the greater community of life, and future generations."[1] It calls upon humanity to help create a global partnership at a critical juncture in history. The Earth Charter's ethical vision proposes that environmental protection, human rights, equitable human development, and peace are interdependent and indivisible. The Charter attempts to provide a new framework for thinking about and addressing these issues. The Earth Charter Initiative organization exists to promote the Charter.

The idea of the Earth Charter originated in 1987, by Maurice Strong and Mikhail Gorbachev as members of The Club of Rome, when the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development called for a new charter to guide the transition to sustainable development. In 1992, the need for a charter was urged by then-Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali at the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, but the time for such a declaration was not believed to be right. The Rio Declaration became the statement of the achievable consensus at that time. In 1994, Strong (Chairman of the Earth Summit) and Gorbachev, working through organizations they each founded (the Earth Council and Green Cross International respectively), restarted the Earth Charter as a civil society initiative, with the help of the government of the Netherlands.

The drafting of the text was done during a six-year worldwide consultation process (1994–2000), overseen by the independent Earth Charter Commission, which was convened by Strong and Gorbachev with the purpose of developing a global consensus on values and principles for a sustainable future. The Commission continues to serve as the steward of the Earth Charter text.


Earth Charter Principles

The four pillars and sixteen principles of the Earth Charter are:


I. Respect and Care for the Community of Life

Respect Earth and life in all its diversity.

Care for the community of life with understanding, compassion and love.

Build democratic societies that are just, participatory, sustainable and peaceful.

Secure Earth's bounty and beauty for present and future generations.


II. Ecological Integrity

Protect and restore the integrity of Earth's ecological systems, with special concern for biological diversity and the natural processes that sustain life.

Prevent harm as the best method of environmental protection and, when knowledge is limited, apply a precautionary approach.

Adopt patterns of production, consumption and reproduction that safeguard Earth's regenerative capacities, human rights and community well-being.

Advance the study of ecological sustainability and promote the open exchange and wide application of the knowledge acquired.


III. Social and Economic Justice

Eradicate poverty as an ethical, social and environmental imperative.

Ensure that economic activities and institutions at all levels promote human development in an equitable and sustainable manner.

Affirm gender equality and equity as prerequisites to sustainable development and ensure universal access to education, health care and economic opportunity.

Uphold the right of all, without discrimination, to a natural and social environment supportive of human dignity, bodily health and spiritual well-being, with special attention to the rights of indigenous peoples and minorities.


IV. Democracy, Nonviolence, and Peace

Strengthen democratic institutions at all levels, and provide transparency and accountability in governance, inclusive participation in decision-making, and access to justice.

Integrate into formal education and lifelong learning the knowledge, values and skills needed for a sustainable way of life.

Treat all living beings with respect and consideration.

Promote a culture of tolerance, nonviolence and peace.


Eco Definition via Merriam-Webster Dictionary

For the now-ubiquitous prefix eco-, we can thank the great German zoologist Ernst Haeckel, who in 1866 coined the term oekologie from the Greek oikos, meaning “home, place to live.” Haeckel was thinking primarily of the “homes” of animals, but by the time the word translated into English in 1875 (initially spelled “oecology”), its meaning had broadened to embrace plant habitats as well. The related term ecosystem was proposed by the British botanist Arthur Tansley, 60 years after one of his own professors first translated Haeckel’s oekologie. It may have been ecosystem, which treats eco- as a prefix to a standard English word, that gave English speakers permission to do the same in coining a host of other terms...


🌎


The Commons


The Challenge of Choosing to Protect The Commons

Differing Ethical Approaches, Differing Communities, Cultures, and Nations, Differing Religions


🌎


Oren-lyons.jpg

AncientWisdom.jpg


Ancient Wisdom

Indigeneity, Indigenous Peoples Act with Understanding


Seventh Generation


Generational Thinking, Sustainable Living


🌎


Biblical 'Stewardship' and a Virtuous Life ....

