Asc Course Reader Chapter 1

COURSE WORKBOOK SPRING 2012

Chapter Science is about a world without emotions, this chapter is not. –felix peniche 1 words of change

“When you are confronted by any “try telling yourself complex social system, such as an you are not accountable urban center or a hamster, with things to the life of your tribe about it that you’re dissatisfied with the breath of your planet “ and anxious to fix, you cannot just Adrienne Rich, feminist poet and essayist step in and set about fixing with much hope of helping. This realization is one of the sore discouragements of our Change is the law of life. And those who century…you cannot meddle with one look only to the past or present are certain part of a complex system from the to miss the future. outside without the almost certain risk John F. Kennedy of setting off disastrous events that you hadn’t counted on in other, remote parts. If you want to fix It is easier to fight for one’s something you are first obliged to principles than to live up to them. understand…the whole Alfred Adler system…intervening is a way of causing trouble.” Lewis Thomas, biologist Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.

Albert Einstein

I think courage is walking into a building that you know could collapse at any minute, to try to save others. —A witness to the 2001 World Trade Center towers tragedy

REMEMBER THAT ALL

THINGS ARE ONLY

OPINIONS AND THAT IT I S “Each life represents a unique narrative which reveals how we IN YOUR POWER TO THI NK cope with and combines within specific socio-historical AS YOU PLEASE. circumstances, the components of our personal and collective M A R C U S A U R E L I U S ( 1 1 2 – history, how we build our personal and social identities, and 180 C . E .)— how we make use of the freedom the socio-historical environment ROMAN EMPEROR AND leaves us” Apfelbaum, 2001 , p. 172 STOIC PHILOSOPHER

”Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts:

 the concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and  the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs." / Brundtland Report

We know that relying solely on argument we wandered for forty years politically in the wilderness. We know that arguments are not enough . . . and that political force is necessary. Christa Bel Pankhurst. suffragist

George W. cares as much about climate change as you would expect from a Texas oilman. Donella Meadows

History says, Don’t hope

If it ain’t broke, you just haven’t looked On this side of the grave. hard enough. Tom Peters But then, once in a lifetime

The longed-for tidal wave

Of justice can rise up,

And hope and history rhyme.

- Seamus Heaney, “The Cure at Troy”

I do believe that life is just a day in school. All our experiences are but lessons in some form or other which condition us for our larger destiny. What matters, and what matters only is what we do with the problems.

Tell me, what is it you plan to do, with your one wild and precious life? -Mary Oliver

Under existing

macro-economic

arrangements, growth is the only A conservative is a man with two perfectly real answer to unemployment – good legs who, however, has never learned society is hooked how to walk forward. on growth. Franklin D. Roosevelt

Douglas Booth, 20041 An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied. We know that relying solely on argument Arnold H. Glasow we wandered for forty years politically in the wilderness. We know that arguments A country's strategy is always based on a are not enough . . . and that political force fundamental philosophical outlook. is necessary. Marc Forne Molne -Christa bel Pankhurst. suffragist

A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all. Michael LeBoeuf

"the struggle of people versus power is the struggle of memory against forgetting"

Milan Kundera

“Every man who has shown the world the way to beauty, to true culture, has been a rebel, a universal without patriotism, without home, who has found his people everywhere.” Chaim Potok

What I worry about is climate change, because that would have untold effects that we can't even measure yet.

Susan George

“RADICAL SIMPLY MEANS GRASPING THINGS BY THE ROOTS”

ANGELA DAVIS

AND HERE YET ANOTHER TEMPTATION Change is not a destination, just as hope is ASSERTS ITSELF. WHY NOT WAIT UNTIL not a strategy. Rudy Giuliani OUR CAUSE BECOMES VIVID AND URGENT ENOUGH, AND OUR SIDE N U M E R O U S Creative without strategy is called 'art.' ENOUGH, TO VOTE OUR OPPONENT S O U T Creative with strategy is called OF OFFICE? WHY NOT B E PATIENT? MY 'advertising.' O W N A N S W E R IS THAT WHILE WE ARE Jef I. Richards BEING PATIENT, MORE MOUNTAINS, FORESTS, AND STREAMS , MORE PEOPLE'S However beautiful the strategy, you should HOMES AND LIVES, WIL L BE DESTROYED occasionally look at the results. IN THE APPALACHIAN C OAL FIELDS. ARE Winston Churchill 400,000 ACRES OF DEV ASTATED LAND, AND 1 ,200 MILES OF OBLITERATED STREAMS NOT ENOUGH? THIS NEEDS T O BE STOPPED. IT DOES NOT NEED TO BE

