The Earth Charter

URL:http://bahaiteachings.org/
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The first principle of the Earth Charter is entitled, “Respect and Care For the Community of Life”. Within this principle there are four sections, which discuss respect and care for Earth and everything on it to secure its abundance and beauty for future generations. I believe David Orr would chime in on this section in particular because of his love of the land, or biophilia. Orr is very passionate about the world around him and he preaches respect for the earth and for the long-term preservation of its beauty. At the end of Orr’s “Love It of Lose It: The Coming Biophilia Revolution” he lists off several things a “sane” civilization that loved more fully and intelligently would have, such as more parks and fewer shopping malls.

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The second principle is entitled “Ecological Integrity”. This principle has four sections discussing concern for biodiversity and natural processes, environmental protection, and the overall well being of the earth and its inhabitants. Vandana Shiva discusses a great deal about biodiversity in her, “What Is Biodiversity and Why Is It So Important?” Shiva believes that biodiversity is the key to life, it is what shaped the world and without it we would be nothing. To preserve our Earth and its natural processes we must have biodiversity.

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The third principle of the Earth Charter is entitled “Social and Economic Justice”. Within this principle are four sections that essentially discuss how to care for the human race by ending poverty, promoting human development, gender equality, and eliminating discrimination. This section really relates to our most recent field trip to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). At the CIW we were taught about the famers whom worked in the fields, their working and living conditions. These workers are not being treated equally by, essentially, anyone. They are only recently being given some rights, but they still live in poverty. The way they used to be treated in the fields was horrible, getting paid very little for hours upon hours of work out in the hot Florida sun without access to water and being mistreated by the people in charge. These workers are finally starting to live normal lives with better pay and better working conditions thanks to the CIW.

URL:http://www.rufford.org/files/Environmental
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The fourth principle is entitled “Democracy, Nonviolence, and Peace”. The four sections that make up this principle discuss strengthening democratic institutions at all levels, integrating the knowledge and skills needed for a sustainable way of life into education, treating all life respectfully, and promoting peace. University Colloquium in general is something that really helps promote this section as well as the others. Within colloquium we are taught many different things about the world around us and its importance and that is exactly what this principle is wanting to accomplish. This principle wants everyone to be educated about the world, the life in it, and why it is important, colloquium is assisting in the growth of knowledge to better understand our home and why it is important that we respect it and the life on it.

Lester R. Brown: "Plan B 4.0"

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           “Plan B 4.0” by Lester R. Brown discusses the hardships that are beginning to face our world and how do we fix these things in the time we have available. We have many problems facing us if the world does not decide to change its ways and change them soon. “Although this conclusion may surprise many, it will not surprise the scientists who track global environmental trends such as deforestation, soil erosion, falling water tables, and rising temperature” (Brown xi). I completely agree with this statement. I have noticed many different problems our world is currently facing, but yet the powers that be decide not to do anything about it. They try to keep people in the dark and say everything is fine, when it is clearly not. Deforestation is one in particular that I am continuously noticing. Left and right companies are destroying natural land areas to build communities, malls, shopping plazas, and anything else you can think of. I do not believe that they have much, if any, regard for the life that resides in these natural areas; they are just concerned with the potential money they can receive from it.

URL:http://www.raileurope.com/
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           “In the Plan B economy the transportation system will be electrified with a broad-based shift to plug-in hybrids, all-electric cars, and high- speed intercity rail” (Brown 76). I agree with this to some extent, but I do not really see how it is going to be possible. I, along with millions of people, love cars and we will not easily give up our beloved gas guzzling machines. We do not want hybrids or all-electric cars. Classic cars are meant to sound mean and guttural, you cannot get that with an electric car. I know these vehicles cause a great deal of pollution, but there is no way you can get rid of them completely. The part I agree with is having the high-speed intercity rail. With this as an option people will not have to drive as much, therefore, largely cut down on emissions as well as allowing people to keep their precious vehicles.

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            “Those of us with diets heavy in fat-rich livestock products can do both ourselves and civilization a favor by moving down the food chain” (Brown 267). This comment confuses me. All throughout our lives we are told we need to eat meat and vegetables, not one or the other. I do agree that we do not need to eat them in excess, but we do need them in proper moderation. In just eating vegetables your body is not getting the appropriate nutrients it needs to operate. Vegans and vegetarians usually take supplements to receive the proper nutrients their body needs when not eating meat. I do not believe we need to move down the food chain, we just need to pay attention to how much we consume and ensure that it is in proper amounts.

