Recommendations

Home ] Main Index 2002 ] Proceedings ] Up ]


Global Dialogue 2002

Earth Management - All Peoples together
theme
Earth Government for Earth Community
- A grassroots process -


August 17-22, 2002, in Toronto
August 1-31, 2002, on Internet

OVERVIEW

The OVERVIEW of Global Dialogue 2002 was written from the material found in the Workshop Session Summaries and from brain-storming exercises, Vision statements, comments and recommendations, reviewing of research papers and also results of the discussions in August 2002.

Index
of

Workshop Session Summaries










Workshop Sessions Listing and Summaries



Session A


1. Consumerism
2. Consumer rights and their human rights
3. Universal values
4. Consumer responsibilities and human responsibilities
5. The Glass Bubble concept of ‘a Global Community’
6. The Global Community, the human family, the Earth Community
7. The Gross Sustainable Development Product (GSDP)
8. Measuring and assessing Earth management with a comprehensive set of indicators.
9. Sustainable Development for the New Age Civilization
10. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Earth Management

Session B


1. Religious aspects of Earth Management
2. How does a religion support a sound management of the planet?
3. The new religion of the Guiding Souls, and the Soul of humanity, make it possible to all religions to coexist in harmony
4. Humanity's higher purpose
5. Leadership of a nation and religion
6. The New Age Revelations, by God
7. The Soul of Humanity's Message
8. Religion and environmental conservation

Session C


1. Moral responsibility and accountability of all nations
2. Peace Movement of the Earth Community
3. Promoting Peace in the world as a way of life and shelving the war industry forever from humanity
4. The immediate formation of the Earth Ministry of Health
5. Abolition of Nuclear Weapons: security, sustainability and justice in a nuclear free future

Session D


1. The state of the world today is the result of a specific set of interlocking institutions: the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO. The debt of the poor or 'developing' nations to the rich nations was in actuality a form of global tax and therefore they dont have to pay it back. The Earth Court of Justice will be asked to decide on the debt be changed into an actual global tax to be paid by the rich nations to the poor nations, and to decide on the amount of tax to be paid.
2. Native rights in the province of British Columbia are classified as ecological and primordial human and Earth rights and therefore supersede in importance the rights of the greatest number of people of the province.
3. Poster presentation and student project viewing
4. A global regulatory framework for capitals and corporations

Session E


1. The Soul of Humanity
2. Global corporate ethics
3. Corporate social responsibility
4. Designing, monitoring, and implementing checks and balances for corporations
5. Corporations are required to expand their responsibilities to include human rights, the environment, community and family aspects, safe working conditions, fair wages and sustainable consumption aspects.
6. Freshwater and clean air as Human and Earth Rights

Session F


1. Recommendations of the Earth Community Organization to heads of State and Government, national delegates and leaders from non-governmental organizations, businesses and other major groups of the Johannesburg Summit 2002on Sustainable Development. We have already included in the 'Summary of Recommendations from Participants' a short list of recommendations obtained during a previous dialogue: Global 2000. Global 2000 was the World Congress on Managing and Measuring Sustainable Development - Global Community Action 1 held in August 2000. The same issues discussed during Global 2000 are relevant to the Global Dialogue 2002 on Earth Management - all People together. Several new issues were added for Global Dialogue 2002.
2. Special interest group and workshop
3. Agricultural Sustainability

Session G


1. Trade and globalization
2. The definition of 'Sustainable Development' with the idea that free trade and the planetary trading blocks are serving the Human Family, and not the other way around for the benefits of a few people on the planet
3. Global cooperation, the new way of doing business, ‘a new way of life’
4. Trade and the Way of Life of the West to include ethical and moral values, responsibility and accountability in all situations and places
5. The Summit of the Americas, the FTAA and Earth Management
6. The Peoples Revolution of the New Age

Session H


1. The Scale of Human and Earth Rights
2. Reforming the structure and voting system of the United Nations organization
3. The Charter of the Earth Community
4. The annulment of the special voting privileges of the Five Permanent Members of the UN, and the establishment of a voting system that give to each nation one vote per million people
5. The establishment of the Scale of Human and Earth Rights as a replacement to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Session I


1. Models of the Earth Government
2. Establishing the foundation of the Earth Government
3. Democracy of the New Age Civilization will blossom out of the Scale of Human and Earth Rights
4. Earth Environmental Governance

Session J


1. Evolution, Creation, Intelligent Design, and now, the Guiding Souls to serve God
2. History in making: the end of superpowers, the birth of the New Age Civilization, the age of global co-operation
3. Proposing our Charter to the FTAA

Session K


1. On the creation of a new nation through the process of the Earth Court of Justice: Palestinians and Jews of Israel are invited to the global dialogue to create sustainable communities and a permanent peace movement in the land.
2. Poster presentation and student project viewing
3. New symbiotical relationships between the nations to the North with those of the South

Session L


1. Establishing fundamental aspects and criteria of the New Age Civilization: all Peoples together, the Human Family, the Soul of Humanity, the Earth Community, the Global Community, Global Economic Cooperation, Earth Governance, Earth Environmental Governance, global cooperation, global Ministries, and Earth Government.
2. Leadership for the Human Family: Reflective Human Action for a Culture of Peace

Session M


1. Reforming the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the FTAA
2. Global financial institutions serving the Earth Community
3. A method of raising global taxes, of redistributing incomes to the poorest communities, of providing debt-free technical assistance to non-industrial and developing countries to help them out of poverty and to meet environmental and social standards
4. Means and action plan of eradicating poverty in the world
5. Water resources protection and management
6. The formation of global ministries to manage the world affairs in several aspects of our lives: energy, agriculture, environment, health, Earth resources, Earth management, security and safety, emergencies and rescues, trade, banks, speculation on world markets, peace, family and human development, water resources protection, family and human development, water resources protection, youth, education, justice, science and technology, finance, human resources, ethics, human and Earth rights, sustainable development, industry, and manufacturing products, etc. Global ministries will be given power to rule themselves in harmony with each other. The WTO will not be the only global ministry that can rule on cases related to trade.

Session N


1. The Earth Court of Justice
2. The Earth Ministry of Justice
3. The Earth Ministry of the Environment
4. Formation of other global ministries
5. The Earth Resources Ministry: assessing, compiling, managing and protecting Earth resources, and the Earth Court of Justice prosecuting cases involving crimes related to the relentless misused of the Earth resources.

Session O

1. Settling of disputes between nations through the process of the Earth Court of Justice: the peoples of Kashmir, India and Pakistan are invited to dialogue about the disputed territory of Kashmir
2. The Earth Court of Justice be asked to prohibit the process of market speculation worldwide, abolish speculation altogether. It can bankrupt a country's economy in seconds. Speculation should be de-institutionalized. Humanity has no real need for speculation, and it does way more damage than good.
3. Fight against terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction
4. Poster presentation and student project viewing

Session P


1. Restoration of the planet, our home
2. Global Warming and ratifying the Kyoto Protocol
3. Climate Change





1. Consumerism

Dr. Yew-Kwang Ng said that Public spending, especially on research and environmental protection, is likely well below optimal due to the long-term and global public-good nature and the overestimation of the costs of rasing public revenue. This overestimation arises from:
1. Economists'emphasis on the excess burden on the spending side;
2. The failure to take account of the environmental disruption effects of most production and consumption (which make taxes largely corrective than distortive), relative-income effects (which bias in favor of private consumption), and burden-free taxes on goods with diamond effects;
3. The failure to recognize the fact that, in non-poor countries, higher private consumption does not increase happiness at the social level, making the happiness cost of public spending virtually zero. Both reported happiness and indicators of quality of life have little positive association with economic growth but increase with scientific and technological breakthroughs at the global level.

Nikolai Grishin and Olga Tokmakova recommend that:

· Promote the application of the principles of public participation in environmental impact assessment in a transboundary context at all levels of decision-making;
· Develop ways to enhance public participation at the level of the environmental impact assessment in a transboundary context;
· Open up their work for the public, including NGOs, so that they can work as partners in decision-making and implementation of the Convention;
· Apply unreasonable or discriminatory conditions on the participation by NGOs as observers in meetings.

It is clear that the main objective of human activity in the Earth, should be the improvement of the conditions of living and future generations of people and improvement of the environment and nature resources in long term perspective. Such objective should be formulated for the development of different regions and countries of the Earth in the international and national levels.

It is important, in particular, for the countries with economy in transition. These countries, if they have such natural resources as oil and gas, based on the development of their economy on the use of these resources. But if SEA will be carried out for these countries, it may be clear that not only development of oil and gas industry may be effective for them in a long term perspective.

The main question is: who should formulate and manage the process of SEA with such objective. In the national level it may be intergovernmental structures or international NGOs or international meetings of the public, like the World Congress.

Raghbendra Jha and K.V. Bhanu Murthy argue that economic growth is desired because it increases opportunities and thereby provides greater scope for action. Clearly, though, there is an intertemporal dimension to this. Enhanced scope for action today may be available only by reducing such scope in the future. The environment is the principal example of this. But it is, by no means, the only one. For example, the no-Ponzi game condition restricting the growth of public debt (see Blanchard and Fischer (1989), for example) such that the state (or private individuals) do not borrow indefinitely from future generations in order to finance current consumption, is surely part of the same concern as, for example, that of preserving biodiversity. The stock of natural, human and physical capital must all be maintained at some, as yet vaguely defined, "optimal" levels over time. The message that we live off resources borrowed from future generations rather than those inherited from our ancestors has to be enshrined as a basic principle of economic constitutions the world over.

The notion that economic growth has to be sustainable is part of this constitution. But sustainability can have several alternative definitions. Before we discuss some of the notions that have been used in the literature and propose our own, it should be realized that just as important as the definition of sustainability is the notion of sustainable for whom. Surely, for a sufficiently high price, rich OECD countries can continue to dump nuclear and toxic waste onto poor LDCs. Thus sustainability of growth can be attained for the OECD countries but not for the LDCs. Surely, this option although feasible at a point in time, cannot be continued indefinitely. Thus the applicability of the notion of sustainability has ultimately got to be universal and refer to the indefinite future. Germane to this whole argument is the notion that sustainability involves a switch in consumption possibilities both across space at a point in time and from the present to the future. When we say that a contemporaneous profile of consumption is not sustainable, then it probably means that a switch in consumption either spatially and/or over time would improve global welfare, again perceived as a magnitude referring to the indefinite future.


Back to top of the page

2. Consumer rights and their human rights

Dr. Sue L.T. McGregor is concerned with all aspects of family and individual well-being, security and quality of life and the factors that affect their ability to fulfil their basic functions as a social institution: socialization; procreation; consumption and production; social control; love, nurturance and moral; and, maintenance of the household and daily lives. She examined the UN recognized rights within their consumption role and how these rights impact the human rights of global citizens. Her work is based on the premise that people are part of a global, human family which engages in a consuming role in a capitalist society. Since capitalism cannot survive without continuous consumption, consumption has been deified in our consumer society. If we accept that we live in a human family, we have to be concerned with the human relationships that emerge during family functions, especially the function of production and consumption. The basic argument of this discussion is that people need to change their approach so that they put people, relationships and sustainability first, and profits, wealth, growth and progress second or, at the least, strike a better balance between the two polarities. When this change happens, the goals of social equity and ecological soundness will become integral with economic efficiency and consumers will see themselves in relation to other people and the environment.

She stipulates that in a consumer society, one can never have enough and this mind set is not sustainable; as a caveat, not all consumption is bad; the goal is balanced, sustainable consumption. Lafferty (1994) suggests that sustainable consumption encompasses sustainable management of resources, considerations for the natural environment and societal processes of change, the promotion of human dignity and human rights, quality of life and the perspective of interdependence referring to the interplay between people and environments and the relationships between economies, nationally and internationally. There is potential tension between one's consumer rights and their human rights. Consumer rights assume the existence of human rights. How can one exercise the consumer right to have a voice in the policy process if they do not even have a vote or are not allowed to participate in government? How can they form consumer groups to voice their opinions collectively if they do not have to right to assemble in groups in public? How can they demand the right to consumer education when the education system is such that people cannot afford to attend, live too far away or there are no schools at all? This lack of access to education leads to illiteracy and ignorance in the general sense and, more specifically, lack of consumer education curricula leads to the inability to acquire knowledge and skills necessary to be an informed consumer. Also, how can people exercise their consumer right to information if they cannot read the information due to lack of the human right to education? How can consumers exercise their right to express the consumers' interest if they have been socialized in a planned economy wherein they do not see themselves in a consuming role? Exercising this right is exacerbated more so when people who lived in a planned economy have been forced to convert to a market economy over night but have not been socialized to function in a market economy (e.g., Russia and many African countries). How can people exercise their consumer right to safety and health in the goods and services they acquire when they do not even have the human rights of proper sanitation, safe drinking water, or adequate shelter and clothing? How can people exercise their consumer right to make choices in the marketplace if they do not have adequate incomes or steady employment? More thought provoking, how can people exercise their consumer right to redress if they do not have the human rights of recognition as a person under the law or do not have access to justice? Indeed, all of the consumer rights assume that the human rights already exist. Both the civil and political and the economic, social, and to a lesser extent, cultural human rights have to be in place in order for people to exercise their consumer rights.

Second, and closer to home, there is real tension between consumers' rights and the rights of other humans; that is, sometimes one's rights as a consumer impinge on the rights of other humans living in the global family. Of all of the consumer rights, the right to choice seems to be the one that impinges the most on the human rights of other people. The right to choice refers to the right to have a range and variety of goods and services at competitive, fair prices and variable, satisfactory quality. In order to assure choice in the Northern markets, governments have implemented trade laws to facilitate cross border transactions and transnational corporations (TNCs) have set up business off shore so they can lessen the cost of the production process. Unfortunately, in too many cases, the goods that are available in the Northern markets were provided by slave labour, child labour, prison labour and sweatshops or in countries that allow the TNCs to forego adhering to pollution or ecological concerns and human rights in pursuit of profit. Worse yet, elitist governments are often bribed to turn their eyes the other way leading to situations where labour rights are abused in efforts to earn more profits. This leads to abhorrent working conditions, job insecurity and low living standards (all human rights). Consumers in Northern countries have been socialized to want more and more things to consume but have not been socialized to appreciate the impact of their consumption choices on the human rights of other people; that is, they are NOT responsible for their decisions.
Sue then concluded that we need to focus on human relations and human security and how they are affected by consumption decisions. For indeed, "the very process of competitive individualistic consumption [has been] corrosive of the values that sustain human relationships and the families, communities" (Ekins, 1998,p.18). A future article will deal with the link between consumer responsibilities and human responsibilities.

Nikolai Grishin and Olga Tokmakova address the following issues of public participation in environmental impact assessment:
(a) goals and principles;
(b) practical acpects; (c) legal, administrative and institutional frameworks; and
(d) methods for arranging public participation in EIA. They found clear that the main objective of human activity on Earth should be the improvement of the conditions of living and future generations of people and improvement of the environment and nature resources in long term perspective. Such objective should be formulated for the development of different regions and countries of the Earth in the international and national levels. It is important, in particular, for the countries with economy in transition. These countries, if they have such natural resources as oil and gas, based on the development of their economy on the use of these resources. But if SEA will be carried out for these countries, it may be clear that not only development of oil and gas industry may be effective for them in a long term perspective. The main question is: who should formulate and manage the process of SEA with such objective. In the national level it may be intergovernmental structures or international NGOs or international meetings of the public, like the World Congress.

Raghbendra Jha and K.V. Bhanu Murthy stipulate that defining sustainable development even broadly is a non-trivial task. A further difficulty arises when we have to decide what has to be done to achieve it. The term "sustainable" is relatively easy to define: it means "enduring" or "lasting". So sustainable development is development that lasts .
The term "development" is a value-loaded concept inviting any number of interpretations. Economic development may be a relatively narrow term defined as growth in GNP per capita, or real consumption per capita and perhaps expanded to include educational and some social development indicators. The United Nations develops a Human Development Index which emphasizes literacy, life expectancy and GDP per capita. The World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) focuses on needs and underscores its emphasis on poverty alleviation as the prime objective of sustainable development. The WCED position might be regarded as the minimum level of access to commodities and resources alone beyond which wellbeing or utility has meaning. In doing this, it achieves a starting point to an inquiry into the determinants of sustainable development.


Back to top of the page
 
3. Universal values

Alexander Theodore Lopin says that each responsible person realizing the responsibility for sustainable development of the Earth, has the right to manage the Earth. It is should notice, that such management will differ from usual state management, as it is not present neither army, nor budget at us. But its are not necessary to us also, as we represent by ourselves a grassroots process. Such management will have the spiritual, intellectual form and will concern area of elaboration of correct solutions because of independent cognition on the basis of the theory of development. Simultaneously with it the new global understanding or new global perception, appropriate to new conditions of the globalization should be created. We should clearly imagine, that the new problems cannot be decided on the basis of old submissions about the world.

Dr. Gennady N. Karopa mentioned that the primary role and basic functions in solving the environment problem belongs to contemporary schools providing good facilities for systematic training, education and development of each citizen of our community. However schools today have certain difficulties in carrying out the effective environmental education of the pupils. First of all it can be explained by the fact that the mechanisms involved in the process of forming the person's responsible attitude towards nature have not been investigated yet.

Nikolai Grishin and Olga Tokmakova said that public participation was usually defined as involving the public in decision-making in general, but it was also important to have cooperation between authorities. It is useful to arrange for cooperation between authorities and participation of the public at the same time. It is clear that the main objective of human activity in the Earth, should be the improvement of the conditions of living and future generations of people and improvement of the environment and nature resources in long term perspective. Such objective should be formulated for the development of different regions and countries of the Earth in the international and national levels.

 

4. Consumer responsibilities and human responsibilities

Dr. Sue L.T. McGregor provides some exciting synergy between sustainable development, consumption and family well-being. New concepts (the human family, human responsibilities, human security, citizenship education) and old concepts (quality of life, well-being, justice and standard of living) have been combined in conjunction with a comparative analysis of the alternative approaches to the GDP as a way to bring together a collection of viewpoints to understand a family perspective in sustainable consumption and development.

Vassily A. Agaphonoff used his World Economic-Ecological Model to show that growth of the planet's population and growth of personal consumption stipulate the necessity of economic growth. The ruling world economic model (market economy based on private property and competition) goes to aims of economic growth. Factors limiting economic growth are limitation of Earth and all her resources and also final's man's opportunities and human society (physiologic, mental and social opportunities) as moving power of economic growth and consumer of its results. Limiting factors of biosphere will be narrower and harder in case of loosing biovariety.

Nikolai Grishin and Olga Tokmakova has explained a more practical experience dealing with public participation in environmental impact assessment in a transboundary context. Public participation in environmental impact assessment in a transboundary context should take place in a manner that takes full account of the rights and responsibilities of the public and the public authorities.

Raghbendra Jha and K.V. Bhanu Murthy point out that the notion of sustainability has not been sufficiently well developed in the extant literature. In particular, the full import of sustainability defined as a universal phenomenon and one that applies to the very long run, is insufficiently articulated in the literature. Developing this notion in its full generality is an important task as yet incomplete. In the present paper we take the first step in this direction by trying to focus on the consumption reducing aspect of the sustainability agenda. The consumption switching component is left for another paper . In doing so, we at once critically examine the notion of sustainability as espoused by noted commentators and extend it in areas that seem to have been ignored. In particular, we are interested in the implications of sustainability for consumer behavior and the outlining of property rights.




5. The Glass Bubble concept of ‘a Global Community’

Germain Dufour says that the Glass Bubble is designed to illustrate the concept of "a global community" to elementary school children as opposed to the idea a community is "the street where I live." It is an imaginary space enclosed in a glass bubble. Inside this is everything the child can see: above to the clouds, below into the waters of a lake or in the earth, to the horizons in front, in back, and on the sides. Every creature, every plant, every person, every structure that is visible to him(her) is part of this "global community." By focusing on familiar ground in this manner it can be taught that every living thing within the glass bubble is there because his/her food is there, his/her home is there, all he/she needs to survive is there. And every creature will stay as long as what his/her needs remains to be available within that "global community." Look up, look down, to the right, to the left, in front and behind you. Imagine all this space is inside a giant clear glass bubble. This is "a global community." The concept of the Glass Bubble can be extended to include the planet Earth and all the "global communities" contained therein. The following definition of The Global Community is appropriate:

"The Global Community is defined as being all that exits or occurs at any location at any time between the Ozone layer above and the core of the planet below."

Nikolai Grishin and Olga Tokmakova showed that implementation of public participation in transboundary EIA in each country should take into account the national traditions, institutions and social structure.




6. The Global Community, the human family, the Earth Community

Mr. Bekkerov Pete and Victoria Churikova describe that the first Russian settlers had appeared in the middle part of Kamchatka, the aboriginal were in the stage of community ( primitive)relations .

Dr. Sue L.T. McGregor proposed that the idea of sustainability to be a moral and ethical state, as well as an economic and environmental state, wherein sustainable consumption patterns respect the universal values of peace, security, justice and equity within the human relationships that exist in the global village. Put more simply, not only should consumers be concerned with the impact of their decisions on the environment but also on the lives and well-being of other people. Since one of the key functions of families as a social institution is to engage in production (selling their labour in return for wages) and consumption (using those wages to buy goods and services), the roundtable would examine the role of families as they impact sustainable consumption and development. To embrace a moral and ethical perspective, the family's function of production and consumption has to be discussed in relation to its other key functions , especially (a) socialization of children into adult, roles and (b) social control of family members so they are responsible contributing members of society.

Nikolai Grishin and Olga Tokmakova proposed that public participation was usually defined as involving the public in decision-making in general, but it was also important to have cooperation between authorities. It is useful to arrange for cooperation between authorities and participation of the public at the same time.

Dr. Tao Jiyi thinks that the adoption of world sustainable development calls for strong international cooperation. The author analyses reasons why international cooperation is needed to achieve world sustainable development. The author also points out that international cooperation can facilitate native people's acceptance of rational policies, financial assistances and advanced technologies provided by the international community and that international cooperation also can contribute to regulating world population distribution, improving low population quality of backward countries, protecting and exploiting natural resources, developing those products and industries which can cause lower consumption of natural resources and energy sources with light pollution of environment, and keeping environmental stability and ecological balance. In a word, international cooperation greatly contributes to world sustainable development. Finally, the author suggests how world sustainable development can be promoted through international cooperation.