"REGULATED." AS BOTH FEDERAL AND

STATE GOVERNMENTS HA V E A M P L Y The world is a SHOWN, YOU CANNOT RE G U L A T E A N dangerous place to live; not ABOMINATION. YOU HAV E GOT TO STOP because of the IT. - WENDELL BERRY, AUTHO R A N D people who are FARMER WE GOT FURTHER SMASH I N G evil, but because WINDOWS THAN WE EVER G O T L E T T I N G of the people who don't do anything T H E M S M A S H O U R H E A D S . about it. - CHRISTABEL PANKHURST , SUFFRAGIST Albert Einstein

“At best it was a cruel trick of nature, at worst it was the predictable price of arrogance, greed and tunnel bureaucratic vision.” - Tom Harris

The main battle in imperialism is over land, of course; but when it came to who owned the land, who You have to be fast on your feet and adaptive or had the right else a strategy is useless. Charles de Gaulle to settle and work on it, who kept it going, who won it back, and who now plans the future-these “The difference between theory and practice issues were is that in theory, there is no difference between reflected, contested, even for a time decided theory and practice, but in practice, there is.” in narrative. Jan van de Sneptscheut -Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism Given the same amount of intelligence. timidity will do a thousand times more damage than audacity. I hear many condemn these men because -Carl von Clausewitz. Strategist they were so few. When were the good and the brave ever in a majority? -Henry David Thoreau. "A Plea for Hillel & Pastor Martin Niemöller in Conscience be Captain John Brown: my Guide, p.126

Erica Chenowth & Maria J. If I am for myself then, who am I?... Stephan in Why civil resistance works, p. 221 First they came for the Jews We have argued that: Nonviolent resistance And I did not speak out - campaigns have been more effective… because I was not Jew. “WE ARE COTTON CAUGHT Second that the historical Then they came for the communist success of nonviolent IN THE AIR, AND I WILL campaigns is explained by And I did not speak out - NOT STRAY MEANING the fact that the physical, moral and informational Because I was not a communist. FROM THIS” barriers to participation in Then they came for the trade unionist nonviolent campaigns are DERRICK BROWN substantially And I did not speak out – lower…nevertheless we have also shown that just Because I am not a trade unionist. because a campaign is Then they came for me- nonviolent does not guarantee its success. And there was no one left Campaigns do not succeed simply because they have To speak for me won the moral high ground…Rather, the ability of the campaign to make strategic adjustments is crucial…

For me, nonviolence was not a moral principle but a strategy; there is no I B E L I E V E moral goodness in using an “SUSTAINABL

E U S E ” I S ineffective weapon. -Nelson Mandela T H E

G R E A T E S T

PROPAGANDA IN WILDLIFE Those who bothered incessantly about security survived, but few of them CONSERVATIO had much beyond survival to their credit. To strike and then to survive was N A T T H E the real test.

MOMENT. M. R. D. Foot, historian on World War II resistance movements.

STEVE IRWIN

I do not wish to kill nor to be killed, but I can foresee circumstances in which both these things would be by me unavoidable. We preserve the socalled peace of our community by deeds of petty violence every day. Look at the policeman's billy and handcuffs! Look at the jail! Look at the gallows! Look at the chaplain of the regiment! We are hoping only to live safely on the outskirts of this provisional army. So we defend ourselves and our hen- roosts, and maintain slavery. -Henry David Thoreau, "A Plea for Captain John Brown"

“A cane toad can cause a slow death in a crocodile or a goanna or any other animal that eats it . . . we’ve got to eradicate them by any means possible.” David Tollner, Australian lawmaker