Vandana Shiva: "What Is Biodiversity and Why Is It Important?”

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            Vandana Shiva’s “What Is Biodiversity and Why Is It Important?” discusses the meaning of biodiversity and why we need it in our world. “Biodiversity means the diversity of life—the rich diversity of life forms on our beautiful planet” (Shiva 38). This definition is pretty straight forward considering bio simply means life, so the literal translation would be life diversity. As Shiva continues to mention, biodiversity is a key component of life on earth. “Biodiversity is the very fabric of life—it provides the conditions for life’s emergence and maintenance, and the many different ways in which that life is expressed” (Shiva 38). I completely agree with this statement. Biodiversity is what keeps life on this earth going. On this planet we have enormous amounts of different organisms all living together in one place. Each one plays a key part of making life possible. Every being has a role to play, if one being is taken away completely it could cause another being to be taken away because that one was relying on the first to live, and this goes on and on. All of the organisms have a duty here, to live with no disturbance everything must remain and continue to play its role in the cycle of life.

URL:http://www.earthtimes.org/
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            “The ethical conflict between intrinsic worth and the commercial value of all life forms has become a major issue in negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO), in the commercialization of genetic engineering of plants and animals, and in the patents taken out around the world on plants, animals and microorganisms”(Shiva 41). I completely disagree with genetic engineering, although interesting because it is an advanced science, why are we messing with things that are perfectly fine on their own? Our world does not need more artificial things; we need more of the world’s natural things. We need to rebuild our earth the way it used to be, not continue to make a synthetic version of it. Our planet and the life on it deserves to be healthy and taken care of, this is not the way to making a better world, it is the way to ruin it.

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            “Human beings are clearly highly ignorant of other members of the Earth Family and, at least in the Western worldview, have thought of themselves as sitting on top of a biodiversity pyramid or tree rather than forming a part of a complex web of life” (Shiva 44). I am not quite sure how to feel about this statement. On one hand I do agree that humans think of themselves as high and mighty beings, but on the other we know we are part of an ecosystem and we know we are not invincible. Also, not all humans have the mind set that we are all powerful; many actually understand that we are a part of the world, that we are not the world we are simply a part of a bigger community. At times we may try to control what is going on around us, but other species do this as well. The entire human race is not out to create a monopoly; most are just trying to live in harmony with the world around us.

Rachel Carson: "The Obligation To Endure"

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Rachel Carson’s “The Obligation to Endure” discusses the negative impact that the human race has had on our natural world. “Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species—man—acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world” (Carson 153). I completely agree with Carson in the fact that man has indeed destroyed much of our natural world in trying to control it. In an attempt to make ourselves comfortable with all of our luxuries such as most transportation, restaurants, factories, and power plants we are polluting the air, water and the earth in general. For the most part all of the pollution we are creating is irreversible. We cannot simply go outside with some contraption and rid the earth of all the chemicals we have launched into our atmosphere and lodged into our soil. Not only do these toxins penetrate our world over time they also make their way into living organisms making them sick and potentially, if lethal enough, causing death.

URL:http://www.marywood.edu/
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“The crusade to create a chemically sterile, insect-free world seems to have engendered a fanatic zeal on the part of many specialists and most of the so-called control agencies” (Carson 159). I do not believe this statement to be true. Specialists put in charge of these control agencies know what has to be done and how it has to be done. These people understand how our world works and how it must maintain homeostasis and wiping out different species is not how you achieve that. I know there are some people who believe that wiping out entire species won’t affect much of anything as far as the natural order is concerned, but these people are not the specialists. Specialists look for ways to keep everything on earth comfortable, they do not lean in one way or the other and will definitely not knock out an entire species for the sake of human comfort.

URL:http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/
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“I am saying, rather, that control must be geared into realities, not to mythical situations, and that the methods employed must be such that they do not destroy us along with the insects” (Carson 156). This statement that Carson makes is a bit confusing to me. How could control be geared into a mythical situation? It either is controlled or it is not controlled there really is no other option. Also, I do not believe that destroy is the best word to use in this case. The whole point of this is to have a healthy balance between the insects and the human population, not wipe out the entirety of one or the other. Control is the key word here, we are simply attempting to control some of the insect population so both humans and the insects can live in harmony.