Germain Dufour mentioned that Earth Community has initialized the People's Participation Grassroots Movement in wanting what is rightfully ours to manage: Earth. 'We the Peoples' of the Earth are now set with one goal, one direction, that is to protect and manage Earth for our generation and for all of the others to come. We are the hopes of humanity. We are now developing the foundation of Earth Government, the highest aspirations of humanity, a Vision of the most powerful reform in the History of Humanity. People from all over the planet are developing models for Earth Government, the greatest of all hopes. Human consciousness has evolved and will seek no rest until Earth Government has come to life. Societies seek to form a democratically elected Earth Government, one representative per million people. Over six thousands representatives will be managing Earth.

Mr.Mamady Diallo and Mr. Mory Sanda Diakite

Mr.Mamady Diallo and Mr. Mory Sanda Diakite

dmamady@yahoo.fr


REPUBLIQUE DE GUINEE

Travail - justice - Solidarite
....................................................
Ministere de l'Administration du Territoire de La Decentralisation et de la Securite
.....................................................

Service National De Coordination et D'Intervention Des O N G "SACCO" Conakry.

.....................................................

O N G " AGUIDEPE / ALKADIAF "

....................................................

CONGRES INTERNATIONAL SUR :
"GLOBAL DIALOGUE ON EARTH MANAGEMENT - ALL PEOPLES TOGETHER , TORONTO du 17 au 22 Aout 20002

.....................................................

THEME: " EARTH GOVERNMENT FOR EARTH COMMUNITY "

...................................................

Rapport Presente Par:

1) Mr. Mamady Diallo , President de l'ONG
2 ) Mr. Mory Sanda Diakite , Vice President

.....................................................

Conakry , Aout 2002

.....................................................

PLAN DE TRAVAIL

1° INTRODUCTION
2° QUELLES GESTION DE LA TERRE EN 2024.
3° QUELLE POPULATION TERRESTRE EN 2024
4° CONCLUSION

1° INTRODUCTION

Dieu à créer l'huniver pour que vivent les hommes , les animaux et les êtres inanimés.

Il donnat en suite la conscience à l'homme de reflechir sur les maintiens de cet bien precieux de de sa propre survie.

Vu le procres sans cesse croissant de la science, la technique et la technologie plus poussée, n est en droit de ce demander aujourd'hui quelle destinée donnerons nous à cette univer en ce debut du 3è millenaire?

La vie sur la planet n'est elle pas devenue une menace réelle à l'extiction des races?

De la course aux armes de destructions massives en passant par la famine et la misert dans certains endroits de la planete, l'humanité court à un danger si les dispositions d'urgences ne sont pas prises pour erradiquer le fleau qui nous menace.

Pour un observateur averti, est ce que l'humanité est elle une gouvernance ?

Les politiques mises sur pied en fonse d'avantage les fosses entre les riches et les pauvres.
Dans l'un ou autre camp, on se rejette les responsabilites.

De cette decadance, quelle place reservons nous à l'Afrique, aux pays en developpements dechirés par la guerres, la famine, la misert.

Est ce qu'il ya des dirrigeants au monde qui pensent réellement à la situation des plus demunis ?

La politique de la mondialisation est elle la meilleur voie pour sauver l'humaniter de la misert, la famine, les guerres inter ethniques, la heine des hommes ?

Un chercher n'à t'il penser que pour que vive une harmonie entre les hommes, il faut confier les pauvres aux riches ?

Ces sur ce plateau de composition multiple que nous tenterons de developper nos rapports de vision sur la gestion de la communaute en 2024.

Nous esperons nous faire entendre à travers ce message pour que vive une harmonie sur la planete.

à Suivre


Back to top of the page


7. The Gross Sustainable Development Product (GSDP)

Elena Krougikova proposed that the role of non-governmental organizations in Environmental education from the experience of GAIA in the Kola peninsula.

Abdelmonem KAANICHE mentioned that sustainable development constitutes an evolutionary and very complex process making use of several disciplines and different data: economic, social and ecological. The decision in this field always leads to the choice of a variant of a national and/or local development plan . The reach and the complexity of decisions at the strategic and operational level, justify the realization and the development of a help Decision Support System. For more efficiency, decisions must be taken quickly and in real time taking in consideration several parameters together.

Thorkil Casse and Fabiana Issler said that all economies depend ultimately upon the availability of resources in their productive system. But ‘resource dependent economies’ are those where the major income-generating activity consists of primary natural resource extraction and its transformation. In such economies, the resource-dependency relationship is more apparent. Sudden changes in resource demand may compromise their ability to generate and/or sustain welfare. Not surprisingly, resource dependent economies are more fragile and exposed to crisis than less resource-dependent ones, especially, when only a few products are extracted and transformed. Resource dependent economies may experience periods of rapid growth and prosperity, but scarcity of a key resource leads almost inevitably to the decline of the resource-dependency model, leading to decline with all its implications, namely recession, unemployment and decapitalisation. Depending on the ability of these economies to rapidly diversify their economic activities and sustain welfare levels, they may or may not pursue a successful transition to a less resource-dependent model.

Germain Dufour demonstrated that the technical definition of Sustainable Development was given as being:

"a sound balance among the interactions of the impacts (positive and/or negative), or stresses, on the four major quality systems: People, Economic Development, Environment and Availability of Resources."

The non-technical definition was given as being:

"a sound balance among the interactions designed to create a healthy economic growth, preserve environmental quality, make wise use of our resources, and enhance social benefits."

An evaluation of sustainable development consists of ranking risks relative to each other and to help deciding which practice is better than another. In 1988, the author has developed a scale of values, and has designed and tested indicators to represent quality of development. Hundreds of indicators were measured and integrated into an overall expression called the Gross Environmental Sustainable Development Index (GESDI). GESDI was developed to measure sustainable development locally and globally. It expresses the quality of our growth or development, and it describes environmental quality rather than merely measuring different environmental variables.

An other indicator was developed to measure the costs of development: the Gross Sustainable Development Product (GSDP).

The GSDP is defined as the total value of production within a region over a specified period of time. It is measured using market prices for goods and services transactions in the economy. The GSDP is designed to replace the Gross Development product (GDP) as the primary indicator of the economic performance of a nation. The GSDP takes into accounts:

· the economic impacts of environmental and health degradation or improvement, resource depletion or findings of new stocks, and depreciation or appreciation of stocks;
· the impact of people activity on the environment, the availability of resources, and economic development;
· the "quality" of the four major quality systems and the impacts of changes in these systems on national income and wealth;
· global concerns and their impacts on the economy;
· the welfare, economic development and quality of life of future generations; · expenditures on pollution abatement and clean-ups, people health, floods, vehicle accidents, and on any negative impact costs;
· the status of each resource and the stocks and productive capacities of exploited populations and ecosystems, and make sure that those capacities are sustained and replenished after use; and
· the depreciation or appreciation of natural assets, the depletion and degradation of natural resources and the environment, ecological processes and biological diversity, the costs of rectifying unmitigated environmental damage, the values of natural resources, capital stocks, the impacts of degradation or improvement, social costs, health costs, environmental clean-up costs, and the costs of the environment, economic growth, and resources uses to current and future generations and to a nation’s income.

The measurement of GSDP shows that consumption levels can be maintained without depleting and depreciating the quality and quantity of services. It indicates the solutions to the problems as well as the directions to take, such as:

· invest in technology, R & D, to increase the end-use efficiency; · increase productivity;
· modify social, educational programs and services;
· slow down or increase economic growth;
· remediate components of the four major quality systems; and
· rectify present shortcomings of income and wealth accounts.

The measurement of GSDP also gives a proper and sound signal to the public, government and industry about the rate and direction of economic growth; it identifies environmental, health, and social quality; it identifies sustainable and unsustainable levels of resource and environmental uses; it measures the success or failure of sustainable development policies and practices; and it identifies resource scarcity. Values obtained enable us to make meaningful comparisons of sustainable development between cities, provinces, nations over the entire planet.


Back to top of the page


8. Measuring and assessing Earth management with a comprehensive set of indicators.

Elena Krougikova explained the use of Social Indicators of Environmental Situation.

Dr. Vladimir Kremsa described Sustainable Rural Development.

ANITA KON considered theoretical aspects on the production restructuring process and the trend towards the services sector seen worldwide in recent years. The empirical analysis focused on the increasing trend towards the services sector in Brazil and included is an evaluation of the redistribution of employees in the consolidated economic activities of the Primary, Secondary and service sectors. The paper concludes with the finding that the proliferation of the services sector within Brazil, though constant, has failed to demonstrate the intensity and momentum that was observed in more advanced economies, with regards to the introduction of modernization.

It is also inferred that although the economic policies did stimulate a global convergence process of labor distribution among regions, those policies did not attenuate economic dynamism concentration to the desired extent, nor did it diminish in any considerable way the difference in the degree of development among the regions. Business organizations located at the more advanced regions reveal more possibilities to face global competitiveness, and to increase labor productivity, due to the influence of structural aspects related to material and human resources, and also to specific spatial, politic and cultural conditions.

She also explained that the world globalization process caused significant changes in advanced and also in less developed economies in recent years that include: a) increasing internationalization of economic activities; b) the reorganization of dominant firms: c) the increasing integration of manufacturing and service production; d) the growing use of microelectronics technology; e) the growing demand in industry for a high skilled workforce, but many routine jobs being displaced by technical change; f) the increasing complexity and volatility of consumption; and a changing role for state intervention.

If those changes occur more rapidly in more advanced countries, it is also observed a similar dynamics of restructuring in other low and middle income countries, although in a lower speed. For each level of economic development, it is found similar patterns of occupational structure and restructuring, during a period of time due to industrialization and technological modernization. Business organization have to cope with international competition dealing with many transformations as to technology and plant, nature of labor qualification, new organization of labor process, new features of production (non-continuous production and limited economies of scales). On the other side, technical innovations affects the nature of product (intensification of non-material services, the features of product), consumption (through forms of delivery of product, role of consumer, organization of consumption) and also markets (organization of markets, regulation and marketing tools).

Natalia Knijnikova demonstrated that the global ecological questions needed unprecedent joint efforts of scientific and high level political circles of the different countries. The produced strategy «sustainable development» as environmental development variant has become property of the global community. Its logic continuation (« step by step») of sustainable development are national strategy . From a question « what it’s necessary to change? » we send to a question « how to change »? It’s necessary in time and precisely to estimate the response to change of the tendencies of growth and development. I.e. the indicators of sustainable development have decisive meaning for an estimation of the chosen strategy on conformity wished, expected and really received results of a new direction of development, and also speed of progress to an object in view in time and space.

Speak, that it’s too much indicators (134) of sustainable development and consequently they can’t be applied in practice. It ‘s so and not so.

That of indicators is much quite naturally, as there are no «recipes,» ready and tested by mankind of sustainable development. But nowadays already it’s necessary to choose from them some indicators, obligatory and accepted to all countries, to receive commensurable results. In an ideal they should be so significance as GDP and ÂÍÏ. Last from great Russian ecologist - encyclopaedist Nikolai Reimers in his last book « Hopes for a survival of mankind. Conceptual ecology » ( published already after his death in 1992) has allocated only three universal indicators of the progress to sustainable development. "Criterion and indicator of successful social-economical development within the limits of ecological restrictions should be the parameters of population health and duration of the life, and also natural preconditions of maintenance of these parameters act. The economical riches as such are necessary to consider out-of-date by measurement of the national property ".

By a most urgent question, which must to reflect indicators, what parity of economy and ecology today. The locomotive of economy continues a movement by rolling rails. Therefore should be chosen only few ðarameters - for reflection ecology and economy integration .

Essential defect GDP is the reference of damage caused to an environment to costs over flow. At the same time GDP and GNP the economists ( by The Economist Publications « The World in 2000» ) are similar on « a sacred cow » - to continue to consider growth GDP as a unique parameter of success of economy. «The Scope of wings American eagle » is compared extremely from % GDP. Essential defect GDP is the reference of damage caused to an environment to costs ïåðåëèâà. The costs ïåðåëèâà nowadays are not subtracted nowadays from volume of cumulative manufacture, and the consequence it GDP overestimates a level of material well-being of a society(community). At the same time GDP and GNP the economists are similar on «a sacred cow » - to continue to consider(examine) growth GDP as a unique(sole) parameter of success of economy. «The Scope of wings American îðëà » is compared extremely from % GDP. Only parity « of a total internal collateral product » (the cost expression of damage caused by pollution of natural environment to a total internal product will show a real picture of well-being.





9. Sustainable Development for the New Age Civilization

Professor Alexander Skalon showed that the idea of the market (private property on resources, freedom of trade and competition in conditions of limited resources and decreasing ecological quality of the environment) does not contradict the idea of effective and ecologically eligible development.

Isabelle Lambiel described that people have noticed that the climate has changed over the last few years. In some countries the temperature has increased by one or two degrees and natural catastrophies are becoming more and more frequent. Flooding or freshwater scarcity as well as water pollution are harming the environment of the Thirld World and developing countries and air pollution characterizes the industrialized regions. Therefore, poor and rich regions are facing a common problem which is linked to climate change, that's why they should negotiate and find a compromise as quickly as possible. If no sollution is suggested, developing countries like China will repeat the same mistakes as the developed world. In fact, the latter can expect a higher salary, which will close the gap between rich and poor regions. Accordingly, they will be able to consume more luxury products like cars and pollute more. Our governments have to intervene by developing and measuring consumption pattern. Why not launch on the market vehicles which do not emit dangerous gas ? Moreover, the firms should be interested in investing for the environment. Thus, ecological norms have to be intoduced and gain as much credibility as the norms for quality (Iso 9000). An increase in taxes could also give the companies an incentive to produce ecologically. There is a real need of consumption and production patterns for sustainable development.

As far as social problems are concerned, measures should be taken in order to stop inflation and provide poor people with financial help. Nowadays some workers get a very low salary, which hardly allows them to feed their family as the food prices are too high. An adjustment has to be made. Otherwise the gap between rich and poor people will be further widened, which would lead to many difficulties. People from the street decide to steal or use violence in order to defend their rights to be integrated into society. Others take drugs. In all these cases, the government has to suggest measures to insure security in the country. Therefore, they have to hire more policemen and build new prisons. Is sustainable development achieved ? When we first look at the situation, it does not appear so dramatic. However, we can not qualify these solutions as positive. In fact, most of the budget is used to hide the poverty and the delinquency and not to eradicate them. Therefore, this money should be given for education. In fact, children brought up in good schools will act better in their future because they find a shelter there and have the feeling that the country cares for the poor. Besides, they learn how to succeed in life. As people say, knowledge is power. The fact of depriving of country of good education should be introduced in order to provide each child with the same chances of having success. The latter must learn how to read, write and use computers so that they can get an interesting job.

Unfortunately, a lot of people are unemployed. This is due to the fact that small firms are swallowed up by the big ones which try to rationalize the production by using machines instead of people. Our politicians should intervene and motivate young enterpreneurs to build a firm by granting them lower taxes during the first years of their business. In fact, the latter can hire other people if they are helped financially and thus reduce unemployment. Moreover, competitivity will be maintained thanks to the existence of small and middle size companies so that the prices will remain stable. The consumers will benefit from advantageous products and keep on buying. Therefore, small business will survive.

In conclusion, sustainable development can be achieved if a positive social, environmental and economic development is insured. In any case, people should be given an incentive to attain this aim. That's why our politicians should intoduce lower taxes as well as pattern for ecology and education. Caring for the environment and the people can create a new atmosphere in which everybody lives in security and peace.

Alexander J. F. Heydendael showed that when tourism development occurs, economic benefits are usually unequally distributed amongst members of local communities. There is evidence suggesting that those who benefit are often limited in number and that those who benefit most are often those who were at an economic advantage to begin with, particularly landowners who can afford the investment. Specialist tourism can also involve a relatively small segment of a local community, possibly removing contact of the larger community with the resources in question. In the case of foreign direct investment, much of the profit may be transferred back to the home country. Therefore, tourism can actually increase inequalities in communities, and thus relative poverty. In addition, tourism increases local demand for goods and services, including food, resulting in higher prices and potentially decreased availability for local people. Such trends are often more prevalent where there is a lack of consultation with the peoples and communities involved in tourism.

Dr. Tao Jiyi explained that in order to promote world sustainable development and create a truly sustainable global society, the nations of the world have to best harmonize interacting impacts upon people, utilization of natural resources, economic development and environmental needs. Many countries have adopted a lot of effective measures on the complex interactions within themselves, but they are by no means sufficient. That is to say, a lot of work remains to be done. The author of this paper think that the adoption of world sustainable development calls for strong international cooperation. This is to say, all countries, including developed countries and develpping countries should cooperate harmoniously with each other in such areas as population issues, resource problems, economic issues and environmental issues. Some scholars have mentioned this topic, but their studies of effects of international cooperation upon world sustainable development are rare, often superficial and not systematic. He illustrated the effects of international cooperation upon world sustainable development and suggest how world sustainable development can be achieved through international cooperation.

Germain Dufour showed that during the past decades various changes have taken place in political, economic and social institutions. Economic reforms, changes in national policies, and global concerns have contributed to redefine the roles of these institutions for sustainable development. The 'New Age Movement' is a social, political and religious movement in the sense of having a broad organizational structure and an ideology aimed at governing. The environmental movement, within the New Age Movement expresses the concerns of groups of people regarding depletion of water, clean air, climate change aspects, degradation of land and other changes in ecosystems affecting traditional patterns of natural resource exploitation. The Earth Community has taken the role of helping these groups in protecting and managing the environment by coordinating efforts.

The environmental movement now has encompasses global aspects under the umbrella of one global Earth Ministry of the Environment, the Earth Environmental Governance. Earth Environmental Governance is the most importance and urgent challenge of the Earth Community.

Earth Environmental Governance can only be achieved successfully within the larger context of Sustainable Developent and Earth Management. All aspects are inter-related and affect one another.

A healthy environment is essential to long term prosperity and well-being, and citizens in Earth Community demand a high level of ecological protection. This is the 'raison d'etre' of the Scale of Human and Earth Rights.

In this way the Scale of Earth Rights gives us a 'sense of direction' for future planning and managing of the Earth. Earth management is now well defined and becomes a goal to achieve. We no longer waste energy and resources in things that are absolutely unimportant.


Leslaw Michnowski
kte@psl.org.pl
elmamba@poczta.onet.pl


To all people of good will!

We speak to you because we are concerned about the fate of the Human Race and of the Earth.

The World is in crisis.

We are exploiting our natural resources of minerals and fuels faster than we are gaining access to alternative sources. We are polluting the natural environment and soil faster than the environment can regenerate itself to reach the level suitable for human needs. Depreciation (devaluation) - moral degradation of the existing forms of living - is going on faster than new forms, consistent with new living conditions for humans and for nature, are being introduced. This situation is complicated also due to demographic expansion, especially in those parts of the human family that are lagging in their development.

This crisis results mainly in lack of adjustment of two dominating systems - the system of values and the economic system - to the contemporary state of changes in the living conditions of humans and nature. These changes are proceeding very fast with the development of science and technology.

At the same time, there is no absolute deficit of material resources (minerals, fuels, ecological resources). However there is a lack of knowledge, technology, active intellectual potential and human conscience, and time - the factors that are necessary for limiting the futile utilization of scarce resources, as well as for developing alternative sources, whilst the resources which are currently under exploitation are being drained.

This crisis not only constitutes a serious hazard for everybody; it also constitutes an opportunity. This opportunity will occur if we carry out a radical reconstruction of the mentality and social relations, which could create the possibility for sustainable development.

Currently two methods of overcoming the global crisis seem to be possible.

The first, traditional method is based on decreasing the number of consumers of the resources that are in deficit. This method represents a pathology of social Darwinism - eco-fascism that leads to ecological holocaust of the weak, and subsequently - to the extinction of all humans.

The second method is based on the popularization of intellectual creative activity aimed at the common good and supported by science and high technology. This would be an ecohumanistic method.

Ecohumanism is a partnership-based co-operation for the common good of all people (rich and poor, from countries highly developed and behind in development), their descendants, and natural environment - commonly supported by science and high technology.

The first, traditional method may seem effective only at first glance. Social Darwinism does not allow the elimination of the crisis-provoking results of the moral degradation of the life forms that are not adapted to the new, quickly changing conditions.

The higher the level of development and the application of scientific and technological achievements, the faster is the pace of changes in living conditions for people and nature. This implies a very large acceleration of moral degradation pace for diverse, previously well-functioning forms of life. Moral degradation is as dangerous as the overexploitation of natural resources. This type of degradation, which is almost invisible, only to an insignificant extent depends on the number of people. It is caused mainly by the development of science and technology. This development cannot be stopped.

In order to eliminate the third factor of global crisis - the moral degradation of life forms, which in fact constitutes the basic factor - it is necessary to undertake stability-oriented solutions, which are radically different from traditional solutions.

These are:

I - increasing far-sightedness and the flexibility of the methods of human activities,

II - supplementing calculations of the costs and benefits of social and economic activity with comprehensively assessed social and natural components.

III - implementation of a system of stimulating ecohumanistic and intellectually creative activity and its popularization.

IV - increasing the intellectual potential of the human race (i.e. through popularization of the at least medium-level, comprehensive education of the youth, what would ensure intellectual independence, responsibility and the ability to participate in the development of science and technology).

This requires the further development of system dynamics - computer simulation methods for large-scale environmental and social (ecosocial) systems, flexible automation of production, and development of information technology (teleinformatization). It is impossible to prepare the appropriate economic statement without forecasting and a measurable assessment of comprehensive, broad in time and space, results of human activities and of the other changes in living conditions of people and nature.

The information problem is a key issue in overcoming the global crisis and in the creation of possibilities for sustainable development of the whole global society.

