Transcript Sustainable Development and the Earth Charter

Sustainable Development and
the Earth Charter
Values and Principles for a Just, Sustainable, and Peaceful
Global Society in the 21st Century
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What are
the current challenges
on Earth?
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What is common on these issues?
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• Have been produced mostly by un-precautious human
activity
• Can no longer be solved by scientific and technological
means only or resolved in an isolated manner
• Under the impact of industrialization, modern technology,
the information revolution, and economic globalization, the
world we live in is ever more tightly interconnected
– No society or nation can effectively address the environmental,
economic, and social problems it faces and ensure the security of its
people by acting alone
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• Often what happens locally has a significant global impact
ecologically, economically, politically, or socially, and global trends
and events influence local communities throughout the world
• This has led to recognition that the problems facing people locally
and globally can only be addressed with holistic thinking and
integrated problem solving as well as worldwide cooperation
• Humans as individuals and communities should recognize their
responsibilities to solve such problems and this may be possible
only on the basis of a fundamental shift in their outlook and value
attitudes
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What is
“Our Common Future”?
If these trends continue,
what will the Earth look like in 50 years?
If we want to alter these trends,
what should we do?
What is the “buzz word”
for these types of activities?
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It is →
Sustainable Development
• Development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs
(Brundtland Commission, 1987)
• Improving the quality of life within the carrying capacity of supporting
ecosystems
(UNEP, WWF, IUCN, 1991)
• …a process which enables all people to realize their potential and to
improve their quality of life in ways which protect and enhance the
Earth's life support systems
(Forum for the Future, UK)
• Enough for everyone, forever
(Billboard, Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002 during World Summit on Sustainable
Development)
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• Sustainable development aims to meet all human needs without
harming nature, thereby ensuring all people’s needs are met
• This concept demonstrates that social issues are linked to economic
and environmental ones
• Similarly, local, national and international problems are interrelated
• Therefore, the search for solutions to these problems requires an
integrated approach
• Promoting an environmental culture / sustainable development
implies recognizing that our planet’s resources are limited and seeks
to generate changes in attitudes, through creating a higher
consciousness, and to improve citizen commitment, through their
actions and the impact they have on the environment.
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• “Sustainable development” is not simply a synonym for environmental
protection. Rather, it is a process which seeks to find convergence
points between the needs of social justice, economics and
environmental protection
In order to achieve sustainable development, we must remember that:
• Current behavior patterns place our planet’s safety at risk.
• Economic development does not take environmental impacts, social
relationships or democratic processes into consideration.
• All of us are part of the problem, and therefore we are all
responsible for taking part in the solution.
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The United Nations Division for Sustainable Development lists the
following areas as coming within the scope of sustainable
development:
Agriculture, Atmosphere, Biodiversity, Biotechnology, Capacity-building, Climate Change,
Consumption, and Production Patterns, Demographics, Desertification and Drought,
Disaster Reduction and Management, Education and Awareness, Ecology, Ecosystem,
Energy, Systems ecology, Finance, Forests, Fresh Water, Health, Human Settlements,
Indicators, Industry, Information for Decision Making and Participation, Integrated
Decision Making, International Law, International Cooperation for Enabling Environment,
Institutional Arrangements, Land management, Major Groups, Mountains, National
Sustainable Development Strategies, Natural resource management, Oceans and Seas,
Poverty, Sanitation, Science, Social equity, Sustainable architecture, Sustainable tourism,
Technology, Toxic Chemicals, Trade and Environment, Transport, Waste (Hazardous),
Waste (Radioactive), Waste (Solid), Water
→ Sustainable development is an eclectic concept, as a wide array of views
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Conventional Development vs.
Sustainable Development
What are the values associated with
conventional development?
What are the values associated with
sustainable development?
Sustainable development is not a
technical term, but an ethical pursuit
So an ethical framework is needed
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What do we need?