A Catholic Pope (who names himself after St. Francis, a 'patron saint of the environment and life on earth') and who writes and offers up the first eco-encyclical doctrine in the Church's long history


Laudato Si, an Eco-Encyclical Letter


The Letter.png


Integral Ecology


The Letter, the First Papal Letter Focused on the Environment.jpg


The Letter, a Message for Our Earth - 2.jpg


The Letter: Laudato Si

The Pope, the Environmental Crisis, and Frontline Leaders
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rps9bs85BII


🌎


East and West, North and South, a Whole Earth




Remembering 75 Years Ago


🌎


Within the Protestant Christian Tradition


Christianity green via christian courier.jpg


🌎


Dalai Lama on Our Responsibility.png


Buddhists Raise Voices for Peace, Service and Environmental Life Protection


The Buddha said, “It is important to renew humanity.” I like that vision. How do we renew humanity? And he made three recommendations. He said generosity, truthful and constructive speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which shall renew humanity." -- Roshi Joan Halifax, Upaya Zen Center, New Mexico


On the great road of Buddha ancestors,
there is always unsurpassable practice, continuous and sustained.
It is the circle of the way and is never cut off.
Between aspiration, practice, enlightenment, and nirvana,
there is not a moment’s gap;
continuous practice is the circle of the way.
This being so, continuous practice is unstained,
not forced by you or others.
The power of this continuous practice confirms you as well as others.
It means your practice affects the entire earth
and the entire sky in the ten directions.
Although not noticed by others or yourself, it is so.
— Dogen



Soka Gakkai International (SGI) / Nichiren Buddhist


The belief of the Soka Gakkai centers on recognizing that all life has dignity with infinite inherent potential; this immanent "Buddhahood" exists in every person and can be awakened through the Buddhist practice prescribed by Nichiren. Further, a person's social actions at every moment can lead to soka, or the creation of value (the theory of the interdependence of life). Societal change is facilitated through "human revolution", a way of living in the world that creates value.


Daisaku Ikeda


Ikeda's vision for the SGI was described in 2010 by Olivier Urbain, then director of the Toda Peace Institute founded by Ikeda, as a "borderless Buddhist humanism that emphasizes free thinking and personal development based on respect for all life."



Ikigai vision.png


Ikigai

Ikigai: Reason for Being

Love | mission | vocation | profession | passion

— What you are good at — What you love — What the world needs — What you can be paid for


Ikigai.png


🌎


Earth System Science

Earth Living Systems


Apollo.jpg


A New Vision of Life on Earth -- Earthrise

As Planet Citizens We See Our Home Planet in a New Light


Beginnings of the Modern Environmental Movement


Christina Korp Earth Day and Apollo 8.jpg

 

Planet Citizen Vision of Living Earth

GreenPolicy360 Page Highlights


Earth Breathing.jpg


Earths two lungs.png


🌎


Planet Citizens

Time for Planet Citizen Action


A Call to Action to Preserve & Protect Life on Earth...


Be kind.jpg


Your Life Is Your Message
Your life is your message.jpg

 

Planet Citizen Service

Global Climate Agreements Through the Years


🌎


Strategies of Resilience & Survival


🌎


2001 pic3.jpeg


See the Big Picture, It's All Connected

SJS / GreenPolicy360 Siterunner: As interconnected Planet Citizens our challenge is to improve our Quality of Life and Secure our Common Future...
Launch new initiatives, improve the environment, change the way governments run, impact and transform how businesses work
We encourage you to join in, dream and create your own green stories venturing on and making a positive difference every day
Now is time to go beyond old ways of thinking and shape new visions of our communities and our living home -- Planet Earth


 

It's Your Breathing Planet
www.planetcitizen.org


BreathingEarth.gif


PlanetCitizen.org / Earth System Science / Measuring "Vital Signs"

Planet Citizens, Planet Scientists
Earth Science Vital Signs
Earth Right Now


🌎


Planetary Awareness www.planetaryawareness.org

'Thin Blue Layer' of Earth's Atmosphere 2.jpg


·························································································································


Pope Francis speaks of Climate, Politics, Personal Responsibility

"It would be sad, and dare I say even catastrophic, were special interests to prevail over the common good and lead to manipulating information in order to protect their own plans and interests"...