" I N E V E R Y OTHERNESS LIES THE TRUE SENSE O F S E L F " - MOMO L'AUTRE

Richard Branson in Screw Business as Discourse is not simply that which Usual, 2011 p. 6: translates struggles or systems of domination, but that for which and by It's not about martyrdom, it's about means of which struggle occurs. balance and compassion and figuring out -Michel Foucault, The Order of how we can build new ways to live together, Discourse as a truly global village, that allow everyone to prosper. I'm not talking about an uprising, or armed conflict in a Marxist “If you have never been rocked back by sense - I'm talking about the power of the the presence of purpose, ordinary, everyday person to become This poem is too soon for you” entrepreneurs and change-makers to set up Buddy Wakefield their own lives, to say - screw business as usual, we can do it! We can turn things upside down and make a huge difference. “ Tipping points, once considered too alarmist for proper scientific circles, have entered the climate change mainstream,” At times we wish that our word were the Richard Kerr, dean of U.S. climate incandescent lava of a volcano wiping out journalists everything in its path, devouring the last vestiges of retrograde ideas, to found a humanitarian society at the feet of true equality. -Francisco Severo Maldonado and Say Yes, by Andrea Gibson

Rafael de Zayas Enriquez when two violins are placed in a room if a chord on one violin is struck the other violin will sound the note if this is your definition of hope “It is difficult to get the news this is for you the ones who know how powerful we are from poems, yet men die who know we can sound the music in the people around us miserably every day, for lack of simply by playing our own strings for the ones who sing life into broken wings what is found there.” open their chests and offer their breath as wind on a still day when nothing seems to be moving William Carlos Williams spare those intent on proving god is dead for you when your fingers are red from clutching your heart so it will beat faster for the time you mastered the art of giving yourself for the sake of someone else

for the ones who have felt what it is to crush the lies and lift truth so high the steeples bow to the sky

this is for you

this is also for the people who wake early to watch flowers bloom Gender equality is more than a goal in who notice the moon at noon on a day when the world itself. It is a precondition for meeting has slapped them in the face with its lack of light the challenge of reducing poverty, for the mothers who feed their children first and thirst for nothing when they’re full promoting sustainable development and building good governance. this is for women - Kofi Annan and for the men who taught me only women bleed with the moon but there are men who cry when women bleed men who bleed from women’s wounds and this is for that moon on the nights she seems hung by a noose for the people who cut her loose and for the people still waiting for the rope to burn about to learn they have scissors in their hands

this is for the man who showed me the hardest thing about having nothing is having nothing to give who said the only reason to live is to give ourselves away so this is for the day we’ll quit or jobs and work for something real we’ll feel for sunshine in the shadows look for sunrays in the shade this is for the people who rattle the cage that slave wage built and for the ones who didn’t know the filth until tonight but right now are beginning songs that sound something like people turning their porch lights on and calling the homeless back home

this is for all the shit we own and for the day we’ll learn how much we have when we learn to give that shit away this is for doubt becoming faith for falling from grace and climbing back up for trading our silver platters for something that matters like the gold that shines from our hands when we hold each other

this is for the grandmother who walked a thousand miles on broken glass to find that single patch of grass to plant a family tree where the fruit would grow to laugh for the ones who know the math of war has always been subtraction so they live like an action of addition for you when you give like every star is wishing on you and for the people still wishing on stars this is for you too

this is for the times you went through hell so someone else wouldn’t have to for the time you taught a 14 year old girl she was powerful this is for the time you taught a 14 year old boy he was beautiful for the radical anarchist asking a republican to dance cause what’s the chance of everyone moving from right to left if the only moves they see are NBC and CBS this is for the no becoming yes for scars becoming breath

“ANOTHER for saying i love you to people who will never say it to us for scraping away the rust and remembering how to shine WORLD IS NOT for the dime you gave away when you didn’t have a penny ONLY POSSIBLE. for the many beautiful things we do for every song we’ve ever sung SHE IS ON HER for refusing to believe in miracles because miracles are the impossible coming true WAY … O N A and everything is possible QUIET DAY, I this is for the possibility that guides us CAN H E A R H E R and for the possibilities still waiting to sing BREATHING.” and spread their wings inside us cause tonight saturn is on his knees ARUNDHATI ROY proposing with all of his ten thousand rings that whatever song we’ve been singing we sing even more the world needs us right now more than it ever has before pull all your strings play every chord if you’re writing letters to the prisoners start tearing down the bars if you’re handing our flashlights in the dark start handing our stars never go a second hushing the percussion of your heart play loud play like you know the clouds have left too many people cold and broken and you’re their last chance for sun play like there’s no time for hoping brighter days will come play like the apocalypse is only 4…3…2 but you have a drum in your chest that could save us you have a song like a breath that could raise us like the sunrise into a dark sky that cries to be blue play like you know we won’t survive if you don’t but we will if you do play like Saturn is on his knees proposing with all of his ten thousand rings that we give every single breath this is for saying–yes