Both, contemporary and forecasted development of science and technology, especially of information technology, makes the possibility of a significant increase of the level of cognizability of human activity results more real. However, we are not able to predict fully all life hazards. Therefore, there is a necessity of the parallel development of flexible automation of production, advanced construction of diverse expert information systems, data bases, and collection of other intellectual, scientific, and technological reserves that are indispensable for the quick elimination of the hazards, which were impossible to predict in advance.

The second key problem is harnessing people's wealth to make it serve creative, innovative input to the common good. This is a potential for releasing enormous intellectual creative activity, which is so indispensable for eliminating the deficits in material and spiritual life resources.

It is impossible to solve both of these key problems related to global crisis at the local level. Joint public activities are necessary, with support from the world intellectual elite and powerful authorities.

Undoubtedly, for the development of the capability of forecasting and for a measurable assessment of the results of human activities, and for appropriate stimulation of ecohumanistic and innovative, creative activity it would be helpful - and this is what we are proposing - to create a World Center for a Strategy of Sustainable Development, under the auspices of the United Nations. This would be a professional center, for large-scale scientific, technological and organizational operations (Apollo-type), based on subsidiarity principle. The main goal of this Center would be to create information foundation of ecohumanism and sustainable development for the world society.

Its official establishment might take place in 2002, during the Special Session of General UN Assembly - "Rio+10".

The first task for the Center should be improvement and popularization of the methods for forecasting of the changes in conditions on Earth and in local societies, as well as in the natural environment.

It is necessary to create urgently, as a priority, the information basis of ecohumanism and sustainable development in order to prevent the development of eco-fascism and ecological holocaust of weaker parts of the human family that might lead to the ecological extinction of the whole human race. Without creating the information foundation of activities for our common good, such effort will not be effective!

The Sustainable Development Creators' Club.
The Polish Federation for Life
This Appeal was published inter alia in:
- “Zielone Brygady”, nr 4(149)/2000, 16-29.2.2000
- „Polish Academy of Sciences, Dialogue and Universalism, Metaphilosophy as the Wisdom of Science, Art and Life”, no. 4-5/2002.
mail to: kte@psl.org.pl


Back to top of the page


10. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Earth Management

Anatoliy A. Shiyan explained that the understanding grows that the Nature is arranged by a principle of hierarchical self-organization. It means, that the natural systems, as a rule, are formed on a background of the certain flows of energy and/or mass. These self-organized systems arise and destroy again, - even when external conditions (flows of energy and/or mass) remain constant. The self-organization is described by the nonlinear equations, and consequently "nonlinear thinking" penetrates into all areas of a science more deeply. The natural systems are, as a rule, Hierarchical. It is understood that, as a result of association of a number of the self-organized objects from "the same level of hierarchy", a certain new object having new properties and qualities will be obtained.

But what are ways of change of the approach to management of a Nature? Which methods, algorithms and ways are needed for operation on Nature objects so that to reach optimum results, - and to not ruin the Man? For this purpose it is necessary to reconsider base that we can name as Optimum Control. Such Optimum Control should take into account as the basic laws of existence of Natural objects, and nature of functioning of the Man. I report results on classification of methods of management of Natural systems and I show that this classification is classification of the people. The data of testing of the received results are given.

Natalia Knijnikova demonstrated that the understanding of the global ecological questions needed unprecedent joint efforts of scientific and high level political circles of the different countries. The produced strategy «sustainable development» as environmental development variant has become property of the global community. Its logic continuation (« step by step») of sustainable development are national strategy . From a question « what it’s necessary to change? » we send to a question « how to change »? It’s necessary in time and precisely to estimate the response to change of the tendencies of growth and development. I.e. the indicators of sustainable development have decisive meaning for an estimation of the chosen strategy on conformity wished, expected and really received results of a new direction of development, and also speed of progress to an object in view in time and space.

Speak, that it’s too much indicators (134) of sustainable development and consequently they can’t be applied in practice. It ‘s so and not so.

Germain Dufour explained that Earth Community has come to realize that peoples live in a world of increasing interdependence and that our faith is intrinsically related to the preservation of the global life-support systems and to the survival of all forms of life. Earth Community is calling upon scientists, tehnologists, technicians, engineers and all other professionals to create positive actions in their own fields about using knowledge from all fields of science in a responsible manner to find sound solutions to human needs and to fulfill aspirations without misusing this knowledge.

Science gives a person a set of rules, a way of thinking, a philosophy to look at the physical universe, to observe and analyze it, and to discover its making, its functioning, and its structure. The scientific method is very reassuring to oneself. It gives us the basic reasoning we need in order to make informed and sound policy and management decisions.

Science has a responsibility for the well-being of humanity. Science is found everywhere in our societies. Because of science, new technologies and techniques were developed and used in the market place. The products of science take important places in all aspects of our lives and actually save lives every second. They make our lives manageable in a million difeerent ways. Science has also played a destructive role in our history and is continuing to do so today. Science, technology and engineering are directly or indirectly responsible for threats to our environment, for wasteful uses of the Earth's resources and for wars and conflicts in the world.

Science, technology and engineering are major forces of socio-economic change. They cause humanity and its social and natural environment to evolve rapidly and, therefore, they carry serious responsibility and accountability. They are no longer regarded as benefactors of humanity. Ethical integrity has declined. In several parts of the world people have become suspicious and are questioning abuses of various kinds. Many scientists and other professionals have shown little regard to ethical problems arising from their work and must become responsible and accountable just like everyone else. There are no exception. We are all asked in helping humanity and all life on Earth from complete extinction. It is a common goal.

Researchers and other professionals receive public funding for finding solutions to problems in society. Public funding should be directed towards very specific research projects related to the life-support system of the planet and to a more sustainable biosphere.

Science, technology and engineering must regain public trust, state ethical responsibilties and become a voice to present and future generations. During the August 2002 global dialogue, there will be a discussion roundtable on the ethical issues related to science, technology and engineering, their practices and ideologies. The public is invited to debate the issue.

The public should be informed about research projects and their wider implications. All parties involved should collaborate with the public. Strong legal and moral safeguards must be implemented to discourage unethical practice and the wrongly use of science, technology and engineering for the development and manufacturing of mass destruction weapons, and for experiments which do not respect the dignity of human persons and animals.

Just as for human rights, the respect of the dignity of the human person is at the root of the ethics of science, technology and engineering. The Scale of Human Rights is aimed at prohibiting all acts, research projects, technology development, which do not conform to the ideas of humanity.




1. Religious aspects of Earth Management

Dr. E. Kula said in his introduction:

"Islam, as a major world religion which shares the same Abrahamic roots as the Judaeo-Christian tradition, has been largely absent from this debate. Most conservationists now believe that it is essential that there be comprehensive discussion not only of environmental policies, but also of the ethics underlying environmental protection. This paper looks at the importance of the environment in the main sources of Islamic instruction, namely the Koran and Prophet's Hadiths (teachings). These texts turn out to be on the side of conservation, the emphasis being on respect for creation, the protection of the natural order and avoidance of all wasteful activities which may cause injury to the environment. These positions are contrasted with the views expressed by political Islam, which has become influential in a large part of the Muslin world and rejects the conservation measures advocated by Western writers."

According to the Koran and Prophet's Hadiths, if people were truly religious and not so much political, there would not be a problem about the protection of the global life-support systems.

New Revelations by God:

1. Thou shall be One with humanity and thou shall have a higher purpose, and that is to propagate Life throughout the Universe. I shall provide you with means to travel the galaxies.

2. Thou shall have another higher purpose, and that is to manage Earth responsibly.

3. The Soul of Humanity shall be your guiding hand to follow as my hand.

4. The Soul of Humanity is a part of my own consciousness, my Spirit, my way of being with you and you with me.

5. Thou shall banish war as a solution to problems between communities. All Souls involved with war, directly or indirectly, shall face the Soul of Humanity to be purified. All Souls involved in the making of weapons, war product and equipment shall be facing the Soul of Humanity.

6. The stewardship of the ecological base is the essential prerequisite for the effectiveness and exercise of all rights recognized for human beings, and it has to be given priority before the fulfilment of various economic and social wishes. Demands resulting from the socio-economic system of a particular country have to find their limits in the protection of the global ecosystem. Vital interests of future generations have to be considered as having priority before less vital interests of the present generation. All Souls involved with the careless destruction of the life-support system of the planet, directly or indirectly, shall face the Soul of Humanity to be purified.

7. Thou shall be ethically responsible and accountable locally, globally and throughout the Universe.

8. Although you may foresee correctly the Universe with a beginning and expanding, what you observe is a part of a greater whole that is infinite and eternal. You shall have faith in your good heart, mind and Spirit to reach a much greater understanding of the Universe. The Soul of Humanity shall guide you on the way.

9. Souls traveling the galaxies to propagate life shall be good Souls only. They shall still be a part of the Soul of Humanity. There higher purpose shall be to spread life of various forms throughout the Universe.

10. Thou shall live a life as per global ethical values developed by the Soul of Humanity. Thou shall applied these values responsibly and wisely in all situations and places.

With regard to the Climate Change problems, all national governments must ratify the Kyoto Protocol. In fact the climate change problems are created by everyone, including consumers as well as industries. So everyone should be included in the solution of the problem. We are all responsible, not just the leader of a country.

The Golden Rule principle, also called the Ethic of Reciprocity by theologians, says: "Dont do to others what you wouldn't want done to you." Or treat others the way you would want to be treated. The Golden Rule has a moral aspect found in each religion or faith. It could be used as a global ethic. Paul McKenna, a writer in interfaith dialogue, has found analogues for the golden rule in 13 faiths. These 13 analogue statements are passages found in the scriptures or writings that promote this ethos. Every faith is unanimous of saying that every individual should be treated with the same respect and dignity we all seek for ourselves. As a first step in bringing together religious leaders all around the world, the Earth Community is presenting here 13 statements that unify us all in one Golden Rule.



2. How does a religion support a sound management of the planet?

The Earth Community is asking all religions around the world to re-examine their scriptures, precepts, practices, ethical and moral values in light of ecological concerns. The global community is facing a global environmental crisis. It is very important that every person on Earth accept of being part of the process in protecting the global life-support systems. The ecological crisis is as much about saving children as it is about saving other lifeforms on the planet.


3. The new religion of the Guiding Souls, and the Soul of humanity, make it possible to all religions to coexist in harmony

Germain Dufour explained that at the early stage, when the Earth was formed, and a while later, all the conditions for the formation of life were present, and life was created to better serve God. Life was made of matter and every particle of that matter had a Soul that merged with all the others. That first spark of life had a unique and independent Soul, and its own Spirit, to better serve God. Throughout the different evolutionary stages of life on Earth, Souls have kept merging to better serve God. Many groupings of Souls became more complicated than others, they were much brighter beings than other groupings, but all serve God in their own special way. One unique and most wonderful grouping was the grouping that made the human Soul. God loves the human Souls a lot because of their wonderful qualities. Through their Souls human beings became conscious of God in many different ways. Religions of all kinds started to spread on Earth over the past thousands of years to adore God and pray. Different groupings of Souls affected human beings in different ways and Peoples today have different religious beliefs. God loves diversity. God loves good Souls from all religions.

Different religions have different ways to love, adore and pray to God. And God's Heaven exists. Heaven on Earth is different from God's Heaven. To be in Heaven with God will mean a Soul has left the matter of the Universe forever to enter God's Heaven.
God in His greatness and pure LOVE has made it possible for Souls to enter God's Heaven following different pathways. But all pathways are God's pathways only.


4. Humanity's higher purpose

  Is humanity as we know it today on Earth our final destination? by Germain Dufour.

God said:

1. Thou shall be One with humanity and thou shall have a higher purpose, and that is to propagate Life throughout the Universe. I shall provide you with means to travel the galaxies.

2. Thou shall have another higher purpose, and that is to manage Earth responsibly.

It was necessary for our species to reach today's population of 6.157 billions in order to leap to our next stage of evolution that will bring us closer to God and propel humanity to fulfill the Divine Plan.

What is the Divine Plan for humanity?

The Divine Plan is the greatest hope for humanity and is now being revealed. God could not have created a universe with billions of galaxies, each one with billions of stars such as our Sun, unless He had a plan for Life, especially for an advanced species such as ours.

We have the responsibility of managing Earth. Everyone shares responsibility for the present and future well-being of life within Earth Community. When there is a need to find a solution to a problem or a concern, a sound solution would be to choose a measure or conduct an action, if possible, which causes reversible damage as oppose to a measure or an action causing an irreversible loss.

Life exists on millions of other planets in the universe, and our species got to be who we are today through the evolutionary process. Other lifeforms in the universe may have evolved to be at least as advanced as our species. Their Souls may even be more complicated than ours. They may have merged a trillion times more than our Souls. They may have evolved as well.

The Divine Plan for humanity is:

a) for everyone to manage Earth responsibly, and
b) about to reach the stars and spread Life throughout the universe and thus help other Souls to evolve and serve God in the best possible ways.

The higher purpose of humanity is to serve God by propagating Life throughout the universe. Humanity will evolve spiritually to fulfill God's Plan. Soon God will show us the way to reach the galaxies.


Back to top of the page

5. Leadership of a nation and religion

Germain Dufour explained that with regard to the Climate Change problems, all national governments must ratify the Kyoto Protocol. In fact the climate change problems are created by everyone, including consumers as well as industries. So everyone should be included in the solution of the problem. We are all responsible, not just the leader of a country.

What would be best to do is to create the Earth Ministry of the Environment and the Earth Court of Justice to prosecute nations that commit crimes against humanity such as those crimes against the global life-support systems and, certainly, not signing the Kyoto Protocol is amongst the worst of those crimes.



6. The New Age Revelations, by God

New Age Revelations are given at the following location. http://www.globalcommunitywebnet.com/public/gdufour/GuidingSouls.htm



7. The Soul of Humanity's Message

 

The Soul of Humanity's Message is described at the following location. http://www.globalcommunitywebnet.com/public/gdufour/GuidingSouls.htm

Back to top of the page

8. Religion and environmental conservation

Dr. E. Kula explained that over thirty years ago a debate began as to whether religion in general, or the Judaeo-Christian faith in particular, were in some sense responsible for the present environmental predicament. Islam, as a major world religion which shares the same Abrahamic roots as the Judaeo-Christian tradition, has been largely absent from this debate. Most conservationists now believe that it is essential that there be comprehensive discussion not only of environmental policies, but also of the ethics underlying environmental protection. This paper looks at the importance of the environment in the main sources of Islamic instruction, namely the Koran and Prophet's Hadiths (teachings). These texts turn out to be on the side of conservation, the emphasis being on respect for creation, the protection of the natural order and avoidance of all wasteful activities which may cause injury to the environment. These positions are contrasted with the views expressed by political Islam, which has become influential in a large part of the Muslin world and rejects the conservation measures advocated by Western writers.


1. Moral responsibility and accountability of all nations

Dr. E. Kula explained that over thirty years ago a debate began as to whether religion in general, or the Judaeo-Christian faith in particular, were in some sense responsible for the present environmental predicament. Islam, as a major world religion which shares the same Abrahamic roots as the Judaeo-Christian tradition, has been largely absent from this debate. Most conservationists now believe that it is essential that there be comprehensive discussion not only of environmental policies, but also of the ethics underlying environmental protection. This paper looks at the importance of the environment in the main sources of Islamic instruction, namely the Koran and Prophet's Hadiths (teachings). These texts turn out to be on the side of conservation, the emphasis being on respect for creation, the protection of the natural order and avoidance of all wasteful activities which may cause injury to the environment. These positions are contrasted with the views expressed by political Islam, which has become influential in a large part of the Muslin world and rejects the conservation measures advocated by Western writers.

Germain Dufour said that with regard to the Climate Change problems, all national governments must ratify the Kyoto Protocol. In fact the climate change problems are created by everyone, including consumers as well as industries. So everyone should be included in the solution of the problem. We are all responsible, not just the leader of a country.

What would be best to do is to create the Earth Ministry of the Environment and the Earth Court of Justice to prosecute nations that commit crimes against humanity such as those crimes against the global life-support systems and, certainly, not signing the Kyoto Protocol is amongst the worst of those crimes.


Mr.Mamady Diallo and Mr. Mory Sanda Diakite

Mr.Mamady Diallo and Mr. Mory Sanda Diakite

dmamady@yahoo.fr


REPUBLIQUE DE GUINEE

Travail - justice - Solidarite
....................................................
Ministere de l'Administration du Territoire de La Decentralisation et de la Securite
.....................................................

Service National De Coordination et D'Intervention Des O N G "SACCO" Conakry.

.....................................................

O N G " AGUIDEPE / ALKADIAF "

....................................................

CONGRES INTERNATIONAL SUR :
"GLOBAL DIALOGUE ON EARTH MANAGEMENT - ALL PEOPLES TOGETHER , TORONTO du 17 au 22 Aout 20002

.....................................................

THEME: " EARTH GOVERNMENT FOR EARTH COMMUNITY "

...................................................

Rapport Presente Par:

1) Mr. Mamady Diallo , President de l'ONG
2 ) Mr. Mory Sanda Diakite , Vice President

.....................................................

Conakry , Aout 2002

.....................................................

PLAN DE TRAVAIL

1° INTRODUCTION
2° QUELLES GESTION DE LA TERRE EN 2024.
3° QUELLE POPULATION TERRESTRE EN 2024
4° CONCLUSION

1° INTRODUCTION

Dieu à créer l'huniver pour que vivent les hommes , les animaux et les êtres inanimés.

Il donnat en suite la conscience à l'homme de reflechir sur les maintiens de cet bien precieux de de sa propre survie.

Vu le procres sans cesse croissant de la science, la technique et la technologie plus poussée, n est en droit de ce demander aujourd'hui quelle destinée donnerons nous à cette univer en ce debut du 3è millenaire?

La vie sur la planet n'est elle pas devenue une menace réelle à l'extiction des races?

De la course aux armes de destructions massives en passant par la famine et la misert dans certains endroits de la planete, l'humanité court à un danger si les dispositions d'urgences ne sont pas prises pour erradiquer le fleau qui nous menace.

Pour un observateur averti, est ce que l'humanité est elle une gouvernance ?

Les politiques mises sur pied en fonse d'avantage les fosses entre les riches et les pauvres.
Dans l'un ou autre camp, on se rejette les responsabilites.

De cette decadance, quelle place reservons nous à l'Afrique, aux pays en developpements dechirés par la guerres, la famine, la misert.

Est ce qu'il ya des dirrigeants au monde qui pensent réellement à la situation des plus demunis ?

La politique de la mondialisation est elle la meilleur voie pour sauver l'humaniter de la misert, la famine, les guerres inter ethniques, la heine des hommes ?

Un chercher n'à t'il penser que pour que vive une harmonie entre les hommes, il faut confier les pauvres aux riches ?

Ces sur ce plateau de composition multiple que nous tenterons de developper nos rapports de vision sur la gestion de la communaute en 2024.

Nous esperons nous faire entendre à travers ce message pour que vive une harmonie sur la planete.

à Suivre

 




2. Peace Movement of the Earth Community


Germain Dufour said that the worst environmental degradation happens in wars. Farm products in fields and livestock are abandoned, there is no more control on toxic wastes, and water, air, and land are polluted. People are displaced and feel no longer responsible for the quality of life in their communities. Historically, the industrialized nations have caused the most damage to the environment, with their careless technology and policies. Emissions from factories and vehicles have caused ozone depletion and acid rain. Leaders of the wealthier nations must be willing to accept responsibility for past mistakes and to help pay the financial burden for environmental protection of the developing nations. This is the most damaging conflict of interests between the rich industrialized countries and those that are poor and struggling just for existence. The Earth Community must help wealthy and poorer nations reach a better understanding of each other's needs. All aspects are interrelated: peace, human rights and the environment. The poor is more concerned with ending starvation, finding a proper shelter and employment, and helping their children to survive. Environmental issues become meaningless to the poor. In reality, all concerns are interrelated. As soon as the environment is destroyed beyond repair, human suffering is next. Ecology has no boundaries. All nations suffer the effects of air pollution, global warming, loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, acid rain, ozone depletion, silting of streams, and countless of other environmental problems. This was the reason for proposing to the Earth Community the Scale of Human and Earth Rights.

The Earth Community claims that everyone on Earth should be able to live in peace. This peace mouvement is about courage. Not the courage it takes to go into battle but the courage to organize resistance to war when a bloody taste for it inflames the world, and the threat of prison in a nation where the human rights and freedom of expression have diminished significantly. It is about the courage to say NO to the war industry. It is an industry that destroys life on Earth, corrupts society, and violates morality. Military intervention in the affairs of other nations is wrong. There are other ways, there are peaceful ways, ways that are not based on profit-making and the gain of power for itself. We are conscientious objectors, "nonresistants". That word comes from Jesus, opposing the use of violence: "Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you, that ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also."


3. Promoting Peace in the world as a way of life and shelving the war industry forever from humanity
Germain Dufour explained that the Earth Community Organization is promoting the settling of disputes between nations through the process of the Earth Court of Justice. The "war industry" throughout the world must be put to a complete halt and shelved forever from humanity. The Earth Community is asking all peoples never again to buy there products. The war industry is the "Mother of all evils in the world". All persons working, directly or indirectly, for the war industry, are responsible and accountable to humanity and to God for anything happening to their products after they are sold. Even here in Ontario, Canada, we manufacture weapons and war products. Workers go home happy after a good day of work. They have to pay for their mortgages and make car payments and others. They are mostly Christians. When they go to work, they leave their religious beliefs at home. Ethical and moral values no longer touch them. They dont think that are actually responsible and accountable for spreading evil all around the world. They think they are "good people", good citizens. Every single bullet you manufacture you are responsible and accountable for it, all of you from the President of the company to the employee on the industrial line. Our Society holds responsibility and accountability as well. And if that bullet happened to be a nuclear war head then it becomes even more imperative to held the manufacturer and the people involved responsible and accountable.

It is the same idea for any consumer product in any industry. You manufacture, produce, mine, farm or create a product, you become responsible and accountable of your product from beginning to end (to the point where it actually becomes a waste; you are also responsible for the proper disposable of the waste).