"The Pope took particular aim at those who reject the science behind global warming..."


St.FrancisPreachingtotheBirds Giotto.jpg


Pope Francis on the Environment


🌎


Climate action m.jpg


Climate Action: An Ethical Responsibility

Beyond Preparing for Crisis Management


Biodiversity, Protecting Life

Biodiversity

All Species Day


Planetary Health Pledge / Via The Lancet (2020)


Green 'Vita Activa'

Planet Citizen Action

Climate Problems, Climate Solutions


Beginnings of U.S. Climate Science and Action to Protect & Preserve a Healthy & Sustainable Planet

Via the Ethics Institute at Penn State College of the Liberal Arts ... In 1977, Robert M. White, the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, wrote a report for the National Research Council a branch of the National Academy of Sciences that concluded that CO2 released during the burning of fossil fuel could have consequences for climate that pose a considerable threat to future society. (White, 1978)


  • Your GreenPolicy360 remembers the National Academy report of 1977 and what followed immediately from Congressman George E. Brown -- the formal beginnings of government climate change study ... For more about the 1977/78 Congressional climate legislation and climate plan and the array of Congressional environmental science, programs and actions set in motion beginning in the late 1960's, visit GreenPolicy360's page (and links) in memory of George Brown -- https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/George_E._Brown_Jr


A government report prepared ... in 1981 declared that "[t]he responsibility of the carbon-dioxide problem is ours - we should accept it and act in a way that recognizes our role as trustees for future generations." (Charney et al., 1979) This report also estimated that the amount of warming that would be experienced from a doubling of the pre-industrial levels of CO2 would be 3 degrees C, very close to the amount that the "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change" would predict almost 30 years later." (Charney et al., 1979)

For over thirty-five years, the US Academy of Sciences has warned the US about the enormous threats of climate change with each successive report making stronger claims that human caused climate change is a serious threat to civilization. If the United States can be accused of failing to live up to its ethical responsibilities to the rest of the world on climate change, one cannot blame the US Academy of Sciences for failing to ring alarm bells. US citizens cannot claim that their most prestigious scientific institutions have failed to take a position on the seriousness of climate change.

The failure of the United States to respond to climate change can be attributed in largest part to a well-financed, well-organized climate change disinformation campaign. As ClimateEthics has previously cited, see "A New Kind of Crime Against Humanity?: The Fossil Fuel Industry's Disinformation Campaign On Climate Change". (Donald Brown, 2010a)

ClimateEthics has also repeatedly argued that the failure of the United States to respond to its ethical duties for climate change may also be attributed to the almost complete failure in the United States of the media and even climate change policy advocates to acknowledge that climate change raises not only national interests but also duties, responsibilities, and obligations to others.

See, for example, "Are Ethical Arguments for Climate Change Action Weaker Than Self-Interest Based Arguments? Why Taking Ethical Arguments Off the Table Is Like A Soccer Team Unilaterally Taking The Goalie Out of the Net. (Brown, 2010b)


https://ethicsandclimate.org/
The Ethics and Climate site contains over 185 articles (as of 2017) including 13 videos on ethical issues raised by climate change. The site seeks to help policy makers and interested citizens understand the ethical dimensions of climate change issues in contention in policy debates.


○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○


Ethics and The National Academy of Sciences

If climate change must be understood as a civilization challenging ethical issue, can the US Academy reports on climate change be criticized on ethical grounds?

The US Academy reports acknowledge that climate change has serious adverse world-wide impacts, that is impacts outside the United States. For instance, in its most recent report, the US Academy concluded that climate change would cause the following world-wide impacts:

Water availability will decrease in many areas that are already drought-prone and in areas where rivers are fed by glaciers or snowpack;

A higher fraction of rainfall will fall in the form of heavy precipitation, increasing the risk of flooding and, in some regions, the spread of water-borne illness;

People and ecosystems in coastal zones will be exposed to higher storm surges, intrusion of salt water into freshwater aquifers, and other risks as sea levels rise;

Coral reefs will experience widespread bleaching as a result of increasing temperatures, rising sea levels, and ocean acidification.