• Partnership, cooperation, and collaboration have become essential
to survival and human development
• Mutual understanding and agreement on common goals and
shared values, an ethical foundation
– widely shared among the world's diverse cultures
– This will create the trust and sense of shared purpose that
makes partnership and collaborative actions possible and
effective
• global ethics
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• Humanity has reached a stage in its development technologically
and economically where a world community is both possible and
necessary
• Inner globalization must occur to build global cooperation and
community and reverse negative trends that threaten the future
• Sense of ethical responsibility flows from an attitude of respect
• Humanity must undergo a radical change in its attitudes, values
and behavior
– Caring for people and caring for Earth are two interrelated dimensions of one
great task
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Ethics?
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• Origin in the Greek word “ethos”, which means the behavior of a
group
• It is formed by a set of principles that directs the attitudes of a
group / society towards the communal property of this
community system
• Principles are generated by values
– They offer norms and guidelines for conduct and relate to reasoning and
decisions
• Values are related to the importance of something. They are
subjective and are the first point that motivates an individual to
make decisions
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• what is right and wrong
• Ethical issues have to do with the actions that everyone, or at least
most reasonable people, agree to be moral
• A person’s ethical values reflect what kind of a person s/he
chooses to be and what quality of community life s/he chooses to
support and sustain
• People inherit ethical values from their family and culture
• Describes the characteristic of a community
• A set of principles that are acceptable for the common good of a
community system
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What is good and bad for us?
How are we to live together?
How do we choose what to do?
•
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These are the main questions for ethics – discipline concerned in what is
right and wrong
Our propensity as humans to do good and bad actions makes important
to have ethics
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What could be an unethical choice,
decision or behaviour?
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Ethics and sustainability
• How ought we to live with/in the Earth?
• We are facing ethical dilemmas regarding the damages we are
causing to the environment and the current inequities
• Approaches to sustainability ethics call for a global
responsibility – toward the natural world and to attain global
justice
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Motivational Ethics
• Human behavior is deeply rooted in the human, cultural, spiritual,
social and ethical values which are the fundamental sources of
motivation of the behavior of people and nations
• Ethic can motivate people to act in new ways
– even against conventional assumptions, including the determination not just to do
what is right but also to promote what is right
• Motivational ethics need to be both emotionally and intellectually
engaging
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Global Ethics
• A global ethic is an ethic which is about universal values and norms
and which includes a principle of global responsibility
• In this interconnected world / global society (communications,
transportation, and economic systems), with global dilemmas, global
ethical consciousness is urgently needed to build a just, sustainable,
and peaceful world community and to protect the integrity of Earth’s
ecological systems
• We need something that combines concerns for human well-being
with concerns for the environment
• So an ethic needs both to contain realizable requirements here and
now, and, combined with these, ideals towards which we can strive
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Universal Responsibility
• Fundamental importance in meeting the critical challenges
– should not be delegated to any organization or group alone
• People and countries have a responsibility for what happens elsewhere
in the world – such as extreme poverty, violation of human rights, wars
etc
– each and every person is equally responsible to the whole Earth community
• Civil society has a critical role to play in the transition to sustainable
development:
– The new global civil society has become a third force along with government and
business on the world stage
• It can use its soft power together with its political power and its purchasing
power in the market place to move the world toward constructive change
• However, this will not happen without a unifying ethical vision and a new
commitment to education for sustainable development
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Introducing
The Earth Charter
Values and Principles
for a Just, Sustainable, and Peaceful
Global Society in the 21st Century
There is nothing else in global civil society
with the demonstrated power of the Earth Charter
to unite people from across divisions
of culture, religion, and politics ...
background, sector, and profession ...
and inspire them to work together for a world that is
more just, more sustainable, and more peaceful.