Throughout the 20th Century, the war industry has created the worse evil humanity has ever encountered: the business of conflicts and wars. It is a business that has made trillions of dollars (American) and will continue to do so. It has no moral value, no understanding about Life, no respect for anyone or anything, no law except the ones that it makes for itself, and all its products are meant to kill and destroy. It has sold its products to the enemies for the purpose of making more profit. It has subdued governments all over the world to make them buy its products. It has given trade and way of doing business a bad reputation and, therefore, it is a threat to the establisment of business. Although the war industry has a good public image, it does not really matter who is the buyer as long as he pays good money.


4. The immediate formation of the Earth Ministry of Health

 


The Earth Community Organization, the Human Family, is calling for the immediate formation of the Earth Ministry of Health. The globalization of trade, the extensive mouvement of people all over the world, the increase of poverty and diseases in developing countries and all over the world, have caused pathogens and exotic diseases to migrate over enormous distances and now, are an increasing threat to local ecosystems and communities, economies and health of every human being and all life. The Earth Community Organization, the Human Family, is calling this threat of the upmost importance and must be dealt with immediately by every nation. We must manage health in the world. We are calling for the immediate creation of the Earth Ministry of Health.

Dr. Tee L. Guidotti analyzed and explained A PERSPECTIVE ON THE HEALTH OF URBAN ECOSYSTEMS. Urban systems are among the most critical areas of study in the environmental sciences and among the least appreciated. Cities represent a concentration of human activity for efficiency and interaction. Although they may represent processes that are at the root of ecosystem exploitation and degradation, they also hold the potential for minimizing human impact on the surrounding ecosystem if properly managed and integrated. Cultural concepts of ecosystem and human health have been linked with thoughts about cities and human settlements since ancient times. There has been a progression of these concepts through religious ideas, philosophical systems, sanitation, toxic substances, and, most recently, the risk of ecosystem change on a large scale resulting in the collapse of global and regional system that sustain human communities. However, ecosystems are not really destroyed; when ecosystems are pushed to the point of failure, they convert into something else and the human communities that depend on them adapt. The conversion and adaptation may not be desireable or productive, but they occur. Cities are the best examples of this. Urban systems are artificial ecosystems that preserve but subsume the preexisting natural ecosystems. We need a new way of thinking about ecosystems and human health that does not place human beings at the center and that is not driven by effects of individual exposures or perturbations. We also need to appreciate the value as well as the cost of cities. Urban ecosystems have characteristic pathologies. Those that place great stress on natural ecosystems or that are overly stressed in their own carrying capacity are not sustainable. There is an urgent need for valid indicators of "health" in urban ecosystems: one measure may be how well it adapts and the way that it responds to external stresses. This is a behavioural measure, reflecting the viability of the human community.

Colin L. Soskolne said that since 1996, human health was recognized as an integral component of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC) grant in the area of Global Ecological Integrity (P.I.: L. Westra). By integrating human health concerns into the grant application, this apparently added to its fundability. Since then, numerous meetings promoting the notion of global ecological integrity together with its relationship to human health have been well-received. In fact, the World Health Organization’s European Centre for Environment and Health, Rome Division, was responsible, in December 1998, for hosting a Workshop on the connection between global ecological integrity and human health. The Preface to the Discussion Document arising from this Workshop states that "… global change has become an issue warranting public health involvement. The public health community needs to face the challenges presented by global change and equip itself with the necessary scientific and technical means to anticipate and, where possible, prevent human health consequences arising from degrading life-support systems".

Brain-storming exercise during Global Dialogue 2002 in Toronto
Participants: Mrs. Kuri Jayafure, Mrs. Alka Karir, Textile designer, Ms. Tamara Sanchez and Germain Dufour Title: Formation of a Global Ministry of Environmental Health.

1. Must be non-profit, grassroots, and at community level.
2. Finances: drug companies and governments.
3. Global Declaration

a) very strict and mandatory
b) all nations participate
c) scientists and professionals in the fields who have dedicated their lives to environmental health
d) humanitarians

4. Manifesto

a) Self-sustainable society or NGO focusing on environment and health
b) Global market should not deplete natural resources
c) cut down in pollution
d) Reassessing American culture, consumerism in America
e) Consumer responsibilities and accountabilities
f) Environmental health costs
g) Cost on the environment
h) Prices should reflect environmental cost
i) Recycling whenever possible
j) Reducing
k) Each nation should see that they are sustainable communities before exporting
l) Taking on a nation's problem at the roots level (if a deisease exist there then the nation should address that issue)
m) ECO should help manage getting rid of that disease
n) Make use of traditional methods to solve problems
o) Use natural ways to put in the environment when solving problems

Recommendations:
The recommendations are now a part of http://www.globalcommunitywebnet.com/public/gdufour/Recommendations2002.htm
This is section in F1.

1. Must be non-profit, grassroots, and at community level.
2. Finances: drug companies and governments.
3. Global Declaration

a) very strict and mandatory
b) all nations participate
c) scientists and professionals in the fields who have dedicated their lives to environmental health
d) humanitarians

4. The functioning of the NGO is as per Manifesto.


Back to top of the page

5. Abolition of Nuclear Weapons: security, sustainability and justice in a nuclear free future

Carah Lynn Ong promotes the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons: security, sustainability and justice in a nuclear free future.

Germain Dufour said that it has become a necessity to implement a total embargo on all US, Russian and European Union nations mass destruction chemicals, nuclear war heads, weapons, war products and war equipment. These are the countries that have developed and manufactured the weapons of mass destruction. They are also the countries that have been exploiting the developing countries everywhere in the world and especially in the Middle East, and without due respect to human rights and democracy. They are also the countries that have sold weapons of mass destruction to the poor nations of the Middle East for the purpose of making a profit.

The "war industry" throughout the world must be put to a complete halt and shelved forever from humanity. The Earth Community is asking all peoples never again to buy there products. The war industry is the "Mother of all evils in the world".



1. The state of the world today is the result of a specific set of interlocking institutions: the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO. The debt of the poor or 'developing' nations to the rich nations was in actuality a form of global tax and therefore they dont have to pay it back. The Earth Court of Justice will be asked to decide on the debt be changed into an actual global tax to be paid by the rich nations to the poor nations, and to decide on the amount of tax to be paid.


Dr. Tao Jiyi promotes world sustainable development and create a truly sustainable global society, the nations of the world have to best harmonize interacting impacts upon people, utilization of natural resources, economic development and environmental needs. Many countries have adopted a lot of effective measures on the complex interactions within themselves, but they are by no means sufficient. That is to say, a lot of work remains to be done. The author of this paper think that the adoption of world sustainable development calls for strong international cooperation. This is to say, all countries, including developed countries and develpping countries should cooperate harmoniously with each other in such areas as population issues, resource problems, economic issues and environmental issues. Some scholars have mentioned this topic, but their studies of effects of international cooperation upon world sustainable development are rare, often superficial and not systematic.

Germain Dufour explains that we have the responsibility of managing Earth. The partnership of government, civil society, and business is essential for an effective global governance based on global concepts, the Scale of Human and Earth Rights and the Charter of the Earth Community. One cannot talk about the governance of the Earth without talking about the most influential bodies or institutions of the world that actually govern or rule the world today, or have the power to change it and actually do change the world in many different ways. So we will talk about the United Nations, the major global economies or planetary economic blocks, the richest people and corporations on the planet, the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO, religions, the debt of the poor nations, the restoration of the planet and the global life-support systems. And of course we will also talk about sound solutions to the world problems.

The complete explanation is shown at http://www.globalcommunitywebnet.com/public/gdufour/EarthManagement.htm


2. Native rights in the province of British Columbia are classified as ecological and primordial human and Earth rights and therefore supersede in importance the rights of the greatest number of people of the province.
The Earth Community Organization is inviting you to the global dialogue by asking the Earth Court of Justice to decide on how Native rights in the province of British Columbia are classified as ecological and primordial human and Earth rights and therefore supersede in importance the rights of the greatest number of people of the province. The Earth Court of Justice will be created for the purpose of deciding on the future of Native Rights. Members of this higher Court will be chosen to reflect the Peoples involved here.

Dr. Ross Mallick explained that indigenous peoples are dependent on their environment for traditional livelihoods, which are being threatened by development projects. The indigenous relationship with nature is typically portrayed as being in harmony, and though this may be so in many instances, there are examples where it is not. The paper cites cases where the harmonious relationship is being disrupted by outside development, as well as instances where indigenous people themselves contribute to the disruption. The complex relationship between the environmentalist movement in the dominant society and indigenous peoples is a major theme in the study, where frequently environmentalist support indigenous but in some cases oppose aboriginal development. Both multinational interests and environmentalists cast an influence which affects aboriginal peoples. Western environmentalism has influenced Third World and indigenous peoples. Its ideas have been adapted as it encountered alien cultures and values and it may incorporate some indigenous values in its philosophy but for the most part it remains an alien imposition on people trying to make a living from limited resources. How environmentalists deal with indigenous peoples will help determine the success of conservationist programs, and therefore an understanding of how this relationship can be managed is critical to the success of environmentalism and the survival of indigenous peoples.

Dr. Nazih Noureldin and Herman Michell said that as society continues to rely more heavily on technology, it is increasingly important that there should be a large proportion of aboriginal people with sound scientific backgrounds. There has been, therefore, a great need to promote programs in science among First Nations students in order to attract them into scientific professions. In order to attract Aboriginal high school students to the university, several approaches were attempted. Although pulling students towards the university proved to be difficult, retaining them turned out to be more challenging particularly in the science field. However, the Department of Science in the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College (SIFC) thanks to several projects, have started to reap the benefits of its efforts. In addition to increase the enrolment in science classes, our projects were designed to foster a sense of discipline and hard work, requirements for all scientific careers. The successful conclusion of our attempts, so far, indicates that involvement of students in finding solutions to real research problems provides motivation and enthusiasm among the participants. Interestingly, within a short period of time, several participants became role models for other aboriginal students whom otherwise may not have considered the option of majoring one of the sciences.



3. Poster presentation and student project viewing


Back to top of the page


4. A global regulatory framework for capitals and corporations

Dr. Tao Jiyi thinks that the adoption of world sustainable development calls for strong international cooperation. The author analyses reasons why international cooperation is needed to achieve world sustainable development. The author also points out that international cooperation can facilitate native people's acceptance of rational policies, financial assistances and advanced technologies provided by the international community and that international cooperation also can contribute to regulating world population distribution, improving low population quality of backward countries, protecting and exploiting natural resources, developing those products and industries which can cause lower consumption of natural resources and energy sources with light pollution of environment, and keeping environmental stability and ecological balance. In a word, international cooperation greatly contributes to world sustainable development. Finally, the author suggests how world sustainable development can be promoted through international cooperation.

In order to promote world sustainable development and create a truly sustainable global society, the nations of the world have to best harmonize interacting impacts upon people, utilization of natural resources, economic development and environmental needs. Many countries have adopted a lot of effective measures on the complex interactions within themselves, but they are by no means sufficient. That is to say, a lot of work remains to be done. The author of this paper think that the adoption of world sustainable development calls for strong international cooperation. This is to say, all countries, including developed countries and develpping countries should cooperate harmoniously with each other in such areas as population issues, resource problems, economic issues and environmental issues. Some scholars have mentioned this topic, but their studies of effects of international cooperation upon world sustainable development are rare, often superficial and not systematic.




1. The Soul of Humanity

This section is described in http://www.globalcommunitywebnet.com/public/gdufour/GuidingSouls.htm


 
 



2. Global corporate ethics

Dr. Heinrich Wohlmeyer describes the Basic Principles of Applied Ethics.

Funding Criterion:

This criterion recalls that those realities, on which others build upon, have to be protected first. A classical example is, that to the stewardship of the ecological base (the base of life) has to be given priority before the fulfilment of various economic and social wishes.

Criterion of Integration:

In the case of conflict wider strategies to keep the system concerned functioning, have to have priority before those addressing narrower fields. E.g. demands resulting from the social system of a particular country have to find their limits in the protection of the global ecosystem or the aim of maximisation of labour productivity in agriculture and forestry should not be realised at the expense of biodiverse landscapes.

Criterion of Urgency:

Vital interests of future generations have to be considered as having priority before less vital interests of the present generation. Typical examples are climate change and soil erosion.

Criterion of Reversibility:

If a measure is inevitable, a variant, which causes reversible damage, has to be preferred before a measure causing irreversible loss.

Criterion of Regenerability:

Regenerable organic raw materials and primary energy carriers have to be preferred versus not regenerable fossil sources.

Criterion of Circular Orientation:

Supply chains have to be designed in a way, that the goods can enter after usage or consumption into natural or industrial recycling processes.

Criterion of Precaution (Precautionary Principle):

If serious damages to persons, animals, plants and the ecosystem cannot be excluded, an action or pattern of behaviour should be refrained from.

Criterion of Least Impact:

A measure for supplying goods or services for humans should choose a path, which entails the least possible impact on the ecological and social system concerned. This criterion is related to the precautionary principle. Its reason is, that functioning proven systems should not be disturbed and that unnecessary risks should not be taken. One example of its application in the eco-sphere is to rely on natural varieties before changing genomes by genetic manipulation.

Criterion of Causation (Causation - or Polluter pays Principle):

The causing agent should be made responsible for all damages he took into account. Negative examples are limited liabilities granted to air- and ship transport, to atomic energy plants and to data high ways.

Criterion of economy:

Human supply strategies consuming less resources should have preference before those enhancing more resource consumption.
A positive example is the Factor 10 Strategy (increasing resource productivity by a factor 10).

Criterion of Cooperation:

If measures or their consequences trespass national boarders, cooperative measures should be preferred.

Criterion of respect of human dignity:

Strategies, which violate human dignity, should not be permitted. Examples are the expulsion of an indigenous population by the flooding of a valley for a hydroelectric power plant or the imposition of overtaxing efficiency aims without a right to a say.

Criterion of wellbeing and aesthetics:

Strategies fostering human wellbeing and beauty of the environment should be preferred. This criterion is especially applicable to the management of cultural landscapes and the design of industrial sites and working places.




3. Corporate social responsibility

Group of Azerbaijan Ecological NGOs explained that ECOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL MONUMENTS OF AZERBAIJAN UNDER THREAT OF DESTRUCTION (construction of Baku – Cheyhan pipeline will destroy them). We call for all relevant international organizations to pay attention to the issue of laying the Baku - Cheyhan oil pipeline through the territory of Gobustan historical and Archeological Reserve and through territories of other Natural Reserves of Azerbaijan. BP spends the huge financial resources allocated as a loan by both International Finance Organizations and Banks, and by companies - participants of the pipeline project for destruction of large quantity of the ecological and cultural monuments, as well as destruction of the environment of Azerbaijan.




4. Designing, monitoring, and implementing checks and balances for corporations

The Corporate Sector and Earth Management: don't let the fox guard the chicken coop by Germain Dufour

The Earth Community Organization (ECO) found a way of dealing with globalization: global ethics. In the past, corporations ruled without checks and balances. For now on global ethics will be a basic minimum to do business, and there will be checks and balances. Our judgement will be based on global ethics.Global ethics must always be grounded in realities. But realities are changing constantly and are different in different places. We live in a world that makes progress toward democracy. Ethics and morality exist only when human beings can act freely. In our free society, rights are tied to responsibilities. Corporations are committed to improvement in business performance and want to be seen as 'good corporate citizens' on a local and a global scale. Corporations have social responsibilities as they are an integral part of society. Global ethics recalls that those realities, on which others build upon, have to be protected first. ECO has found that universal values and human and Earth rights as described above were the foundation of global ethics.

ECO has now at hand the method and framework to conduct societal checks and balances of a global sustainable development. A more balanced world economy will result of annual checks and balances. Corporations will take their social responsibilities and become involved in designing, monitoring, and implementing these checks and balances. Several corporations have already done so. Results will be taken into account in the evaluation of sustainable development. Corporations are required to expand their responsibilities to include human rights, the environment, community and family aspects, safe working conditions, fair wages and sustainable consumption aspects.

Allowing the corporate sector to review their own activities and conducting their own checks and balances is like letting the fox guard the chicken coop, i.e. multinational corporations have a vested interest in making sure that they make money and go unpunished for breaking all Ten Commandments and much more. By the time we realize it was wrong to choose a world economic model based entirely on profit, it will be too late. The Earth ecosystem, our life-support system, will have been destroyed beyond repair.

What to do about this situation? Here in the Americas, we are planning to do just that: choosing an economic model totally based on profit making. The Summit of the Americas (see Article "The Summit of the Americas, the FTAA and Earth Management") planned for April 2001 in Quebec city will give green light to the corporate sector with no checks. If the corporate sector was truly willing to honestly do such checks and balances then it should not matter to them to have the system put in place before they sign such an agreement. ECO is proposing to oversee such a system be put in place to the satisfaction of Earth Community.




5. Corporations are required to expand their responsibilities to include human rights, the environment, community and family aspects, safe working conditions, fair wages and sustainable consumption aspects.

Mr. Netra PRASAD Kaphle explains that they have formed by a group of committed, interested and experienced people who have already worked in the field of environmental awareness, bio- diversity conservation, women empowerment, Child Right and community development programs.

Dr. Balkrishna Kurvey described Human Rights pre-requiste for peace and Sustainable Development in developing country.






6. Freshwater and clean air as Human and Earth Rights

James Mwami explained that soil and water conservation activities are under taken under various agro-ecological and socio-economic circumstances, in different parts of the World. However, for a multitude of reasons farmers do not generally engage on their own in investment in soil and water conservation. In the more advanced economies farmers may sometimes take initiative, but in most cases they are stimulated to do so as a result of specific government policies, direct incentiveness on participation in specific projects. When the seriousness of the erosion problem was realised in Uganda, in the 1950's, government took the initiative and for along time they followed a top-down approach in the design and implementation of soil conservation projects and programmes. Many of these failed. Usually the priorities and capabilities of the land users were insufficiently considered in the preparation and execution of such projects or programmes.

Uganda government has now come to realise that proper implementation of such activities depend on the acceptance by and full participation of the population, so that soil conservation and reforestation activities become less dominated by regulations. There is a shift towards "protect and produce" including less direct soil conservation related activities (e.g. promoting tree crops) and the measures are accompanied incentives (e.g. subsidies) or by rural development "starter" activities (e.g. drinking water supply) to incite farmers to participate. In other words conservation has gradually evolved into regional development activities using "watershed activities"

Pedro Berliner explained that afforestation in arid zones, marginal water use, and water management are important in arid zones. Indiscriminate felling of trees is one of the major causes for the desertification of semi-arid regions. It is however possible to use available (usually marginal) water resources to plant trees and manage the forests for long term sustainability.

Md. Hasibur Rahman described the IMPACTS OF AIR POLLUTION ON HUMAN HEALTH IN BANGLADESH. Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated country of the world. Industrial and vehicular toxic gaseous emission impacts on environment and causing human health problem in densely polluted urban area. Mitigative measure is being implementing through air pollution monitoring, research, dissemination of research activities, particularly phasing out of two-stroke engine smoke belching auto-rickshaws the most polluting vehicles and finally government has decided to import lead (Pb) free fuel and encouraging to use Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). Public awareness already been adopting in urban area by the government and different non-government agencies to prevent serious health problems causing by air pollution.

In common sense people thinks air pollution means vehicular smokes and industrial gaseous emission. But air pollution means any solid, liquid or gaseous substances present in the atmosphere in such concentrations that impact on human health or other living creature as a whole creates environmental pollution. Composition of fresh dry air contents 78.09% Nitrogen and 20.94% Oxygen by volume. The rest of 0.97% is composed of different gaseous mixture elements (i.e. carbon dioxide, helium, argon, nitrous oxides and xenon) and very negligible amount of some other organic and inorganic gases. If these compositions found different in any atmospheric air then the air would be called polluted. Air pollution could be happen by two ways i.e. by naturally and artificially. Naturally, air pollution caused by volcanic eruption, dust bearing cyclone, natural-fog, pollen grains, bacteria etc. Significantly, air is polluting by artificially i.e. man-made vehicular and industrial gaseous emission and also by house holds municipal wastes odors.

Human beings cannot survive without taking atmospheric oxygen through respiration system in a suitable mixture of oxygen, nitrogen and other inert gases. It is an assumption that an adult man takes 16-18 kg air through respiration system in his day life. Fresh air is a basic demand of human beings.

It is recognized that civilization of mankind was started with the invention of fire. Fire creates smokes, so air pollution was started from the primitive period of cave man. At that time air pollution was very negligible in ratio with the density of population. Air pollution increasing rapidly due to technological development, creation of engines, industrialization, power plant set-up, burning coal & crude oil, steam locomotives use of railway, steamer, motor vehicles, transport and internal combustion engines burning petrol, diesel, kerosene and also by households vegetable oils burning, fire-wood, paraffin's & kerosene burning. Including all above, use of aerosol and pesticides are mostly polluting the atmospheric air very seriously.

Dr. Tee L. Guidotti showed that sustainable development is a widely-discussed alternative to currently unsustainable economic development patterns. It is all the more attractive because it may be cast in terms compatible with the market economy. However, there must be a social dimension to the concept, a vision, for it to become a viable alternative to unrestrained economic growth. The Earth is no longer a self-regulating planetary system. Its future will depend on human action and the continuation of natural ecosystems will be achieved because people want them to be preserved. Acceptance of sustainable development by society may depend on cultural values and even spiritual notions about the relationship of humankind to the Earth. This is why the otherwise quasi-religious concepts often expressed in the environmental movement, such as the Gaia hypothesis, have value as metaphor even if they do not necessarily express literal fact. Sustainable development is often described in terms that suggest a static, less technology-dependent, and culturally more homogeous regionalized society. However, sustainable development cannot be stagnation. People will not accept a view of sustainable development that recreates a technologically more advanced version of a basic peasant society, especially if they have only recently developed economically. For societies to accept sustainable development and to continue to grow within, the new way of living must accept cultural diversity, encourage individual expression, allow social change, offer opportunity, and examine values. There must be ways to permit opportunity and growth without ecological compromise. Achieving sustainable development may therefore be linked with policies emphasizing community, the value of information, originality in ideas, and the arts.