this is for saying–yes

Eric Selbin Revolution, Rebellion, Resistance: The Power Of A Story, p.194

People draw on the past to explain the present and predict the future, forecast a future predicated(established) in the present, and refashion the past necessary to fit the exigencies(needs) they face. The result is a array of stories which compete to become the story of the moment, a process whereby people rely on a combination of myth, memory, and mimesis, to tell a powerful story of who they are, where they want to go and how they will get there… What do you think will happen next? You tell me!

Truth – Alexander Ebert

The truth is that I never shook my shadow Every day it's trying to trick me into doing battle

Calling out 'faker' only get me rattled Wanna pull me back behind the fence with the cattle Building your lenses Digging your trenches Put me on the front line "I seen the truth many times Leave me with a dumb mind But for the first time she saw me With no defenses She kept wild horses in her stables But your defense is If you can't stand to feel the pain then you And rode bareback are senseless In search for stability I looked on Since this, I've grown up some And watched Different kinda fighter Like an orphaned child And when the darkness come, let it inside With dreams of riding this merry go round you Your darkness is shining I presented My darkness is shining My femenine side Have faith in myself With chocolate berries Truth. She cut the stems I've seen a million numbered doors on the And placed them gently horizon Down my throat Now which is the future you chosen before you gone dying And these two lips I'll tell you about a secret I've been Might soon eclipse undermining Your brightest hopes Every little lie in this world comes from dividing And these tulips Say you're my lover Might soon eclipse say you're my homie The snow Tilt my chin back, slit my throat Take a bath in my blood, get to know me Rise and shine! All out of my secrets Her merriness goes round All my enemies are turning into my teachers An elliptical orbit Moods gallop Because Toward her mechanical death Light's blinding No way dividing This poetry has become about beauty What's yours or mine when everything's Not about truth shining Truth would have more questions..." adapted from Saul Your darkness is shining Williams My darkness is shining Have faith in ourselves Truth.

(Yeah) Yes I'm only loving, only trying to only love And yes, that's what I'm trying to is only loving

Yes I'm only loving, trying to only love I swear to god I'm only trying to be loving

Yes I'm only lonely loving And yes I'm only feeling only loving, only loving Ya say it ain't loving, loving but my loving

I wanna only love til I'm only loving I swear to god I'm only loving. Trying to be loving, loving, loving, loving, loving, loving, love

Yes I'm only loving, yes I'm trying to only love I swear to god I'm trying but I'm only loving Ya say it ain't loving, loving, loving, loving, love my love

But I'm only loving, loving, loving The Truth.

Words without There is no way to democracy, action are empty; democracy is the way! action without There is no way to peace, peace is words is blind; the way! words and action There is no way to dignity, dignity is outside of the spirit the way! of community are There is no way to justice, justice is death. the way! – fp - Pueblo Nasa, Colombia

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion." Albert Camus

NOTHING SPLENDID HAS EVER BEEN ACHIEVED

EXCEPT BY THOSE WHO DARED BELIEVE THAT

SOMETHING INSIDE THE M WAS SUPERIOR TO

C IRCUMSTANCE." - BRUCE BARTON

"OUR LIVES BEGIN TO END THE DAY WE BECOM E SILENT ABOUT THING S THAT MATTER."

REVEREND MARTIN LUTH ER KING JR. being, not having giving, not getting needs, not wants better, not richer community, not individual other, not self connected, not separate ecology, not economy part of nature, not apart from nature dependent, not transcendent tomorrow, not today

“We, therefore, resolve to act. We propose a revolution in conduct toward an environment which is rising in revolt against us. Granted that ideas and institutions long established are not easily changed;

yet today is the first day of the rest of our life on this planet. We will begin anew.” - Santa Barbara Declaration of Environmental Rights

ALTERNATIVE CULTURE OPPOSITIONAL CULTURE

Apathetic-to-hostile to concept of Consciously embraces resistance political engagement Change seen in psychological and Change seen in economic and political cultural terms terms