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Key Themes of the Earth Charter
Respect
Equitable Economic Development
Universal Responsbility
Participation
Interdependency
Human Rights
Environmental Protection
Respect for Nature
Sustainable Living
Peace and Non-Violence
Community of Life
Common Good
Common but Differentiated
Responsability
Democracy
Gender Equality
Transnational Responsibility
Eradication of poverty
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The Preamble
• Explains the global situation, the beauty of our planet as well its
current problems
• It highlights the challenges we face and the choices each one of us
can make
• Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of universal
responsibility
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The first principle
“Respect Earth and life in all its diversity”
is the foundation for the following three principles as well the
remaining principles in the Charter
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The second, third and fourth principles
• deal with the three primary spheres of human relationships and
ethical responsibility:
– the relationship between human beings and the greater
community of life
– the relationship between human beings and society and
– the relationship between present and future generations
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• Twelve fundamental principles in Parts II, III and IV describe the
meaning of the first four principles in greater detail
• The titles of these three Parts
Ecological Integrity,
Social and Economic Justice and
Democracy, Nonviolence and Peace
demonstrate the inclusive nature of the vision of the Earth Charter
• Sixty-one supporting principles address important issues and clarify
the meanings of the sixteen fundamental principles
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You can compare the Earth Charter to a tree
• It has roots, a trunk and branches
• The initial and most important principles are like the roots, the base
for those that follow
• There are four of these initial principles, and they can be compared
to four parts of the roots
• The remaining principles are like the trunk, and the sub-principles
are like the branches
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The Earth Charter
• The Earth Charter is a declaration of fundamental values and
principles for building a just, sustainable and peaceful global society
in the 21st century
– centrally concerned with the transition to sustainable ways of living and
sustainable human development.
• It seeks to inspire in all people a new sense of global
interdependence and shared responsibility for the well-being of the
whole human family, the greater community of life, and future
generations.
• It is a vision of hope and a call to action
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Earth Charter as global ethics
• Earth Charter is consensus on integrated vision on shared moral
values, basic ethical principles and practical guidelines
– Expresses common core of attitudes that can unite people in the midst of all
their diversity
• Recognizing that our environmental, economic, social, political,
and spiritual challenges are interdependent
– The Earth Charter provides a new integrated framework for thinking about and
addressing these issues
• The result is a fresh broad conception of what
constitutes a sustainable society and sustainable
development
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• It challenges people to think about ethical values and to expand
their ethical consciousness
– A moral ideal – of how people could ideally live with one another and in relation
to the natural world
• EC provides a framework, a tool for testing our moral thinking
• It is important to recognize that the Earth Charter contains general
ethical principles as distinct from rules
– Rules tell one exactly what to do in a specific situation
– General principles tell us what to think about when we are deciding what to do
– We also live in a complex world and there will be at times conflict between
different ethical principles
• There is frequently a tension between individual freedom and securing justice for all
• There can be tension between the needs of present generations and the needs of
future generations
• Also between the short-term interests of people and the long-term health of
ecosystems
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• The Earth Charter should not be read as a final moral truth but as a
tool for promoting international cooperation and solidarity for
changes which need to be made in the way we collectively behave
– Endorsing it or treating it as one's global ethic is not signing up to everything in it
nor should it be treated by others as so doing
– It’s an ethical perspective from which one is prepared to think, deliberate and
engage in dialogue
• Many of the key principles are capable of different interpretations
– it should not be seen as the final unambiguous set of moral truths but a best
approximation which humans can use and co-operate in using to forge
common understandings and develop common goals
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The Earth Charter
• A product of a decade-long, worldwide, cross cultural dialogue on
common goals and shared values
• Began as a United Nations initiative, but it was carried forward and
completed by a global civil society initiative
• Was launched as a people’s charter in 2000
• The drafting of the Earth Charter involved the most inclusive and
participatory process ever associated with the creation of an
international declaration
• Over 5000 organizations and governments endorses and uses the
Earth Charter
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Why Earth Charter?
• It is global in that it is actually accepted by large number of people
from all over the globe
– a public document available for endorsement by individuals who do so in the
knowledge that they endorse something endorsed by hundreds of thousands of
others
– The values of the Earth Charter are not merely shared in the sense that they are the
same for different people; they are shared in the stronger sense of people
belonging to a community of shared values
• It is global in that it was formed as a result of a wide process of global
consultation
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Why do we need the Earth Charter?