Livestock Waste a Big Environmental Problem in Wakerton, Ontario, Canada(and now in many other provinces), and in the Philippines. The study noted that in some cases, he damage resulting from irresponsibly handled livestock waste has been spectacular and tragic. In June 1995, it said the artificial waste lagoon at a hog farm in North Carolina burst, releasing nearly 100 million liters of hog urine and feces that polluted neighboring communities and killed millions of fish in nearby rivers.

A similar incident in 2000 resulted in the contamination of drinking water which led to several deaths in the small Canadian town of Wakerton. In other cases, the study said livestock waste causes continuous and pervasive damage to people's health and the environment.

The situation in the Philippines is no better, according to the report.

Germain Dufour explains that air and water are fundamental human and Earth rights. For centuries we have found it necessary to control water so as to have it where we wanted it. Despite our efforts, large areas on the planet still suffer from drought, and others from flood, due partly to the nature variability of climate to change fast than it used to, and this is now impacting on the availability and distribution of water. Our fresh water sources are already being used and yet, the world population is increasing rapidly. This increase in population and the increase of pollutants in our drinking water sources have created conflicts which will only become more and more serious in the near future. In numerous places in the world drinking water sources are rare, sometimes non-existant, and sometimes were polluted by transnational corporations from our industrialized world and which companies became rich by mining or manufacturing products in those countries. Should anyone be allowed to control our freshwater resources? Is freshwater a 'human and Earth right' or is it a 'human need'? Should water resources be privatized and commodified for profit? Or should water be declared a 'human and Earth right' in the Charter of the Earth Community? Is it no true that water is just as important to an individual as the air we breathe? Freshwater is needed and is a human and Earth right. So is clean air! The Scale of Human and Earth Rights shows how and where these rights should be included with respect to all other human rights. Because of an ever-increasing global population and of human impacts on the natural environment, freshwater resources have become essentials to human life and to all life in Earth. There is an urgent need to protect these resources and for integrated understanding of lakes, wetlands and flowing waters.

Fresh water resources and clean air are at least if not more important to every human being than any other human rights ever listed in any charter of any society. If there was a scale of values to be drawn where would you insert these two human rights?

Human rights are those that individuals have by virtue of their very existence as human beings: to live, eat, drink fresh water, breath fresh air, have shelter. Just as human beings have human rights, they also have moral, legal responsibilities and related obligations and accountabilities. Every person needs Oxygen to live so clean air is certainly a primordial human right by our very nature. A large part of our body is made of water and we could not live without water; therefore water is also a primordial human rights by our very nature.

Fresh water resources and clean air are therefore proposed to be categorized as human rights.




1. Recommendations of the Earth Community Organization to heads of State and Government, national delegates and leaders from non-governmental organizations, businesses and other major groups of the Johannesburg Summit 2002on Sustainable Development. We have already included in the 'Summary of Recommendations from Participants' a short list of recommendations obtained during a previous dialogue: Global 2000. Global 2000 was the World Congress on Managing and Measuring Sustainable Development - Global Community Action 1 held in August 2000. The same issues discussed during Global 2000 are relevant to the Global Dialogue 2002 on Earth Management - all People together. Several new issues were added for Global Dialogue 2002.


Recommendations are listed at the following location http://www.globalcommunitywebnet.com/public/gdufour/Recommendations2002.htm


Back to top of the page


2. Special interest group and workshop




3. Agricultural Sustainability

G.R.Acharya, Kajunari Fukumura and Masahiko Tomita explained that although sustainability has become one of the major issues in agriculture since its inception in the World Common Future, it is yet to prove its viability to replace current modern fossil fuel intensive agriculture. To become sustainability agriculture a forefront national development policy issue, a consensus among its stakeholder on its definition/concept is a foremost necessity. In this study, an attempt has been made to present the most likely common concepts of agricultural sustainability. It is achieved by reviewing the sustainability definition/concepts either proposed or quoted/referred while discussing the sustainability in the literatures. A keywords organizing methodology based on the ‘KJ method’ has been used to generate and organize the keywords. This technique describes a simple approach to organize a mass of ideas, by clustering them in related groups, and labelling the groups to identify themes or generalizations. In this process, five major concepts of sustainability were appeared namely sustainability as: (1) a philosophy, a goal and movement of an alternative paradigm of development (2) an alternative farming practice’s management and technology (3) a control environmental degradation imposed by the conventional agriculture (4) a long term natural resource and energy conservation both at local and global level (5) a means of economic stability for farming communities to revitalize the rural society. It is found that the farm level sustainability has been well addressed in contemporary sustainability studies but the sustainability in other spatial level namely global and regional level is poorly addressed which needs attention in future studies.

Dr. A.S.R.A.S. Sastri, V.P. Singh and R.K. Singh conducted a study on the development of agriculture in a sustainable manner as the primary mandate of agricultural scientists of the globe. With the increasing use of chemical fertilisers, insecticides and herbicides, there is an international consciousness for environmental protection. In collaboration with International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines, they worked on the environmental characterisation and assessment of sustainability of rainfed rice production in Eastern India. They started the project work with a basic concept that ‘sustainability is not a destination but is a continuous journey’. They initially assessed the sustainability using the time series data of rice productivity in Eastern India. Based on the average productivity level and its variability, the sustainability has been assessed depending upon the level and its productivity and variability. A sustainability ladder concept has been developed and the position of each district of each state has been assessed. A comprehensive agro-ecological atlas has been developed in which the status of rainfall probability, stable rainfall periods, sustainability status of strategies for improving the rice productivity in a sustainable manner have been discussed. Also, the impact of technological and environmental components in the fluctuations and trends of rice productivity in different states of eastern India have been worked out.

Ayalneh Bogale investigated the rationale of resource-poor farmers to exercise resource degrading practices. A total of 180 rural households have been selected for the study. Despite sever investment constraints, most LDCs has given official recognition to the fact that land degradation has a great effect on their economies to which Ethiopa is not an exception. This is mainly owing to the fact that most of these countries depend heavily on agriculture, which is dominated by subsistence production and widespread poverty.

S.G. Patil, L.B. Hugar, M.S. Veerapur, J. Yerriswamy, T. Cross, A.C. vanLoon, and G.W. vanLoon have undertaken a study of factors affecting sustainability of agricultural systems in four agro-ecosystems in the Tungabhadra Project (TBP) area of Karnataka State in South India. The four areas chosen for the study include villages in the head end of the command area (highly irrigated system, HIS), the tail end of the command area (semi-irrigated system, SIS), outside the command area (dry land system, DLS), and in the area supplied with irrigation for the past approximately 500 years by the Vijayanagar Canals (ancient irrigated system, AIS). The aim of the project was to survey a variety of factors related to cropping patterns, water use, physical properties and socio-economic indicators related to the agricultural practices in these areas. Through a holistic approach, they aimed to identify and compare factors that relate to sustainability of food production in these areas. In particular they were looking for examples of highly sustainable processes that could be more widely applied.

Thet have selected six categories of indicators of sustainability – productivity, efficiency, durability, stability, compatibility, and equity – that can be taken together in describing each system.

These are defined as follows:

· Productivity is measured in the usual way as yield of crop per hectare
· Efficiency is measured primarily in terms of energy use and production, and is the ratio of energy output in the form of crop (both primary material, usually grain, and the additional biomass, such as straw)
· Durability is an index showing resistance to immediate stresses such as stress due to lack of water or to pests
· Stability is defined as the ability to produce adequately over an extended period of time.
· Compatibility is an indicator that relates the farming practices to the natural and human surroundings and includes issues such as biodiversity and human health.
· Equity relates to the need to carry out agriculture in a way that provides benefits to all members of society including landed and landless families, men, women and children.



Back to top of the page


1. Trade and globalization

Isabelle Lambiel explained that globalization has changed the world : all dimensions of the universe are getting smaller. We have to think in a global way and look for new possibilities of being competitive. All the companies nowadays must develop new ways of maintaining existing lines of markets and finding new ones, which constitute the fundamental source of competitive advantage. Only learning can create new knowledge that is manifested in innovations, which then require new learning to use the new technologies effectively. Therefore knowledge contributes to productivity growth. When new technologies are launched in the market and the Dow Jones Industrial Index goes up, this is an indicator that the companies are successful. The economy expands and the standard of living can rise. Innovations have positive social effects because they create confidence in the mind of entrepreneurs, customers and employees. When people see their wealth increasing, they are more motivated to allocate part of their revenue to buy more products which are not harmful to the environment.

Dr. Tao Jiyi stipulated that in order to promote world sustainable development and create a truly sustainable global society, the nations of the world have to best harmonize interacting impacts upon people, utilization of natural resources, economic development and environmental needs. Many countries have adopted a lot of effective measures on the complex interactions within themselves, but they are by no means sufficient. That is to say, a lot of work remains to be done. The author of this paper think that the adoption of world sustainable development calls for strong international cooperation. This is to say, all countries, including developed countries and develpping countries should cooperate harmoniously with each other in such areas as population issues, resource problems, economic issues and environmental issues. Some scholars have mentioned this topic, but their studies of effects of international cooperation upon world sustainable development are rare, often superficial and not systematic.

Heinrich Wohlmeyer and Hermann Dissemond analysed of the effects of the present World Trade Order on the agricultural markets in the light of conditioning sustainable development. They recommended that concessions in the field of agriculture should not be made, if it is not agreed, that the protection of man and the environment is incorporated at least at the same level as trade concerns and that a bridging between GATT/WTO and Social and Environmental Agreements is institutionalised. Otherwise the asymmetric and partly destructive dynamics will continue and the world economy would not be directed towards balanced welfare and human wellbeing.

Germain Dufour explained that national governments and large corporations have taken the wrong direction by asserting that free trade in the world is about competing economically without any moral safeguards and accountability to peoples and the environment. The proper and only way is for Free Trade to become a global co-operation between all nations. Surely, if we can cooperate in fighting against terrorism, then we should also be able to cooperate in fighting against the effects of the type Free Trade and the emergence of the planetary trading blocks as applied by national governments members of the World Trade Organization(WTO). It has already been shown that these effects will be desastrous socially and environmentally and are a direct threat to the existence of Life on Earth. The Earth Community is proposing a solution that the process of trading within the planetary trading blocks be changed from a spirit of global competition to that of global economic cooperation.

The Earth Community has made clear that globalization and planetary trading blocks should be serving the Earth Community and not the other way around, the people around the world serving the very few rich people. The September 11 event was the result of bad trading of arms and oil in the Middle East. By applying proper moral safeguards and accepting responsibility and accountability of all products (arms and oil in this case), we would make free trade and globalization serving the Human Family.

Earth Community believes all citizens have the right to share the wealth in the world. Foreign investment and the trade agreement must protect and improve social and environmental rights, not just the economy. A sustainable development in the world would mean finding a sound balance among the interactions designed to create a healthy economic growth, preserve environmental quality, make a wise use of our resources, and enhance social benefits. Free trade cannot proceed at the expense of the environment, labour rights, human rights and the sovereignty of a nation. Free Trade leads to an increase in poverty by giving investor rights priority over government decision-making. Employers will be looking for more concessions from workers. Small businesses will find it more difficult to grow and compete against large corporations.

Free Trade encourages countries to change their economic infrastructures to be in line with the free trade policies of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Many member countries have already prioritised economic growth over social aspects and human rights.

The World Trade Organization, foreign corporations and world business leaders claim that Free Trade brings sweeping democracy to all. They claim trade globalization is a forerunner of democracy in nations where it is non-existent. The Earth Community Organization does not believe that democracy will automatically succeed in a global free market. In fact, Free Trade is itself a flagrant abuse of democracy.

Free Trade entrenches corporate power at the expense of democratically elected officials from local communities, municipal governments, provincial governments, national governments and states. It is a form of "world anti-government" (such as the European Union block) as citizens lose the ability to act in their best interests and find sound solutions to their own problems. Citizens become disconnected with the decision-making process. Their lives are then driven by the desire of making profits. Fear is used to force people to behave with the dollar sign as their god. In such scenario, democratic principles lose meaning and no longer prevail. All that we have worked for over the past decades to build sustainable communities is gone with Free Trade. People were never asked to discuss and were never invited in its development. The principles of a sustainable development are let go and replaced by the desire of the world business leaders to make larger profits.

The distribution of wealth around the world demands more compassionate approaches to bridging the continuously widening gap between the rich and the poor. Understanding the economic and social development of a balance world is a priority of the Earth Community Organization. The eradication of poverty in the world is a priority and our responsibility. The interaction of poor health, poverty and environmental deterioration has been measured and was found to have a direct relationship with the stage of economic and social development of a country. Policies to combat poverty should not damage the environment. Environmental policies should not create poverty.




2. The definition of 'Sustainable Development' with the idea that free trade and the planetary trading blocks are serving the Human Family, and not the other way around for the benefits of a few people on the planet

Lagutov Vladimir Victorovich developed an ecological basin policy in the former Soviet Union. The existing situation could be characterized as following:

- complete failure of the governmental ecological policy;
- inability of the first sector (national authority) to improve situation by structural reorganization or funding changes;
- insignificant influence of nongovernmental organizations on current situation and the decision-making process;
- inapplicability of western experience to the local conditions due to the big scale of the work to be done and absence of civil society.

The concept of the study was aimed at the stabilization of the environment under conditions of limited resources and authority degradation. The main idea behind the realization of this goal is the dislocation of the most active social part of the local population in the key areas of river basins.

Natalia Knijnikova concluded in her study that the cost expression of damage caused by pollution of natural environment to a total internal product will show a real picture of well-being.



3. Global cooperation, the new way of doing business, ‘a new way of life’

John Bunzl explained that today’s competitive global economy subtly yet effectively reduces the span of feasible policy options open to national governments. Today we live in a global and largely borderless economy where capital and transnational corporations freely move wherever profits are highest, costs lowest and where governments live in fear of the ‘reaction’ of global markets. No government can now impose higher taxes or regulations on corporations for fear of them moving employment elsewhere. Similarly, governments seeking to impose protective environmental or labour legislation would be seen by global financial markets as ‘uncompetitive’, prompting instant punishment through devaluation, capital flight, inflation and unemployment. Even the mooting of such policies would cause the computers of market traders to instantly move capital to some other economy offering an environment ‘more conducive to business needs’. Democracy presupposes that political parties can freely represent a wide diversity of public opinion and consequently a wide range of feasible policies covering the entire political spectrum. But globally competitive markets now represent a sinister ‘hidden hand’ which narrows the policy parameters to what has now become a highly restricted, business-friendly stance which excludes all those restorative policies traditionally espoused by the political Left to balance social and environmental concerns against those of business.

Prof. Richard C. Rich stipulated that because a community's sustainability depends on the choices and actions of its residents, "top-down" or "command-and-control" approaches to achieving sustainable development are often very limited in their effectiveness. An emerging approach to responding to local environmental issues, however, provides a model for actively involving community residents in ways that can encourage sustainability. Variously referred to as "collaborative environmental management" or "civic environmentalism," these approaches involve all sectors of society in a "ground-up," holistic effort to envision desirable futures for the community and to act to move toward those visions. They have the important advantage of creating a sense of place, a community identity, and an attitude of environmental citizenship that can provide a foundation for life-style and policy changes that lead to sustainability.

This paper explores the relationship between the features of collaborative environmental management and the conditions necessary for achieving sustainability. It draws on examples from eight cases of collaborative environmental management in the state of Virginia to discuss the conditions under which this is an appropriate response to environmental problems. The analysis asks how collaborative environmental management practices could be extended to efforts to promote community sustainability, and identifies the elements of this approach that are especially relevant to application in developing nations.

Dr. Tao Jiyi analyzed the effects of international cooperation upon world sustainable development and suggest how world sustainable development can be achieved through international cooperation. He concluded that all countries, including developed countries and develpping countries should cooperate harmoniously with each other in such areas as population issues, resource problems, economic issues and environmental issues. Some scholars have mentioned this topic, but their studies of effects of international cooperation upon world sustainable development are rare, often superficial and not systematic.

Germain Dufour explained that the human species has reached a point in its evolution where it knows its survival is being challenged. In the past, human beings have had some kind of symbiotical relationship (which is something common in Nature between lifeforms in an ecosystem) with the world. We work together for both our survival and well-being. Cooperation and symbiosis between lifeforms (especially human beings) on Earth have become a necessity of life. We help one another, joint forces, and accomplish together what we cannot accomplish separately. Symbiotical relationships exist between nations of the European Union. It is mainly an economic base symbiotical relationship. But there are many different kind of symbiotical relationships and many more will be created. The Earth Community is proposing a solution that the process of trading within the planetary trading blocks be changed from a spirit of global competition to that of global economic cooperation. The Earth Community has made clear that globalization and planetary trading blocks should be serving the Earth Community and not the other way around, the people around the world serving the very few rich people. The September 11 event was the result of bad trading of arms and oil in the Middle East. By applying proper moral safeguards and accepting responsibility and accountability of all products (arms and oil in this case), we would make free trade and globalization serving the Human Family.

The world has become global in most fields of life. Nowadays it is a necessity to co-operate in resolving global problems which makes global governance a quality of the New Age Civilization. The next most important achievement of the Human Family will be the signing of a global agreement on the Scale of Earth Rights. The Earth Community is requesting all members of the World Trade Organization(WTO) to change their ways by:

1. building social and environmental concerns into the WTO trade rules;
2. including ethical and moral safeguards, responsibility and accountability in all situations and places;
3. developing a global regulatory framework for capitals and corporations;
4. making a transition from global competition to global co-operation which allows communities the freedom to pursue social and environmental objectives;
5. assuring that globalization and planetary trading blocks serve the Earth Community, the Human Family and not the other way around for the benefit of a few rich people in the world; and
6. developing a method of raising global taxes, of redistributing incomes to the poorest communities, of providing debt-free technical assistance to non-industrial and developing countries to help them out of poverty and to meet environmental and social standards.

Over its long past history trade has never evolved to require from the trading partners to become legally and morally responsible and accountable for their products from beginning to end. At the end the product becomes a waste and it needs to be properly dispose of. Now trade must be given a new impetus to be in line with the global concepts of the New Age Civilization.You manufacture, produce, mine, farm or create a product, you become legally and morally responsible and accountable of your product from beginning to end (to the point where it actually becomes a waste; you are also responsible for the proper disposable of the waste). This product may be anything and everything from oil & gas, weapons, war products, to genetically engineered food products. All consumer products. All medicinal products! All pharmaceutical products! In order words, a person becomes responsible and accountable for anything and everything in his or her life.

The Earth Community Organization found that an adequate level of health care is a universal value as well as a human right. We expect adequate health services to be accessible, affordable, compassionate and socially acceptable. We believe that every individual of a society is co-responsible for helping in implementing and managing health programmes along with the government and the public institutions.

The environmental movement now has encompasses global aspects under the umbrella of one global Earth Ministry of the Environment, the Earth Environmental Governance. Earth Environmental Governance is the most importance and urgent challenge of the Earth Community.

Earth Environmental Governance can only be achieved successfully within the larger context of Sustainable Developent and Earth Management. All aspects are inter-related and affect one another.

A healthy environment is essential to long term prosperity and well-being, and citizens in Earth Community demand a high level of ecological protection. This is the 'raison d'etre' of the Scale of Earth Rights.

In this way the Scale of Human and Earth Rights gives us a 'sense of direction' for future planning and managing of the Earth. Earth management is now well defined and becomes a goal to achieve. We no longer waste energy and resources in things that are absolutely unimportant.


Back to top of the page


4. Trade and the Way of Life of the West to include ethical and moral values, responsibility and accountability in all situations and places

 

Bradford R. Peirce explained the mission of Global Response is to empower people of all ages, cultures, and nationalities to protect the environment by creating partnerships for effective citizen action. At the request of indigenous peoples and grassroots organizations, Global Response organizes international letter-writing campaigns to help communities prevent environmental destruction. Global Response involves young people as well as adults in these campaigns, to develop in them the values and skills for global citizen cooperation and earth stewardship.

Natalia Knijnikova re-emphasized that the produced strategy «sustainable development» as environmental development variant has become property of the global community.

Dr. Tao Jiyi thinks that the adoption of world sustainable development calls for strong international cooperation. In order to promote world sustainable development and create a truly sustainable global society, the nations of the world have to best harmonize interacting impacts upon people, utilization of natural resources, economic development and environmental needs.

Heinrich Wohlmeyer and Hermann Dissemond showed that the analysis of the effects of world trade in general and on agricultural markets in particular is put into a comprehensive context, in order to gain the scientific coordinates for a balanced judgement. Therefore the study encloses a description of the present world trade order as well as deliberations on the theory of trade and of welfare economics - up to a chapter on ecological economics. They recommended that concessions in the field of agriculture should not be made, if it is not agreed, that the protection of man and the environment is incorporated at least at the same level as trade concerns and that a bridging between GATT/WTO and Social and Environmental Agreements is institutionalised. Otherwise the asymmetric and partly destructive dynamics will continue and the world economy would not be directed towards balanced welfare and human wellbeing.

Germain Dufour concluded that the Earth Community is proposing a solution that the process of trading within the planetary trading blocks be changed from a spirit of global competition to that of global economic cooperation.

The Earth Community has made clear that globalization and planetary trading blocks should be serving the Earth Community and not the other way around, the people around the world serving the very few rich people. The September 11 event was the result of bad trading of arms and oil in the Middle East. By applying proper moral safeguards and accepting responsibility and accountability of all products (arms and oil in this case), we would make free trade and globalization serving the Human Family.




5. The Summit of the Americas, the FTAA and Earth Management

Germain Dufour proposed that:

1. The Earth Community Organization is promoting the settling of disputes between nations through the process of the Earth Court of Justice
2. Sustainable Development for the New Age Civilization: its impact on Earth Management
3. The Democratic Voting System for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)
4. The aspirations of the people of the Americas and Caribbean in the New Age



6. The Peoples Revolution of the New Age

Michael Breton proposed that it is our common responsibility to work together to create this new society. He believe that we spend so much time analyzing and protesting the old society, without a common vision of where we are going, of what the alternative is, of the new society. Further, we spend too little time on building the bridges that would allow us to walk away from the ruin that is the present conception. It is our common responsibility to work together to create this new society.