Individual consciousness is the target Concrete institutions are targeted

Adolescent values of youth movement Adult values of discernment, responsibility

All authority is rejected out of hand Legitimate authority is accepted and cultivated

Rejection of moral judgment Strong moral code based on universal human rights

Attacks on conventions Attacks on power structures • all boundaries fair game • shock value

Alienated individual valorized Loyalty and solidarity valued

Goal is to feel intense, "authentic," Goals are adult concerns: guide the community, unmediated emotions socialize the young, enforce norms, participate in larger project of righting the world

A politics of emotion in which feeling A politics of community that values states outweigh effective strategy or responsibility, mutual aid, work tactics ethic-dependent on self-regulation of mature adults

Politics is who you are Politics is what you do

Human relations are corrupted in the act Human relations are corrupted by systems of political resistance; only right consciousness of power and oppression; can prevail justice must prevail even if it takes generations

Generalized withdrawal as strategy Withdraw loyalty from systems of oppression and the oppressors but active engagement to stop injustice

Moral vigor of youth cut off from action Idealism tempered by experience • horizontal hostility • questions of in-group/outgroup

Cultural appropriation • Cultural reclamation and protection (oppressed group) • Cultural respect, political solidarity (allies)

Figure 1: from Lierre Keith, Deep Green Resistance 2011

A tree's a tree. How many more do you need to look at? Ronald Reagan

"Man's greatness consists in his ability to do and the proper application of his powers to things needed to be done." Frederick Douglass

“To “ render ourselves the Masters and possessors of nature, ” as Descartes famously put it in 1637 was a dramatic shift away from viewing the world through the prism of faith and spirit and God towards understanding it through empirical data gathered and sifted and rationally analyzed. This movement, the Enlightenment, made it possible for humanity to understand the world far better — and to log and build on it and conquer it, for a time.”

Johann Hari of the Independent of London,

Today, global climate change is a fact. The Climate change is a major concern in relation to climate has changed visibly, tangibly, the minerals sector and sustainable measurably. An additional increase in development. It is, potentially, one of the greatest of average temperatures is not only possible, all threats to the environment, to but very probable, while human intervention in the natural climate system biodiversity and ultimately to our quality of life. plays an important, if not decisive role. FACING THE FUTURE, MINING BRUNO PORRO, CHIEF RISK MINERALS AND SUSTAINABLE OFFICER, SWISS DEVELOPMENT AUSTRALIA, REINSURANCE, 2002.1 2002.2

We, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency – a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential even as we gather here. But there is hopeful news as well: we have the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst– though not all – of its consequences, if we act boldly, decisively and quickly.

AL GORE, NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LECTURE, 10 DECEMBER 2007.3

A MAN, AFTER HE HAS BRUSHED OFF THE DUST A N D C H I P S

OF HIS LIFE, WILL HA VE LEFT ONLY THE HAR D, CLEAN QUESTIONS:

WAS IT GOOD OR WAS I T EVIL? HAVE I DONE WELL — O R I L L ?

— JOHN STEINBECK, EAST OF EDEN

There were rumors of unfathomable things, and because we couldn’t fathom them we failed to believe them, until we had no choice and it was too late. Nicole Krauss, The History of Love

Combustion is the hidden principle behind every artifact we create . . . From the earliest times, human Civilization is an experiment, a very recent way of life in the human civilization has been no career, and it has a habit of walking into what I am calling more than a strange luminescence growing progress traps . . . The most compelling reason for reforming our more intense by the hour, system is that of which no one can say when it will begin the system is in no one’s interest. It is a suicide machine. —Ronald Wright to wane and when it will fade away. For the time being, our cities still shine through the night, and the fires still spread. —W. G. Sebald Perhaps a spark will ignite a massive uprising of popular will.

Ross Gelbspan, Boiling Point

The members of this new ruling class were generally, and quite aptly, called “barons,” “kings,” “empire-builders,” or even “emperors.” They were aggressive men, as were the first feudal barons; sometimes they were lawless. . . . [They sought] to organize and exploit the resources of a nation upon a gigantic scale, to regiment its farmers and workers into harmonious corps of producers, and to do this only in the name of an uncontrolled appetite for private profit. Here surely is the great inherent contradiction whence so much disaster, outrage and misery has flowed. —MATTHEW JOSEPHSON, THE R OBBER BAR ONS ( 1 9 3 4 )

WE ARE THE FIRST generation in 100,000 generations of human evolution to have our lives shaped—not by nature—but by an electronic mass media environment of our own making.