Climate Change is an Ethical Problem


○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○


The modern environmental era

Read more re: initial climate change study and science


In the UK
https://www.wired.com/story/meet-the-amateur-scientist-who-discovered-climate-change/ -- About Guy Callendar
In the US

http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:US_Public_Law_95-367.png -- At the beginning...
http://www.greenpolicy360.net/mw/images/National_Climate_Program_Act_Public_Law_95-367_Sept_1978.pdf
http://www.greenpolicy360.net/mw/images/Can_our_environment_be_saved_George_Brown-Omnibus_Environmental_Bill_1969.pdf
http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Env_policy_laws_US_'the_beginning'_of_env_era.jpg

Env policy laws US 'the beginning' of env era.jpg


🌎


An Initial Climate Study/Report: Historic


Energy and Climate Report, 1977, National Academy of Sciences / 175 pp. / PDF via GreenPolicy360


Congressman Brown / Science Committee in Front of Climate Action

SJS / GreenPolicy360 Siterunner: My friend George E. Brown, from the 1960s to 1999 lived his life with a vision of what could be. His actions were a model ...


George Brown, one planet citizen, in action ....

National Climate Program Act, 1978 / PDF

The first federal program established to study and assess scientifically the issues and risks of human-caused climate change


US Public Law 95-367.png


🌎


Quality of Life


GreenPartyPlatform 2000 KV10.png


GDP+

Eco-nomics

New Economy Movement

Seventh Generation


AncientWisdom.jpg

Oren Lyons, Chief of the Onondaga Iroquois Nation, speaks of ancient wisdom:

"We are looking ahead, as is one of the first mandates given us as chiefs, to make sure and to make every decision that we make relate to the welfare and well-being of the seventh generation to come...."
"What about the seventh generation? Where are you taking them? What will they have?"


GreenPolicy Siterunner / SJS: Chief Lyons is one of our favorite Bioneers who has joined with us -- and helped to open our eyes and hearts for many years


○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○


Today's Challenge

Generational Thinking, Sustainable Living


"The eyes of the future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time." -- Terry Tempest Williams


"We bring a Green Vision & Values-based Platform" (SJS)


Civil Rights

Election Law

Democracy

Voting Rights

Human Rights

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Natural Rights

Rights of Nature - Earth Law

Environmental Laws

Environmental Security


🌎


Generation Green

123 earthday4.jpg

Subcategories

This category has the following 15 subcategories, out of 15 total.

B

E

E cont.

G

N

O

P

W

Media in category "Eco-ethics"

The following 154 files are in this category, out of 154 total.

Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
GreenPolicy360
Daily Green Stories
About Our Network
Navigate GreenPolicy
Hot Times
Climate Action Plans 360
GreenPolicy360 in Focus
Going Green
Global Green New Deal
Green Education
Relational Eco-Politics
Biodiversity, Protecting Life
New Visions of Security
Strategic Demands
'Planetary Health Pledge'
Global Food Revolution
Earthviews
Countries & Maps
Digital 360
Fact Checking, 'Facts Count'
Data, Intelligence, Science
GreenPolicy360 & Science
Climate Denial / Misinfo
Eco-Education
GreenPolicy Reviews
Envir Legis Info (U.S.)
Envir-Climate Laws (U.S.)
Trump Era Envir Rollbacks
Wiki Ballotpedia (U.S.)
Wiki Politics (U.S.)
Wikimedia Platform
Green News/Dailies
Green News Services (En)
Green Zines (En)
Green Lists @Wikipedia
Climate Action UN News
Climate Agreement / INDCs
Wikipedia on Climate
GrnNews Reddit Daily
Climate Current Metrics
Climate Historic Studies
Climate Change - MIT
Climate Change - NASA
Copernicus Programme
Our World in Data
Worldometer
EcoInternet Search Engine
Ecosia Search Engine
Identify Nature's Species
Meta
Tools