Kulik Mikalai emphasized that solving environmental problems and those of sustainable development, we should keep in mind that they are closely connected with the generally acknnowledged human rights. Hardly there can be any effective and progressive development without a broad public access to decision- making. The international "community-right-to-know" principle is not observed in Belarus, the country with the communist past, autocratic present and indefinite future.

Nurgul Djanaeva came to the conclusion that it is desirable to have full and comprehensive analysis of the essence, roots and trends of the socio-ecological crisis. My effort so led to the conclusion about current socio-ecological crisis (SEC) as a crisis of interrelations between society and natural environment, but not of the interrelating parties separately. Besides, SEC is considered as a historical normal state of the development of the system "Society-Natural environment" .Using the "ecological" approach helps to identify the roots of the challenge.

Dr. Tao Jiyi illustrated the effects of international cooperation upon world sustainable development and suggest how world sustainable development can be achieved through international cooperation.

Germain Dufour concluded that the proper and only way is for Free Trade to become a global co-operation between all nations. He described the Peoples Revolution of the New Age and Evolution. The Peoples Revolution of the New Age has started to make casualties in the U.S. It is not that Peoples around the world dislike the American Way of Life. In fact, many countries, including Canada, have embraced the same Way of Life. But it has brought Life to a critical point of extinction. It threatens the global life-support systems of the planet. It is purely a simple survival reaction of the human species that has caused the September 11 events in the U.S. What we see being created now is the New Age Civilization: all Peoples together, the Human Family, the Earth Community, Global Governance, Earth Environmental Governance, and the Earth Government.

Life is the most precious gift ever given by God to the Universe. Life allows Souls to be conscious of God in as many different ways as possible. Life is the building block through which Souls can have a meaningful relationship with God. Today our species is evolving to rid itself of the old thoughts and old ways that are threatening its future and survival. This is a survival reaction and is very real. Our species will accomplish the evolutionary leap within a generation. The next step is the creation of new thoughts, thousands of them. Healthy thoughts! The kind that will sustain Earth. The Will of God is for our species to reach Him in the best possible ways.

The New Age Revolution is here and is growing. We see today the seeds of the Revolution. They include all social, political and religious aspects of our lives. All of our ways and values are changing and evolving. Unless the Peoples Revolution is given the proper guidance, it will be more deadly than all we have seen in our past history put together. Actions by government and business leaders that lead to revolution and war must be curtailed. Power based on greed is not in the best interest of humanity as it leads to the violation of human rights and destruction.

This time people will revolt against the business leaders and the establishment of business. They are the new leading body of the world. Businesses have taken the role of government and now hold largely the responsibility of wrongdoings. They are now held accountable for anything from the pollution of the planet, poverty, human rights violation, resources depletion, conflicts and wars, and disasters such as flooding and climate changes.

Globalization and the trade blocks intensify all aspects of human life and are at the roots of the Peoples Revolution of the New Age . Globalization is a process interaction which involves growing economic interdependence of countries worldwide with implications and impacts on social, cultural, political, environmental and familial aspects and rights. Geographical and political limits become less and less significant.

Economic globalization is seen by the growing interaction and interdependence of the world's different nations and corporations. Interactions include capital flows, flows of material goods, and labour. Markets, technologies and consumption patterns gradually let go their national or local character and become international and global. Economic globalization leads to globally more standardized sets of products.




1. The Scale of Human and Earth Rights

The Earth Community Organization has developed the Scale of Human and Earth Rights in order of importance with the ecological rights being the most important (they supersede all other rights; and so on down the scale).The Earth Community Organization has an ongoing process to improve the fundamental wordings of the Scale of Human and Earth Rights. In order to emphasize the importance of protecting the global life-support systems the first statement on top of the scale was modified to include such a need. The new wording of the scale is shown here.


Scale of Human and Earth Rights

* Ecological rights and the protection of the global life-support systems
* Primordial human rights
* The ecological rights, the protection of the global life-support systems and the primordial human rights of future generations
* Community rights and the right that the greatest number of people has by virtue of its number (50% plus one) and after voting representatives democratically
* Economic rights (business and consumer rights, and their responsibilities and accountabilities) and social rights (civil and political rights)
* Cultural rights and religious rights

Ernest Teye-Topey promoted the Role of Human Rights Promotion and Protection in Sustainable Development.

Harry Xiaohui Hao said that Safety and Security should be included as a Primordial Human Right.

Germain Dufour said that new standards, goals and objectives have to be defined. Firm universal guidelines are essentials in keeping the world healthy. Already we notice new ways of thinking being embraced, new behaviors and attitudes adopted.

He proposed:

1. Benchmark for the 21st Century; and
2. Scale of values for assessment.

The scale of values is about establishing what is very important to ensure a sound future for Earth, what is important, what is not so important, and what should be let go. From this scale, agreed upon by all members of The Global Community, the assessment of sustainable development can be conducted. The benchmark is the scale established in year 2000 along with the first evaluation of sustainable development conducted with respect to the four levels.

Our particular approach at the Congress is to emphasize how to best harmonize interacting impacts upon human beings, use of resources, economic growth and environmental needs.

He proposed that the replacement of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the Scale of Human and Earth Rights has become a necessity of life.

Primordial human rights are those human rights that individuals have by virtue of their very existence as human beings: to live, eat, drink fresh water, breath clean air, and have shelter. These rights are separate categories than ecological rights, the right of the greatest number of people, economic rights, social rights, cultural rights and religious rights. Ecological and primordial human rights are the only rights that have existed unchanged throughout the evolutionary origin of our species. Any major change would have threatened our very existence. All other human rights listed here are rights created by human beings and can be changed depending of new circumstances; they are not stagnant but are rather flexible and adaptive, and they can evolve. Ecological and primordial human rights of this generation and of future generations are therefore much more important than any other human rights existing now and in the future.

In this way the Scale of Human and Earth Rights gives us a 'sense of direction' for future planning and managing of the Earth. Earth management is now well defined and becomes a goal to achieve. We no longer waste energy and resources in things that are absolutely unimportant.

The Scale of Human Rights are guiding principles now and for future generations.


Back to top of the page


2. Reforming the structure and voting system of the United Nations organization

Germain Dufour proposed that Earth Governance can only be achieved successfully within the larger context of Sustainable Developent and Earth Management. All aspects are inter-related and affect one another.

Earth needs urgently a world system of governance. The United Nations fail to satisfy the needs of the people of the 21st Century. It has never improved upon the old ways and thinking of the middle of the 20th Century. Its voting system no longer satisfy the 6.157 billion people on Earth. The challenges are different and require a world organization up for dealing with the needs of all these people. Surely, no one believes that organizations such as the European Union and the Free Trade Area of the Americas, or the like, are a substitute to a democracy. They are driven by profits only and are a form of "world anti-government".

The most fundamental requirement of a world organization is a democratic voting system. Democracy must be a priority. The right that the greatest number of people has by virtue of its number (50% plus one) is a human right. It should be respected.

The Earth Community is proposing a voting system based on democracy: one vote per million people. The table below describes the list of the UN Member States in terms of the population within each country and, therefore, the number of votes they would have in the proposed Earth Community voting sytem. In total there are 6104 votes. Taken apart the actual five permanent UN members would have:

Republic of China, 1269
France, 59
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 147
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 58
United States of America, 277

for a total of 1810 votes i.e., less than 30% of the total number of votes of 6104 votes. A basic democracy requires a 50% plus one vote for ruling.

Earth has long been waiting for a truly global governing body based on universal values, human rights, global concepts and democracy. We might as well start this creating process now, there is no longer any reason to wait.

There is a lot to be done. Creation of Ministries (see listing) will be a priority.

Since international trade needs an international organization such as the WTO then why not an international organization to protect the global environment, the global life-support systems?

Brain-storming exercise held at the Toronto site.
Participants during exercise: Jitka Jarolimek, Michael Breton, Michael Lenhardt, Germain Dufour
How does the UN achieve the power to govern its members?

1. It does not have power right now.
2. No unbiase investigation.
3. Do away with the VETO vote of the Five Permanent Members.
4. Get corporations to participate in governing.
5. Let corporations to vote during UN meetings.
6. It cannot achieve its power.
7. Some nations dont care.
8. Self-interest is a factor in caring.
9. The UN has to stop being a pawn.
10. It is a barometer of what world nation leaders believe.
11. The UN has power by influencing public opinion.
12. It is up to its members to agree on small things.
13. Even a small nation without VETO power can manipulate the UN.
14. Make your position known and the UN make it known.
15. Each nation does what it wants when it comes to Kyoto Protocol (self-interests).
16. Let corporations bring up new ideas, money, to help governing (give corporations economic incentives to be GREEN).
17. The UN should be abolished.

Recommendations:

1. Do away with the VETO vote of the Five Permanent Members.
2. Get corporations to participate in governing.
3. Make your position known and the UN make it known.
4. The UN has to stop being a pawn.


Back to top of the page


3. The Charter of the Earth Community

Elena BIVOL proposed that the combined efforts of many sciences revealed a close interdependence between the human health, the conduct of the people, the quality of their environment, the type of their professional occupation, the motives and objectives of their lives, the relationships with other people and with the natural elements. The Earth Charter shall make good use of this interdependence and, at the same time, avoid huge enumeration of degradation factors and their consequences. It shall be equally understandable by a child and an old man, by a housewife and a scientist. It shall apply to the great diversity of people’s confessions, races, social groups, etc. The conditions should be sought in which the efficiency of the Charter could be ensured, so that it is a workable instrument and a policy guideline for most people living on the earth. The experience of law enforcement world-wide shows that man will always seek ways to circumvent laws that are opposite to his/her basic interests and needs. Thus, the Charter should look more like a moral law or ethical line of conduct, than like a regulation of life and activity.

Germain Dufour stated that We the Peoples of the Earth Community are reaffirming faith in the fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and smalll. We the Peoples implies every individual on Earth. Earth management is now a priority and a duty of every responsible person on Earth. The Earth Community Organization (ECO) has taken action by calling the Divine Will into our lives and following its guidance. Divine Will is now a part of the Soul of Humanity to be used for the higher purpose of good and Life's evolution. We will learn to serve humanity and radiate the Will of God to others. We will establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and we promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.

The spiritual belief, universal values, principles and aspirations of the New Age will be attained by:

* practicing tolerance and living together in peace and harmony with one another as neighbours,
* promoting the economic and social advancement of all peoples,
* maintaining peace and security in the world by using negotiations and peaceful means,
* finding unity in diversity with all Life,
* establishing the respect for the life-support system of the planet,
* creating activities guided by the Soul of Humanity,
* keeping Earth healthy, productive and hospitable for all people and living things, and
* applying the principle that when there is a need to find a solution to a problem or a concern, a sound solution would be to choose a measure or conduct an action, if possible, which causes reversible damage as opposed to a measure or an action causing an irreversible loss.


Back to top of the page


4. The annulment of the special voting privileges of the Five Permanent Members of the UN, and the establishment of a voting system that give to each nation one vote per million people

  Germain Dufour said that the Earth Community is proposing a voting system based on democracy: one vote per million people. The table below describes the list of the UN Member States in terms of the population within each country and, therefore, the number of votes they would have in the proposed Earth Community voting sytem. In total there are 6104 votes. Taken apart the actual five permanent UN members would have:

Republic of China, 1269
France, 59
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 147
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 58
United States of America, 277

for a total of 1810 votes i.e., less than 30% of the total number of votes of 6104 votes. A basic democracy requires a 50% plus one vote for ruling.


Brain-storming exercise held at the Toronto site.
Participants during exercise: Jitka Jarolimek, Michael Breton, Michael Lenhardt, Germain Dufour
How does the UN achieve the power to govern its members?

1. It does not have power right now.
2. No unbiase investigation.
3. Do away with the VETO vote of the Five Permanent Members.
4. Get corporations to participate in governing.
5. Let corporations to vote during UN meetings.
6. It cannot achieve its power.
7. Some nations dont care.
8. Self-interest is a factor in caring.
9. The UN has to stop being a pawn.
10. It is a barometer of what world nation leaders believe.
11. The UN has power by influencing public opinion.
12. It is up to its members to agree on small things.
13. Even a small nation without VETO power can manipulate the UN.
14. Make your position known and the UN make it known.
15. Each nation does what it wants when it comes to Kyoto Protocol (self-interests).
16. Let corporations bring up new ideas, money, to help governing (give corporations economic incentives to be GREEN).
17. The UN should be abolished.

Recommendations:

1. Do away with the VETO vote of the Five Permanent Members.
2. Get corporations to participate in governing.
3. Make your position known and the UN make it known.
4. The UN has to stop being a pawn.


Back to top of the page


5. The establishment of the Scale of Human and Earth Rights as a replacement to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Nona Kubanychbek is one of the establishers and Vice-president of the NGO “Young professionals” in Kyrgyzstan. We mainly deal with the promotion of education, including the environmental one.

Ernest Teye-Topey discussed the Role of Human Rights Promotion and Protection in Sustainable Development.

Natalia Knijnikova explained that the understanding of the global ecological questions needed unprecedent joint efforts of scientific and high level political circles of the different countries. The produced strategy «sustainable development» as environmental development variant has become property of the global community. Its logic continuation (« step by step») of sustainable development are national strategy . From a question « what it’s necessary to change? » we send to a question « how to change »? It’s necessary in time and precisely to estimate the response to change of the tendencies of growth and development. I.e. the indicators of sustainable development have decisive meaning for an estimation of the chosen strategy on conformity wished, expected and really received results of a new direction of development, and also speed of progress to an object in view in time and space.

Germain Dufour explained that the introduction of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been a great step in humanity's evolution to better itself. But now is time to leave it behind and reach to our next step, that is, the Scale of Human and Earth Rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights causes confusion in the world between nations. The reason why it causes confusion is that it needs to be improved. A lot! The West cannot understand many of the things that other nations do and other nations do not understand the West Way of Life. Why? Because the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is not so universal after all. And because it does not have a scale of values.

The Earth Community Organization also believes that the Earth Court of Justice is the only higher Court to decide about global problems and their solutions, to discriminate and to prosecute on the basis of the Scale of Human and Earth Rights and on the basis of the Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age.

The Scale of Human and Earth Rights was introduced for the first time by members of the Earth Community Organization during the August 2000 World Congress on Managing and Measuring Sustainable Development - Global Community Action 1. It was discussed further in the December 2000 Newsletter.

The Earth Community Organization has developed the Scale of Human and Earth Rights in order of importance with the ecological rights being the most important (they supersede all other rights; and so on down the scale). The scale is shown here.

The Scale of Human and Earth Rights

Back to top of the page


1. Models of the Earth Government

Marielle Jansen proposed a solution to the democratic deficit: the Sociocratic Method of Decision Making. It is a Government model.

If you have wondered how democracy can overcome its flaw of the inherent "dictatorship of the majority", which can even be the narrowest majority of just 50.001%, please consider the Sociocratic Method of Decision Making.

This method was developed by professor Gerard Endenburg of Maastricht University, the Netherlands. Endenburg, who is also an electrical engineer has applied his knowledge from the field of cybernetics to the social sphere and in his own business, Endenburg Electrotechniek in Rotterdam. He also applied the basic idea of the Quakers’ decision making model: draw the information required for decision making from the wisdom of the whole group, not just from the leader(s). He became familiar with the latter in his school years, through the method that his teacher, Kees Boeke, and his English wife, Beatrice Cadbury, had developed for reaching a high level of communication between teachers, pupils and their parents. Endenburg thus created an open method for organizations to be led on the basis of equivalence in decision making.

The continuous stream of requests for information about the method led to the foundation of the Sociocratic Centre of the Netherlands. Sociocracy is now used in organisations in a number of other countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, the USA and Switzerland.

The value of the sociocratic method has been recognised by the Dutch government through a knighthood for Endenburg and also through the fact that organisations that work with the method are exempt from installing a works-council (which is obligatory in the Netherlands for businesses employing more than 50 people). The method also prepares an organisation for ISO certification.

The sociocratic method can be summarized in four ground rules:

- The principle of consent governs decision making;
- The organisation is built up of departments / functional groups of a maximum of 25 people, who have a common aim;
- The groups are connected through a double link, in such a way that both the leader and at least one chosen representative from the group take part in decision making on the next higher level (to ensure both top-down and bottom-up communication);
- Allocation of tasks and functions takes place through sociocratic elections, which means (among others): application of the principle of consent to the election process. This means: open discussion within the group about the skills and knowledge of the proposed candidate.

Sociocracy in world scale governance has been worked out in theory. I do hope that the ECO will take up the challenge of trying sociocracy in the practice of world scale governance, so that the imperfections of the democratic process will be ironed out and the ECO will guide democracy in its next evolutionary step.

Vassily A. Agaphonoff proposed a World Economic-Ecological Model. Growth of the planet's population and growth of personal consumption stipulate the necessity of economic growth. The ruling world economic model (market economy based on private property and competition) goes to aims of economic growth.

Factors limiting economic growth are limitation of Earth and all her resources and also final's man's opportunities and human society (physiologic, mental and social opportunities) as moving power of economic growth and consumer of its results. Limiting factors of biosphere will be narrower and harder in case of loosing biovariety.

A democratically structured Earth Government was proposed by Germain Dufour. Over the past decades, Earth Community has initialized the People's Participation Grassroots Movement in wanting what is rightfully ours to manage: Earth. 'We the Peoples' of the Earth are now set with one goal, one direction, that is to protect and manage Earth for our generation and for all of the others to come. We are the hopes of humanity. We are now developing the foundation of Earth Government, the highest aspirations of humanity,a Vision of the most powerful reform in the History of Humanity. People from all over the planet are developing models for Earth Government, the greatest of all hopes. Human consciousness has evolved and will seek no rest until Earth Government has come to life.

Societies seek to form a democratically elected Earth Government, one representative per million people. Over six thousands representatives will be managing Earth. The Middle Age feudal Kingdom has evolved to become a planetary government where representatives are making decisions on behalf of their communities. In the Vision of Earth in Year 2024 governing now requires participation from every person on Earth. National governments have turn over to their citizens the responsibility and accountability of local and global problems. Finding sound solutions to problems and making decisions is no longer accomplished behind closed doors but is now a process requiring everyone's participation. National governments and Earth Government have made democracy a living and a spiritual process for the good of all of humanity. Participation is now a necessity. Participation, global concepts, universal values and the Scale of Human and Earth Rights are being taught at the school level. Earth Community has focused societies aspirations toward a unique goal: humanity survival now and in the future along with all life on Earth.

The Earth Government will be formed when representatives have been elected. The Earth Community Organization will decide when there is a significant enough proportion of people throughout the world participating in this process. Countries will decide if they want to participate with this process or not. No one country will be forced to participate. It just means that if the government of a country does not allow representatives to be elected within their population then their will not be representatives from that country sent to Earth Government. It is a choice each country must make on their own.

Alexander Wegosky sees an international organisation, both political and cultural, to have an aim in developing the essence of the state - in most general meaning of the word - by consequent carrying out the global reformation. The decisive step to this aim is the creation of Global Federation of states as independent members of the Federation, but with some particular global instance to control the activity of the states and to manage them so that the development within these states would proceed without bloodshed and pain. I should point out that the development is to be painless - that is the matter and there lies the difference from the revolutionary imperatives of the past.

What is the structure of this organisation to be? What is the name to be given to it? Is it reasonable to call it "government"? Real governments of the leading countries might feel offended. Let us give it a draft name of The Global League of the ethical control. I can only add that the League should have at it's disposal representative posts in each of the countries and each post should carry out several functions such as cultural, ethnical, Ecological and political orientation, charity and so forth. Such a political aspect of each post will turn both structurally and in organisation terms into an International Party of the Religious, Cultural and Ecological Reformation.

The proposed name Global League of the ethical control enables you to leave as it is the proposed by you structure of the Ministries as well as your position of The President.

He feels confident enough to play a modest part of your local representative, expert or even advisor in the countries of the former Soviet Union.

At the first stage of the development of the Global League of the ethical control/ GLEC/ the functions of it are to be confined to sustaining of the positive initiatives of the International Organisations, governments, religious confessions and individuals, acting for good of mankind.

At the further stage we must carry out some urge measures which are to be required from us. We shall need a lot of courage to make a critical judgement of the actions of the same organisations. We realise that by acting thus we may get ourselves into a very dangerous situations, but the Deal demands us to act so.

Furthermore, having declared our nonconformist position, we, in the long run, shall gain the right to apply to the governments and International Corporations with the advice in terms of giving them the paradigm of further development.


Back to top of the page


2. Establishing the foundation of the Earth Government

Vladimir Victorovich Lagutov proposed some fresh ideas about structure and principles of functioning for the World Government different from the existing state authorities, you might want that Government be elected by people and not by clans. You might recall my paper and concept of sustainable basin development presented in it. This concept is the base for the reconciliation of society and Nature interests.

In every basin of a big river the River Keeper should be elected by whole basin population without taking into account state, national or religious borders. If the interests of nature and life protection get the first priority within the society, then such elections should not have any problems. The World Government should consist of such representatives from great rivers. All countries and nations must recognize such a Government. The activity priorities for this institution are preservation of life and Nature and not money making. Each representative of a great river will be the head of the Council of basin smaller river representatives elected in the same way. Indeed, at the beginning it will be only some kind of formal organization, but with time when the society will start thinking with basin global scale, people will pay more attention to the opinion of this already existing and structured Institution, consisting of those respected and unselfish persons. This is going to be not business and not authorities but the conscience of the society.

The only hope to sustainable development is such an approach and no one will be able to accuse this government in self-interest.

Prof. Richard C. Rich said that because a community's sustainability depends on the choices and actions of its residents, "top-down" or "command-and-control" approaches to achieving sustainable development are often very limited in their effectiveness. An emerging approach to responding to local environmental issues, however, provides a model for actively involving community residents in ways that can encourage sustainability. Variously referred to as "collaborative environmental management" or "civic environmentalism," these approaches involve all sectors of society in a "ground-up," holistic effort to envision desirable futures for the community and to act to move toward those visions. They have the important advantage of creating a sense of place, a community identity, and an attitude of environmental citizenship that can provide a foundation for life-style and policy changes that lead to sustainability.