LIKE CAGED ANIMALS we have lost our bearings. Our attention spans are flickering near zero, our imaginations are giving out, and we are unable to remember the past. —SIGN HUNG BY DOUG TOMPKINS IN THE NEWLY OPENED FRONT OFFICE OF HIS PRIVATE PUMALIN PARK IN CHILE

IF YOU WANT TO LEARN A B O U T T H E A journey of a thousand miles HEALTH OF A POPULATI ON,

LOOK AT THE AIR THEY BREATHE, THE begins with a single step. WATER THEY DRINK,

AND THE PLACES WHERE T H E Y L I V E . Lao Tsu

HIPPOCRATES

The philosophy of reasoning, to be complete, ought to comprise the The difficulty lies not theory of bad as well as of good reasoning. in the new ideas,

– John Stuart Mill, but in escaping the old A System of Logic ones, which ramify for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds. John Maynard Keynes

W E S H A L L ‘I hear I forget

N O T C E A S E F R O M I see I remember EXPLORATION

AND THE END I do I understand’ OF ALL OUR

EXPLORING Galileo

WILL BE TO Learning takes place through the active behavior of the student: it is what he does that he learns, not what the teacher does. A R R I V E Ralph W. Tyler (1949) W H E R E W E

STARTED

A N D K N O W

T H E P L A C E

F O R T H E

FIRST TIME. We have at most ten years—not ten years T. S. ELIOT, to decide upon action, but ten years to alter F O U R

QUARTETS fundamentally the trajectory of global greenhouse emissions. . . . Such an outcome is still feasible in the case of global warming, but just barely. Dr. James Hansen, director, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Science

Sign Wendell Berry’s “Manifesto”:35 When they want you to buy something they will call you. When they want you to die for profit they will let you know. So, friends, every day do something that won’t compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be poor. Love someone who does not deserve it. Denounce the government and embrace the flag. Hope to live in that free republic for which it stands . . . Expect the end of the world. Laugh. Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful though you have considered all the facts. So long as women do not go cheap for power, please women more than men,

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy a woman satisfi ed to bear a child?. . . As soon as the generals and the politicos can predict the motions of your mind, lose it. Leave it as a sign to mark the false trail, the way you didn’t go. Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction. Practice resurrection.

The Earth Charter Preamble 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. Earth, Our Home Humanity is part of a vast evolving universe. Earth, our home, is alive with a unique community of life. The forces of nature make existence a demanding and uncertain adventure, but Earth has provided the conditions essential to life’s evolution. The resilience of the community of life and the well-being of humanity depend upon preserving a healthy biosphere with all its ecological systems, a rich variety of plants and animals, fertile soils, pure waters, and clean air. The global environment with its finite resources is a common concern of all peoples. The protection of Earth’s vitality, diversity, and beauty is a sacred trust. The Global Situation The dominant patterns of production and consumption are causing environmental devastation, the depletion of resources, and a massive extinction of species. Communities are being undermined. The benefits of development are not shared equitably and the gap between rich and poor is widening. Injustice, poverty, ignorance, and violent conflict are widespread and the cause of great suffering. An unprecedented rise in human population has overburdened ecological and social systems. The foundations of global security are threatened. These trends are perilous—but not inevitable. The Challenges Ahead The choice is ours: form a global partnership to care for Earth and one another or risk the destruction of ourselves and the diversity of life. Fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions, and ways of living. We must realize that when basic needs have been met, human development is primarily about being more, not having more. We have the knowledge and technology to provide for all and to reduce our impacts on the environment. The emergence of a global civil society is creating new opportunities to build a democratic and humane world. Our environmental, economic, political, social, and spiritual challenges are interconnected, and together we can forge inclusive solutions. Universal Responsibility To realize these aspirations, we must decide to live with a sense of universal responsibility, identifying ourselves with the whole Earth community as well as our local communities. We are at once citizens of diff erent nations and of one world in which the local and global are linked. Everyone shares responsibility for the present and future well-being of the human family and the larger living world. The spirit of human solidarity and kinship with all life is strengthened when we live with reverence for the mystery of being, gratitude for the gift of life, and humility regarding the human place in nature.