• To examine our values and choose a better way
• To realize our common ground although we are diverse
• To unify us in our work for change
• Earth Charter provides a valuable educational instrument in
education for sustainable development
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What Earth Charter can offer
• A global citizen who is in search of reasonable global ethic can find it in
the Earth Charter
– a concrete expression of a global ethic which otherwise might seem too abstract
and undefined
• Through the Earth Charter can be also found a genuine and real
community of like-minded people across the world united in its
inspirational power
– It is not just an idea in the mind of the global citizen but actually shared by agents
from all over the world
• The Earth Charter provides one approach for educating and
motivating people and governments to act with the necessary sense
of universal responsibility
– stresses both the inner motivational resources of individuals and the external social
structures and institutions
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• The UNESCO General Conference of member states endorsed the
Earth Charter in 2003 as “an important ethical framework for
sustainable development” and as “an educational tool.”
• UNESCO has chosen to emphasize the importance of teaching and
learning about the values and life styles that communities must
embrace, if they are to make the transition to sustainable
development.
– In this regard, UNESCO is recommending the Earth Charter as a valuable
ethical guide and teaching tool. The Earth Charter is already being used widely
in schools, colleges, and universities
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Conclusion
• The principles of sustainable development help us think in terms of
the future, so we can leave the planet in a better condition for
generations to come
• The Earth Charter is a tool which helps us adjust our attitudes so we
can create a better world
• The Earth Charter is like a map, which helps us get oriented and
figure out which way we want to go. It also helps us make good
decisions, not only for ourselves, but also for others and for its
namesake, Earth
• Everything you do impacts this world. The Earth Charter helps us
understand that each one of us has a responsibility to take care of
our planet
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“We stand at a critical moment in Earth's
history, a time when humanity must choose
its future. As the world becomes increasingly
interdependent and fragile, the future at once
holds great peril and great promise. To move
forward we must recognize that in the
midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures
and life forms we are one human family and
one Earth community with a common destiny.
We must join together to bring forth a
sustainable global society founded on
respect for nature, universal human
rights, economic justice, and a culture of
peace. Towards this end, it is imperative that
we, the peoples of Earth, declare our
responsibility to one another, to the greater
community of life, and to future generations.”
—
Preamble
The Earth Charter
2000
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Contact
Earth
Charter
International
Join the
Earth
Charter
Initiative
Earth Charter International Secretariat and
Earth Charter Center for Education for Sustainable Development
at UN mandated University for Peace, Costa Rica
Contact the Youth Facilitator: youthcoordinator [@] earthcharter.org
www.EarthCharter.org/youth
www.EarthCharter.org
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Background reading:
•
Earth Charter Virtual Library, http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/invent/
The Earth Charter in Action
Toward a Sustainable World
Mirian Vilela and Peter Blaze Corcoran
History and Provenance of the Earth Charter
Building Consensus on Shared Values
Parvez Hassan
A thematic essay on the historical context and significance of the Earth Charter
Earth Charter: An Ethical Lodestar and Moral Force
Abelardo Brenes
A thematic essay on responsibility to the whole Earth community and to promote the common good
Universal and Differentiated Responsibility
Nigel Dower
A thematic essay on global interdependence and universal responsibility
The Earth Charter and Global Citizenship: A Way Forward
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Steven C. Rockefeller
Interdependence and Global Ethics
Steven C. Rockefeller
The Earth Charter: An Ethical Foundation
Steven C. Rockefeller
Global ethics, international law, and the Earth Charter
McGrady, Andrew G. , Regan, Ethna
Ethics in a global world: the Earth Charter and religious education
Nigel Dower
The Earth Charter and Global Ethics
David Chalmers
Protecting Life from Climate Change
The need for synergies between policy, ethics, and education
Alan AtKisson
Global Warming is an Ethical Issue
Ibrahima Seck
Winning the Struggle Against Global Warming
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