Vassily A. Agaphonoff mentioned that Growth of the planet's population and growth of personal consumption stipulate the necessity of economic growth. The ruling world economic model (market economy based on private property and competition) goes to aims of economic growth.

Factors limiting economic growth are limitation of Earth and all her resources and also final's man's opportunities and human society (physiologic, mental and social opportunities) as moving power of economic growth and consumer of its results. Limiting factors of biosphere will be narrower and harder in case of loosing biovariety.

Nurgul Djanaeva explored the socio-ecological crisis and its impact on society development.

It is desirable to have full and comprehensive analysis of the essence, roots and trends of the socio-ecological crisis. My effort so led to the conclusion about current socio-ecological crisis (SEC) as a crisis of interrelations between society and natural environment, but not of the interrelating parties separately. Besides, SEC is considered as a historical normal state of the development of the system "Society-Natural environment" .Using the "ecological" approach helps to identify the roots of the challenge.

Dr. Tao Jiyi thinks that the adoption of world sustainable development calls for strong international cooperation. The author analyses reasons why international cooperation is needed to achieve world sustainable development. The author also points out that international cooperation can facilitate native people's acceptance of rational policies, financial assistances and advanced technologies provided by the international community and that international cooperation also can contribute to regulating world population distribution, improving low population quality of backward countries, protecting and exploiting natural resources, developing those products and industries which can cause lower consumption of natural resources and energy sources with light pollution of environment, and keeping environmental stability and ecological balance. In a word, international cooperation greatly contributes to world sustainable development. Finally, the author suggests how world sustainable development can be promoted through international cooperation.


Mr.Mamady Diallo and Mr. Mory Sanda Diakite

Mr.Mamady Diallo and Mr. Mory Sanda Diakite

dmamady@yahoo.fr


REPUBLIQUE DE GUINEE

Travail - justice - Solidarite
....................................................
Ministere de l'Administration du Territoire de La Decentralisation et de la Securite
.....................................................

Service National De Coordination et D'Intervention Des O N G "SACCO" Conakry.

.....................................................

O N G " AGUIDEPE / ALKADIAF "

....................................................

CONGRES INTERNATIONAL SUR :
"GLOBAL DIALOGUE ON EARTH MANAGEMENT - ALL PEOPLES TOGETHER , TORONTO du 17 au 22 Aout 20002

.....................................................

THEME: " EARTH GOVERNMENT FOR EARTH COMMUNITY "

...................................................

Rapport Presente Par:

1) Mr. Mamady Diallo , President de l'ONG
2 ) Mr. Mory Sanda Diakite , Vice President

.....................................................

Conakry , Aout 2002

.....................................................

PLAN DE TRAVAIL

1° INTRODUCTION
2° QUELLES GESTION DE LA TERRE EN 2024.
3° QUELLE POPULATION TERRESTRE EN 2024
4° CONCLUSION

1° INTRODUCTION

Dieu à créer l'huniver pour que vivent les hommes , les animaux et les êtres inanimés.

Il donnat en suite la conscience à l'homme de reflechir sur les maintiens de cet bien precieux de de sa propre survie.

Vu le procres sans cesse croissant de la science, la technique et la technologie plus poussée, n est en droit de ce demander aujourd'hui quelle destinée donnerons nous à cette univer en ce debut du 3è millenaire?

La vie sur la planet n'est elle pas devenue une menace réelle à l'extiction des races?

De la course aux armes de destructions massives en passant par la famine et la misert dans certains endroits de la planete, l'humanité court à un danger si les dispositions d'urgences ne sont pas prises pour erradiquer le fleau qui nous menace.

Pour un observateur averti, est ce que l'humanité est elle une gouvernance ?

Les politiques mises sur pied en fonse d'avantage les fosses entre les riches et les pauvres.
Dans l'un ou autre camp, on se rejette les responsabilites.

De cette decadance, quelle place reservons nous à l'Afrique, aux pays en developpements dechirés par la guerres, la famine, la misert.

Est ce qu'il ya des dirrigeants au monde qui pensent réellement à la situation des plus demunis ?

La politique de la mondialisation est elle la meilleur voie pour sauver l'humaniter de la misert, la famine, les guerres inter ethniques, la heine des hommes ?

Un chercher n'à t'il penser que pour que vive une harmonie entre les hommes, il faut confier les pauvres aux riches ?

Ces sur ce plateau de composition multiple que nous tenterons de developper nos rapports de vision sur la gestion de la communaute en 2024.

Nous esperons nous faire entendre à travers ce message pour que vive une harmonie sur la planete.

à Suivre


Leslaw Michnowski
kte@psl.org.pl
elmamba@poczta.onet.pl


To all people of good will!

We speak to you because we are concerned about the fate of the Human Race and of the Earth.

The World is in crisis.

We are exploiting our natural resources of minerals and fuels faster than we are gaining access to alternative sources. We are polluting the natural environment and soil faster than the environment can regenerate itself to reach the level suitable for human needs. Depreciation (devaluation) - moral degradation of the existing forms of living - is going on faster than new forms, consistent with new living conditions for humans and for nature, are being introduced. This situation is complicated also due to demographic expansion, especially in those parts of the human family that are lagging in their development.

This crisis results mainly in lack of adjustment of two dominating systems - the system of values and the economic system - to the contemporary state of changes in the living conditions of humans and nature. These changes are proceeding very fast with the development of science and technology.

At the same time, there is no absolute deficit of material resources (minerals, fuels, ecological resources). However there is a lack of knowledge, technology, active intellectual potential and human conscience, and time - the factors that are necessary for limiting the futile utilization of scarce resources, as well as for developing alternative sources, whilst the resources which are currently under exploitation are being drained.

This crisis not only constitutes a serious hazard for everybody; it also constitutes an opportunity. This opportunity will occur if we carry out a radical reconstruction of the mentality and social relations, which could create the possibility for sustainable development.

Currently two methods of overcoming the global crisis seem to be possible.

The first, traditional method is based on decreasing the number of consumers of the resources that are in deficit. This method represents a pathology of social Darwinism - eco-fascism that leads to ecological holocaust of the weak, and subsequently - to the extinction of all humans.

The second method is based on the popularization of intellectual creative activity aimed at the common good and supported by science and high technology. This would be an ecohumanistic method.

Ecohumanism is a partnership-based co-operation for the common good of all people (rich and poor, from countries highly developed and behind in development), their descendants, and natural environment - commonly supported by science and high technology.

The first, traditional method may seem effective only at first glance. Social Darwinism does not allow the elimination of the crisis-provoking results of the moral degradation of the life forms that are not adapted to the new, quickly changing conditions.

The higher the level of development and the application of scientific and technological achievements, the faster is the pace of changes in living conditions for people and nature. This implies a very large acceleration of moral degradation pace for diverse, previously well-functioning forms of life. Moral degradation is as dangerous as the overexploitation of natural resources. This type of degradation, which is almost invisible, only to an insignificant extent depends on the number of people. It is caused mainly by the development of science and technology. This development cannot be stopped.

In order to eliminate the third factor of global crisis - the moral degradation of life forms, which in fact constitutes the basic factor - it is necessary to undertake stability-oriented solutions, which are radically different from traditional solutions.

These are:

I - increasing far-sightedness and the flexibility of the methods of human activities,

II - supplementing calculations of the costs and benefits of social and economic activity with comprehensively assessed social and natural components.

III - implementation of a system of stimulating ecohumanistic and intellectually creative activity and its popularization.

IV - increasing the intellectual potential of the human race (i.e. through popularization of the at least medium-level, comprehensive education of the youth, what would ensure intellectual independence, responsibility and the ability to participate in the development of science and technology).

This requires the further development of system dynamics - computer simulation methods for large-scale environmental and social (ecosocial) systems, flexible automation of production, and development of information technology (teleinformatization). It is impossible to prepare the appropriate economic statement without forecasting and a measurable assessment of comprehensive, broad in time and space, results of human activities and of the other changes in living conditions of people and nature.

The information problem is a key issue in overcoming the global crisis and in the creation of possibilities for sustainable development of the whole global society.

Both, contemporary and forecasted development of science and technology, especially of information technology, makes the possibility of a significant increase of the level of cognizability of human activity results more real. However, we are not able to predict fully all life hazards. Therefore, there is a necessity of the parallel development of flexible automation of production, advanced construction of diverse expert information systems, data bases, and collection of other intellectual, scientific, and technological reserves that are indispensable for the quick elimination of the hazards, which were impossible to predict in advance.

The second key problem is harnessing people's wealth to make it serve creative, innovative input to the common good. This is a potential for releasing enormous intellectual creative activity, which is so indispensable for eliminating the deficits in material and spiritual life resources.

It is impossible to solve both of these key problems related to global crisis at the local level. Joint public activities are necessary, with support from the world intellectual elite and powerful authorities.

Undoubtedly, for the development of the capability of forecasting and for a measurable assessment of the results of human activities, and for appropriate stimulation of ecohumanistic and innovative, creative activity it would be helpful - and this is what we are proposing - to create a World Center for a Strategy of Sustainable Development, under the auspices of the United Nations. This would be a professional center, for large-scale scientific, technological and organizational operations (Apollo-type), based on subsidiarity principle. The main goal of this Center would be to create information foundation of ecohumanism and sustainable development for the world society.

Its official establishment might take place in 2002, during the Special Session of General UN Assembly - "Rio+10".

The first task for the Center should be improvement and popularization of the methods for forecasting of the changes in conditions on Earth and in local societies, as well as in the natural environment.

It is necessary to create urgently, as a priority, the information basis of ecohumanism and sustainable development in order to prevent the development of eco-fascism and ecological holocaust of weaker parts of the human family that might lead to the ecological extinction of the whole human race. Without creating the information foundation of activities for our common good, such effort will not be effective!

The Sustainable Development Creators' Club.
The Polish Federation for Life
This Appeal was published inter alia in:
- “Zielone Brygady”, nr 4(149)/2000, 16-29.2.2000
- „Polish Academy of Sciences, Dialogue and Universalism, Metaphilosophy as the Wisdom of Science, Art and Life”, no. 4-5/2002.
mail to: kte@psl.org.pl

Back to top of the page


3. Democracy of the New Age Civilization will blossom out of the Scale of Human and Earth Rights

Nikolai Grishin and Olga Tokmakova proposed that Public Participation in Environmental Decision Making, as Tool for Solving Environmental Problems. They explored the following issues of public participation in environmental impact assessment: (a) goals and principles; (b) practical acpects; (c) legal, administrative and institutional frameworks; and (d) methods for arranging public participation in EIA.

Raghbendra Jha and K.V. Bhanu Murthy discussed Sustainability: Behavior, Property Rights and Economic Growth. They argued that the notion of sustainability as used in the extant literature is incomplete because of two reasons: (i) a neglect of the spatial dimensions of sustainability and (ii) the absence of a link between sustainability on the one hand and change in behavior and property rights on the other. This paper tries to address the second issue and argues that the task of attaining sustainability essentially involves a paradigm shift in which environmental goods are first treated as merit goods in order to effect behavioral changes and ultimately as common resources. The outline of a simple fiscal policy that would affect this is also discussed.

Germain Dufour described our birth right of electing a democratic government to manage Earth: the rights to vote and elect our representatives. We want nothing less! They are our human rights! Each and everyone of us on Earth was born free and equal in dignity and rights. Respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms is one of the characteristics of a democracy. The typical fundamental freedoms of a democracy (freedom of expression, thought, assembly, and association) are themselves part of human rights. These freedoms can exist everywhere. Democracy is a political system based on the participation of the people. It foresees the separation of powers among the judiciary, the legislative and the executive authorities, as well as free and regular elections.

Earth has long been waiting for a truly global governing body based on universal values, human rights, global concepts and democracy. Earth Government might as well be created now, there is no longer any reason to wait. We are the Earth Community, the Human Family, and we will form Earth Government. Earth management is a priority and is a duty by every responsible person.

The Earth Community Organization asks how meaningful is the right of the greatest number of people if they agree to the challenge or damage the ecological base of the Earth. The greatest number of people cannot and will not be allowed to supersede the rights of the ecological base of Earth and primordial human rights, and those same rights of the next generations.

The Scale of Human and Earth Rights was introduced for the first time by members of the Earth Community Organization during the August 2000 World Congress on Managing and Measuring Sustainable Development - Global Community Action 1. It was discussed further in the December 2000 Newsletter.




4. Earth Environmental Governance

Dr. Mikhail Krasnyanski said that the problem of ecology and technological safety become more and more important for the mankind. But the majority of countries of East Europe, South America, Asia and Africa have not enough finances either for environment protection (keeping air and water clean) or for utilization of the accumulated industrial and domestic wastes, or for preventing fires and explosions in industry, woods, etc. The industrial wastes in these countries (stored in dumps and settling tanks)can be of interest. In the Ukraine there had been accumulated not less than 25 billion tons of such wastes, and the estimates are that they are 2 - 3 trillion tons in the whole world. On the one side such wastes are the source of ecological disaster and on the other side they contain billions of tons of ready residual raw materials: coal, oil products, wood, iron, non-ferrous metals, rare metals, etc. (If, for example, you buy all these dumps in all the above countries 0- and often they are given practically without money - you will become the owners of huge amounts of extremely cheap natural resources that could be compared with the deposits of a big country).

Dr. Tee L. Guidotti said that the Earth is no longer a self-regulating planetary system. Its future will depend on human action and the continuation of natural ecosystems will be achieved because people want them to be preserved. Acceptance of sustainable development by society may depend on cultural values and even spiritual notions about the relationship of humankind to the Earth. This is why the otherwise quasi-religious concepts often expressed in the environmental movement, such as the Gaia hypothesis, have value as metaphor even if they do not necessarily express literal fact. Sustainable development is often described in terms that suggest a static, less technology-dependent, and culturally more homogeous regionalized society. However, sustainable development cannot be stagnation. People will not accept a view of sustainable development that recreates a technologically more advanced version of a basic peasant society, especially if they have only recently developed economically. For societies to accept sustainable development and to continue to grow within, the new way of living must accept cultural diversity, encourage individual expression, allow social change, offer opportunity, and examine values. There must be ways to permit opportunity and growth without ecological compromise. Achieving sustainable development may therefore be linked with policies emphasizing community, the value of information, originality in ideas, and the arts.

B.Sudhakara Reddy explained that during the past five decades various changes have taken place in political, economic and social institutions. Worldwide trends indicate that economic reforms, changes in national policies, and global concerns have contributed to redefine the roles of these institutions for Sustainable Development. In India, this paradigm shift helped to evolve an institutional mechanism from state controlled towards community participation in the area of natural resource management.

He examined the evidence from the activities of Tree Growers Cooperative Societies (TGCS) that were established to support economic, environmental and social upliftment of rural people. Fuelwood, fodder, pulp and timber wood species are planted in the TGCS site and the benefits are shared among the shareholders. Thus, the plantation activities brought prosperity to the stakeholders and equity among various strata of the society. These wood plantations not only provide fuelwood and fodder but also mitigate CO2 emissions by removing carbon from the atmosphere and sequestering it. The data, obtained from six TGCS in India suggest that this type of institutions can survive even in a market driven economy. The analysis also helps to appreciate the economic trade-offs involved in the monitoring the natural resources that helps in sustaining the community involvement. Results show that these types of institutions play an important role in environmental governance.

Slav Akimov and Ozod Mukhamedjanov have anlyzed:

* Global degradation of ecosystems
* Collapse of Central Asia
* Findings and proposals

Raghbendra Jha and K.V. Bhanu Murthy argued that the notion of sustainability as used in the extant literature is incomplete because of two reasons: (i) a neglect of the spatial dimensions of sustainability and (ii) the absence of a link between sustainability on the one hand and change in behavior and property rights on the other. This paper tries to address the second issue and argues that the task of attaining sustainability essentially involves a paradigm shift in which environmental goods are first treated as merit goods in order to effect behavioral changes and ultimately as common resources. The outline of a simple fiscal policy that would affect this is also discussed.

Larisa Khomik explained that all over the world the awareness is rising that the human race damages the environment and may set at risk its own future. Governments and people take action against this tendency. Up to the present efforts have not been coordinated:
environmental laws were developed in one direction, environmental organizations developed in a different direction. We have had only a vague idea about where we were heading.

She developed a program that: Taking into account personal, social and environmental aspects when helping people, in particular children and youth, to adapt to changing ecological, social, economical, political and other conditions.

Ways of Realization: Environmental education provides a person with knowledge on and responsibility for the state of the environment, provides guidelines how to behave appropriately.

Environmental education and raising of environmental awareness are the main columns of a sustainable society. Environmental films stimulate the emotional perception of ecological problems and motivate people’s action according to their moral principles and hence inspire them to preserve the environment for future generations. And this is very important. If mankind wants to survive, it must take immediate action.

Video film demonstrations promote keen emotional perception and understanding of the present ecological problems, encourage interesting discussions and, most important, the wish to solve problems.

Germain Dufour explained that during the past decades various changes have taken place in political, economic and social institutions. Economic reforms, changes in national policies, and global concerns have contributed to redefine the roles of these institutions for Sustainable Development. The 'New Age Movements' are social, political and religious movements in the sense of having a broad organizational structure and an ideology aimed at governing. The environmental movements within the New Age Movements express the concerns of groups of people regarding depletion of water, climate change aspects, degradation of land and other changes in ecosystems affecting traditional patterns of natural resource exploitation. The Earth Community has taken the role of helping these groups in protecting and managing the environment by coordinating efforts. Earth Environmental Governance is the most importance and urgent challenge of the Earth Community. The Earth Ministry of the Environment is proposing a meeting of all the Ministers of the Environment. Each country in the world will send their Minister of the Environment to meet during the global dialogue on Earth Management - all Peoples together. The roundtable discussion will also include experts from interested groups, environmental institutions, policy specialists from non-governmental organizations, and the public. There is a need to centralize and coordinate efforts into one Ministry of the Environment: the Earth Ministry of the Environment. Discussion about the financial support will be a priority. A comprehensive and reliable system will be proposed to coordinate efforts from all over the world. Anyone willing to participate in the discussion roundtable may send an abstract/research paper now. Other topics for discussion:

a) Involvement of major groups in monitoring, assessment and early warning
b) Major environmental challenges of the 21st Century
c) Civil society involvement
d) Responsibility and accountability of the private sector
e) Global environmental policy-making

Earth Environmental Governance can only be achieved successfully within the larger context of Sustainable Developent and Earth Management. All aspects are inter-related and affect one another. A healthy environment is essential to long term prosperity and well-being, and citizens in Earth Community demand a high level of ecological protection. This is the 'raison d'etre' of the Scale of Human Rights. Primordial human rights are those human rights that individuals have by virtue of their very existence as human beings: to live, eat, drink fresh water, breath clean air, and have shelter. These rights are separate categories than ecological rights, the right of the greatest number of people, economic rights, social rights, cultural rights and religious rights. Ecological and primordial human rights are the only rights that have existed unchanged throughout the evolutionary origin of our species. Any major change would have threatened our very existence. All other human rights listed here are rights created by human beings and can be changed depending of new circumstances; they are not stagnant but are rather flexible and adaptive, and they can evolve. Ecological and primordial human rights of this generation and of future generations are therefore much more important than any other human rights existing now and in the future.

In the light of the U.S.A., Japan and Russia refusal of taking actions to avert certain global calamity in regard to global warming, the Earth Community has decided to trial these nations for their crimes against humanity. We have asked them to ratify the Kyoto Protocol as it is. Greenhouse gases are accumulating in the Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, and temperatures are rising globally due to these activities. There are plenty of observable effects of the global warming.

The Earth Court of Justice has listed America as the first nation to be prosecuted for a global environmental crime. Because the leader of the USA was responsible for not signing the Kyoto Protocol, President George W. Bush will be first to appear in Court. The reality here is that every American is on trial here. Every consumer of the deadly gas causing global warming is on trial. The same goes for every person on Earth using the deadly gas. The gas is just as deadly as the gas that murdered millions of Jews during World War II. It is even more deadly as it destroying the global life-support systems of all life on Earth. We are killing billions of human beings and countless life species. Americans have closed their conscience to the reality of life on Earth. Justice must prevail to stop the "killing fields". And therefore they are guilty as charge.

It is a crime against humanity and all life on Earth not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. It is a terrible crime against the global life-support systems, against the very existence of the next generations. On the Scale of Human and Earth Rights, the crime is of maximum importance. There is no need to wait for the election of the Earth Government to create the Earth Court of Justice. The Court can be formed now and incorporated to the Earth Government later.

Prosecuting criminals on the basis of universal jurisdiction regardless of a territorial or nationality nexus required a solid commitment of political will from national governments and Earth Community.

Once in effect, the Earth Court of Justice will become the principal judicial organ of the Earth Community. The Court will have a dual role: to settle in accordance with international law the legal disputes submitted to it by national governments, local communities, and in some special cases by corporations, non-government-organizations and citizens, and to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by duly authorized organs and agencies.



Back to top of the page


1. Evolution, Creation, Intelligent Design, and now, the Guiding Souls to serve God

This section is fully described at the following location http://members.rogers.com/earth2000/GuidingSouls.html



2. History in making: the end of superpowers, the birth of the New Age Civilization, the age of global co-operation

Dr. Galina Gutina described an international project connected with children ecological theater. Her book consists of small plays dedicated to regularities and problems of the Environment. These plays dedicated to some important themes of the lessons, which are necessary to be studied with children of the age if 6-11. They are: "living" and "not living" in Nature, the circulation of water, the ecological system, domestic pets and problems with homeless animals, the pollution of water, our water-pipe, ecological problems around us in everyday life, the problem of removal of rubbish, etc. The plays offered to the readers are intended not only for performing before the audience but also for joint game with children, for active discussion between actors and audience.

Vassily A. Agaphonoff explained that Growth of the planet's population and growth of personal consumption stipulate the necessity of economic growth. The ruling world economic model (market economy based on private property and competition) goes to aims of economic growth.

Factors limiting economic growth are limitation of Earth and all her resources and also final's man's opportunities and human society (physiologic, mental and social opportunities) as moving power of economic growth and consumer of its results. Limiting factors of biosphere will be narrower and harder in case of loosing biovariety.


Natalia Knijnikova explained that the understanding of the global ecological questions needed unprecedent joint efforts of scientific and high level political circles of the different countries. The produced strategy «sustainable development» as environmental development variant has become property of the global community.

Dr. Heinrich Wohlmeyer proposed Strategies for the 21st Century Deficits, Goals and Instruments.

If there is a conflict of goals an values, there is also a need for guiding principles as to the hierarchy of these "goods". Practical ethics have already developed some road signs. Five major orientations shall be enumerated.

The Funding Principle demands, that those realities on which others build upon, have to be protected first. This to say, that saving the biological base of life has to have priority before certain social aims, which loose their value, if the biological base of life is destroyed.

The Irreversibility Criterion calls for extreme caution, if the consequences of an action cannot be reversed – especially in the ecological sphere.

The Criterion of Integration asks in the case of a conflict of aims that systems-protection has to have priority over singular measures. This criterion should be applied to Art. XX lit. b of the GATT, which exempts measures "necessary to protect human, animal, or plant life or health". At present only singular phytosanitary and veterinarian measures are acknowledged, but systems protection is denied.

The Criterion of Urgency demands, that the existential needs of future generations have to have priority over less urgent wishes and needs of the present generation.

The well known Precautionary Principle demands that precautionary measures (which also my consist in refraining from an action) have to take precedence over repairing strategies.

The Criterion of Cooperation means, that measures, which are based on the cooperation of Regions and States should have preference before those, which are taken by individual bodies, since normally environmental problems transgress national borders and universal standards exclude negative systems competition, usually called ecological and social dumping, which leads to a race to the bottom ( i.e. towards the lowest standards ).

All these Principles have to be applied in a way which does not violate human dignity, which has found its normative formulation in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Further rules have been developed by the Experts Group on Environmental Law of the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1986.

Germain Dufour explained that the human species has reached a point in its evolution where it knows its survival is being challenged. In the past, human beings have had some kind of symbiotical relationship (which is something common in Nature between lifeforms in an ecosystem) with the world. We work together for both our survival and well-being. Cooperation and symbiosis between lifeforms (especially human beings) on Earth have become a necessity of life. We help one another, joint forces, and accomplish together what we cannot accomplish separately.

Symbiotical relationships exist between nations of the European Union. It is mainly an economic base symbiotical relationship. But there are many different kind of symbiotical relationships and many more will be created.

The Earth Community Organization has begun to establish the existence of the New Age Civilization all over the planet. It will be a major workshop session during the global dialogue in August. Participants will establish fundamental aspects and criteria of the New Age Civilization: all Peoples together, the Human Family, the Soul of Humanity, the Earth Community, the Global Community, Global Economic Cooperation, Global Governance, Earth Governance, Earth Environmental Governance, and Earth Government.

There are no such thing as an anti-globalization movement as we have defined and developed the concepts of the New Age Civilization. National governments and large corporations have taken the wrong direction by asserting that free trade in the world is about competing economically without any moral safeguards and accountability to peoples and the environment. The proper and only way is for Free Trade to become a global co-operation between all nations. Surely, if we can cooperate in fighting against terrorism, then we should also be able to cooperate in fighting against the effects of the type Free Trade and the emergence of the planetary trading blocks as applied by national governments members of the World Trade Organization(WTO). It has already been shown that these effects will be desastrous socially and environmentally and are a direct threat to the existence of Life on Earth. The Earth Community is proposing a solution that the process of trading within the planetary trading blocks be changed from a spirit of global competition to that of global economic cooperation.

The Earth Community has made clear that globalization and planetary trading blocks should be serving the Earth Community and not the other way around, the people around the world serving the very few rich people. The September 11 event was the result of bad trading of arms and oil in the Middle East. By applying proper moral safeguards and accepting responsibility and accountability of all products (arms and oil in this case), we would make free trade and globalization serving the Human Family.

The world has become global in most fields of life. Nowadays it is a necessity to co-operate in resolving global problems which makes global governance a quality of the New Age Civilization. The next most important achievement of the Human Family will be the signing of a global agreement on the Scale of Human and Earth Rights.



3. Proposing our Charter to the FTAA

Germain Dufour explained that having the correct voting system in place will help countries in the South (33 countries if we include Cuba) to deal with the U.S.A. and Canada on a democratic platform. Canada and the USA will have to deal with the South to gain votes for the decision-making process.

The following table shows that Canada and the USA together have a total of 308 votes. They would have to deal with the 585 votes of the South. The decision-making process would certainly be affected. The North would really only have 34% of the votes and would have to seek votes from the South for the decision-making process.

The right that the greatest number of people has by virtue of its number (50% plus one) is a human right. It should be respected. Cuba was included here because the people of Cuba have rights just like anyone else.

The Summit of the Americas was a meeting of the 34 National Governments of every country in North, Central, South America and the Caribbean (except Cuba). The meeting was held April 20-22, 2001, in Quebec City, and was about extending the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) throughout the Americas to form the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) by 2005. The FTAA will follow the World Trade Organization (WTO) guidelines for settling disputes. The Organization of American States (OAS) manages implementation of this process. Member countries were encouraged to change their economic infrastructures to be in line with the free trade policies of the FTAA (the WTO). Many member countries have already prioritised economic growth over social aspects and human rights.

The Earth Community Organization (ECO) is aware of what the 34 National Governments are trying to achieve and decided to help them designing an agreement between themselves in line with The Charter of the Earth Community. Several articles in this Newsletter were written especially to help you find sound solutions. Our March and May Newsletters also contain articles pertaining to this challenge.

Peoples of the Americas and Caribbean (including Cuba) are an important part of Earth Community. During the Summit of the Americas several members of the Earth Community Organization (ECO) were protesting peacefully and orderly outside the gates. ECO was protesting against the undemocratic process that is the FTAA. Everything that’s important to the Earth Community is being let go by the 34 nation leaders and world business leaders in favor of the goal of making profits.

Other implications of the FTAA:

a) Services offered to the public can be managed by private, foreign providers; these providers are allowed to bid for contracts in all sectors such as energy, transportation, agriculture, forestry, fishery, health, education, sewer and water services. Truly, all sectors of life are affected.
b) Resources are opened for trade and may no longer be controlled by a national government; energy, rain forests and water are affected. In effect, business leaders of large corporations become the real owners of our resources.
c) Environmental decisions, education initiatives, health policies and cultural programs will be affected if they represent a threat to a corporation’s potential profit.
d) Canadians will have to accept continental economic and social policies and the U.S. dollars as our currency. The U.S. dollars will eventually become the currency of all 34 member nations. What it means to be a Canadian will be gradually diluted to fulfill the desires of business leaders. What it means to be a citizen in any country will be diluted to nothing.
e) Government will no longer have an independent financial policy.
f) Labour rights will be subjected to the primary goal of making profit.
g) Viability of social programs in a community will be subjected to scrutiny and control by the FTAA.
h) Operation of government will be restrained and dependent on economic goals.
i) The sovereignty of a nation will be chipped away. Government will give away sovereign and constitutional powers to secret FTAA tribunals whose only goals and objectives are to protect investments and investors.
j) The quality of life of every nation in the hemisphere will be diminished and subjected to economic goals.
k) Environmental degradation: lowering of plant and biomass diversity, increase of air pollution, natural resource depletion and pollution, deforestation, soil erosion, endangerment and extinction of life species. The legacy to our children and to the future generations thereafter will be a wasteland.
l) U.S. military is "to protect U.S. interests and investments" and that includes making other nations safe for U.S multinational corporations. When will the military issue be discussed? How will the military be part of the FTAA? Are we seeing here in the Americas a scenario that has occurred in Europe before the Second World War? The FTAA should entrench a strong statement that says that military should not be an option as a solution to any situation arising in the hemisphere. The Earth Court of Justice was created to deal with any situation and, therefore, the military is not needed. The military should also be subjected to the Earth Court of Justice for any violation of human rights including environmental rights as defined by the Scale of Human and Earth Rights).
m) What impacts will the FTAA have on women and children, indigenous Peoples, on poverty?
n) Degradation and disrespect of national standards (engineering, health, environmental, etc.).
o) If U.S. interest rates go up what will be the impacts of the cost of debt servicing of the 32 (out of 34) poor countries? Investments in those nations have to be serviced through any export surplus.
p) Future generations will be affected by entering into an agreement that obligates the present generation to irrevocable conditions. The FTAA would violate the basic principle of a sustainable development in the hemisphere and endanger the survival of Life on Earth.
q) If Canada and the U.S. were serious about the FTAA and a sustainable development in the poorest nations would they not accept removing now all tariffs for the very poorest members?

NAFTA has led to the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs in Canadian plants as companies relocated to Mexico to take advantage of the cheaper and weaker environmental and safety standards. The same thing will happen with the new agreement. The FTAA will have the effect of lowering down wages and working conditions in Canada and in the U.S. thereby adding more profits to business leaders.

The human rights abuse and environmental degradation are two of the many unresolved social issues in countries that want the trade agreement. Human rights violations would constitute unfair trade subsidies.

The process of designing the FTAA is obviously undemocratic and will lead to an "unsustainable development". Earth Community has worked hard to find sound solutions and better ways to improve the quality of our lives and that of the future generations. We are not going to let go the "Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age". We will form our own ways to manage the Americas and the Caribbean. We will form the Earth Government. The people of the Americas and Caribbean will be first in forming Earth Government to manage the hemisphere.

The Earth Government will be formed when representatives from the 34 member nations have been elected. Earth Government allows the creation of a truly democratic process whereby one representative is elected for every million citizens. For the 800 million people or more of the Americas and Caribbean there would be 800 elected representatives whose job will be to manage responsibly the hemisphere. Each elected representative will bring forth issues and concerns of their particular citizens.

There are multiple issues related to forming Earth Government, and they are a part of discussion roundtables of the global dialogue Earth Management - all Peoples together with the theme Earth Government for Earth Community - A grassroots process. This new global dialogue will be held August 17-22, year 2002, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We are inviting researchers and groups to submit research papers and discussion proposals. We are making a special invitation to all civil society groups. Everyone is invited to participate in the discussion.

The Earth Community Organization will decide when there is a significant enough proportion of people throughout the hemisphere participating in the process. The 34 countries of the hemisphere will decide if they want to participate with this process or not. No one country will be forced to participate. It just means that if the government of a country does not allow representatives to be elected within their population then their will not be representatives from that country sent to Earth Government. It is a choice each country must make on their own.

One representative per million people! If all countries in the world had decided today to participate with this process we would have today 6,114 elected representatives to form Earth Government. They would form the Elected Representative Council or Legislative body of Earth Government. They could actually all stay home to govern or from some place in their communities. Today’s communications are more than adequate to allow voting and discussing issues, etc. through the Internet and video conferencing. That would cut cost of governing down to a minimum, at least administrative costs. The Earth Executive Council would also govern in this way to cut cost down to a minimum. Ministers can administer their Ministries from where they live if they wish to. We will show that it costs very little to administer Earth Government, and that we can achieve immense results. There is no limit to the good the Earth Government can achieve in the world. Think what can accomplish a unified 6.114 billion people determined to make things work to keep Earth healthy!

This third millennium is a new challenge for the people of the Americas and Caribbean. New standards, goals and objectives have to be defined. Firm universal guidelines are essential in keeping the hemisphere healthy. When a group of ordinary people realized that they, personally, will make the changes they need in their field, in their village, in their communities, they can then find ways to bring about these changes for all. There is a wisdom in the ways of very humble people that needs to be utilized. Every humble person deserves to have ideas respected, and encouraged to develop his or her own life for the better. Sound solutions to help manage and sustain Earth will very likely be found this way. Everyone can help assess the needs of the hemisphere and propose sound solutions for its proper management, present and future. Everyone can think of better ideas to sustain all life on Earth and realize these ideas by conducting positive and constructive actions. When there is a need to find a solution to a problem or a concern, a sound solution would be to choose a measure or conduct an action, if possible, which causes reversible damage as opposed to a measure or an action causing an irreversible loss; that is the grassroots process. The Earth Community Organization can help you to realize your actions by coordinating efforts efficiently. The Earth Community Organization is the only way to go to manage the hemisphere.




1. On the creation of a new nation through the process of the Earth Court of Justice: Palestinians and Jews of Israel are invited to the global dialogue to create sustainable communities and a permanent peace movement in the land.


Dear Palestinians and Jews of Israel:

The Earth Community Organization is invited you to the global dialogue to create sustainable communities and a permanent peace movement in the land through the process of the Earth Court of Justice.

The Earth Court of Justice will be created for the purpose of deciding on the legality of the state of Israel and the creation of the state of Palestine. Members of this higher Court will be chosen to reflect the Peoples involved here.

May the DIVINE WILL come into our lives and show us the way.
May our higher purpose in life bring us closer to the Soul of Humanity and God.

Cordially,

Germain

Germain Dufour
President and Chairman
Earth Management - all Peoples together
Earth Community Organization




2. Poster presentation and student project viewing

 



Back to top of the page


3. New symbiotical relationships between the nations to the North with those of the South


Mr.Mamady Diallo a dit qu'en Afrique seul les Dialogues Nord-Sud pourrainent faire avancer nos Etat dans la grande lutte pour le maintient de l'environnement mondial.

Oystein S. LaBianca and Gary Brendel explained that more than perhaps any other factor, progress toward reaching the goal of sustainable social development will depend on building a cadre of leaders in the countries of the north and south with the capacities needed to create enabling environments for sustainable social development.

Ngo Louga Madeleine explique que depuis sa mise en application dans nombre de secteurs nevralgiques que sont l'environnement, le tourisme et la paix, jamais concept n'a ete aussi recurrent et pressant dans les discours politiques. Plus qu'un simple slogan de campagne, la notion de developpement durable est en passe de devenir une option legitime. Mais avec le recul necessaire que nous impose l'histoire et les faits, il est tentant d'affirmer sans risque aucun d'etre dementi que quelque soit l'angle sous lequel on veut aborder ce concept de nos jours, pour l'Afrique et pour les africains, la notion semble paradoxale dans la mesure ou elle conjugue deux idees contradictoires: d'un cote, celle du developpement, et de l'autre, celle de durabilite.L'inoperationnalite operante et la sterilite criarde du concept sur le terrain, laisse aujourdh'ui, plus d'un sceptique et dubitatif sur sa finalite.

Face a l'urgence de la situation, et au regard des enjeux incommensurables que revet l'avenir et le devenir des generations futures et de nos societes traditionnelles et/ou modernes, il devient, chaque jour, de plus en plus evident que les populations beneficiaires de cette donne tournent resolument le dos au necessaire pour faire a l'utile. Au seuil de ce "mytique" millenaire naissant, la reorientation de la conceptualisation a l'instrumentalisation du concept de developpemnt durable doit etre un defi prioritaire a relever.

Professor José Moya explained that today, at the end of the XX century, again we are faced with historical changes, this time, GLOBALIZATION is presented to us as a new paradigm, as the only option for development, we are facing a new ideological operation, terms are changed and appear as novelties. This demands we redefine our language. WE NEED TO REVOLUTIONIZE LANGUAGE, many words look normal and are used daily, however, they form an intricate web of concepts that sustain the IDEOLOGY OF DOMINATION.

Developing, undeveloped, development, traditional society, advance society, modernity, new technologies, progress and, now: globalization, neo-liberalism, periferic countries, emergent countries unlimited growth, corporative agendas, technology expansion, etc.

Germain Dufour explained that the Earth Community Organization is recommending to the developing nations not to make deals with the developed countries. Do not accept money as loans from the IMF and World Bank. Do not become a member of the WTO. Your best chance for survival is to build sustainable communities in your country. If you do need to make a deal with another nation, a symbiotical relationship based on economics, make sure it is for the interests of both of you. You have no need of a global membership on any kind. It would destroy you.

The debt of the poor nations or 'developing nations' to the rich nations was in actuality a form of global tax and therefore the poor or 'developing' nations dont have to pay it back. In fact poor nations should expect way more money as tax by the rich nations and not as loans. The state of the world today is the result of a specific set of interlocking institutions: the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO. These institutions are designed to generate massive wealth for the few and poverty for the rest. The same people who make the decisions in government and corporation make the profit. They create a tight concentration of power. Together they are a form of anti-government whose only goal is profit. The IMF, through Structural Adjustment Programs, now directly runs the economies of over 70 countries. That means that about 1000 economists and bureaucrats control the economic policies for 1.4 billion people in these countries. That is a form of anti-government. The people that profit most from the global economy are white people. The people who are most oppressed by the global economy are people of colour. Racism and sexism have become the norm. The entire planet is in a state of low intensity civil war. The ruling elite profit off of the exploitation of the rest of the world. The Earth Community Organization was looking for a method of raising global taxes, of redistributing incomes to the poorest communities, of providing debt-free technical assistance to non-industrial and developing countries to help them out of poverty and to meet environmental and social standards, but there it was all along right on our eyes. The Earth Court of Justice will be asked to decide on the debt be changed into an actual tax to be paid by the rich nations to the poor nations, and to decide on the amount of tax to be paid. Developing nations will then be able to start rebuilding their communities as per the Scale of Human and Earth Rights and the Charter of the Earth Community. They will not have to satisfy the economic needs and wishes of the rich nations. The Earth Court of Justice will also be asked to rule illegal the activities of the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO unless they become a part of a greater whole such as the Earth Ministry of Financial Institutions, a part of the future Earth Government. These institutions will be controlled by the greater whole.

The effect of IMF and World Bank policies in the world caused the destruction of the economies of the poor nations (now we call them 'developing' countries). They impoverished the people by taking away basic services and devaluating their currency. They opened up the national economy to be ravaged by competition with richer nations. Poverty lead to other problems causing the ecological destruction of a poor nation. Environmental spending was diminished under a Structural Adjustment Program. More rainforest land had to be cleared to grow crops just to survive. The overall effect of the US policy within the IMF caused the famine in Somalia, the war in Rwanda, and many other international catastrophes. In the mean time the debt of the poor nation increased enormously. The longer a nation was under a Structural Adjustment Program, the more its debt increased. In 1999, the debt of the poor nations has reached $3 trillion dollars. While 'developing' countries receive loans and aid from sources such as the World Bank, the IMF and other banks in 'developed' countries, they pay back much more just to pay off the interest on their debts. The banks in 'developed' countries are doing very well and cashing in at the detriment of the poor nations. And so are the multinational corporations as the cost of doing business in poor nations gets even cheaper. Governments of rich nations benefit from what is happening as they gain power over governments of poor nations. The elite in poor nations benefit as well. Today, the personal wealth of Ferdinand Marcos, the former dictator of the Philippines, is estimated at $10 billion. All around the world there is a small elite class of officials, bureaucrats, technocrats and economists who make the decisions about the economic policy for most of the world, and they are also the ones who benefit from those policies at the expense of the rest of the world. The effect of IMF and World Bank policies created poverty and inequality in the world. Since 1950, the total dollar value of the world economy has increased 5-fold, while the number of people in absolute poverty has doubled. The 3 wealthiest people on the planet are now wealthier than 48 poorest countries. The total wealth of the 200 richest people in the world has more than doubled to a $1 trillion. Today about 1.3 billion people survive on less than a dollar a day, and about the same number do not have access to clean drinking water. Approximately 3 billion people live on less than 2 dollar a day; and 2 billion people are suffering from anaemia. The state of the world today is the result of a specific set of interlocking institutions: the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO. These institutions are designed to generate massive wealth for the few and poverty for the rest. The same people who make the decisions in government and corporation make the profit. They create a tight concentration of power. Together they are a form of anti-government whose only goal is profit. The IMF, through Structural Adjustment Programs, now directly runs the economies of over 70 countries. That means that about 1000 economists and bureaucrats control the economic policies for 1.4 billion people in these countries. That is a form of anti-government. The people that profit most from the global economy are white people. The people who are most oppressed by the global economy are people of colour. Racism and sexism have become the norm. The entire planet is in a state of low intensity civil war. The ruling elite profit off of the exploitation of the rest of the world.

Because governments of poor nations had to promote 'free trade', this situation cause barriers to trade to be eliminated and now we are seeing the globalization of 'free trade'. Poor nations are now asked to produce only the products they are good at producing and buy from other countries the products they are not as good at producing. This way the economy of a nation will function at maximum efficiency. So now governments are told to open up their borders and to stop meddling in markets, so that competition will be free internationally. Often what is called trade is really moving of resources across borders between subsidiaries of the same corporation. Nothing to do with free competition. Economic activity is centrally-managed and planned by the corporate elite. Capital move freely across borders as restrictions on the flow of money have been removed. Corporations can relocate their operations to the countries with the lowest wages, the least active unions and the lowest environmental standards. The reality is that more polluting industries are encouraged to relocate to poorer countries. A polluting industry tends to increase the chances that people in the surrounding area will have health problems. If pollution kills someone or makes them unable to work, the cost to the economy, or to the industry in the case of a law-suit, would be roughly equal to the projected wages that the person would have earned in the rest of their life. In a country with low life expectancy and low wages, this cost will be lessened. It costs less to dump a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country.

'Free trade' now means the removal of:

a) tariffs and similar restrictions on the easy flow of capital (and that includes no global tax on transactions stemming from speculation), and
b) non-tariffs barriers to trade.


Today the watchdog, the 'enforcer' for 'free trade', and also the bedfellow of both the IMF and the World Bank, is the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO is responsible for monitoring national trading policies, handling trade disputes, and enforcing the GATT agreements. The World Trade Organization (WTO), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) encourage the privatization of public services and the settling of international disputes their own way. Any government, acting on behalf of a corporation, can challenge the acts of another government if they "interfere with trade." Complaints are taken to a WTO dispute resolution body which then make a binding decision. The WTO has forced governments to lower their environmental standards in favour of a corporation to allow more pollution into the environment, and that is a form of anti-government gone bad with absolute no respect or care for life and the global-life support systems. Corporations can sue governments if they harm their profits through any unfair barriers to trade. NAFTA and WTO tribunals usually rule in favor of corporations. So now we really have a new definition for the word 'property' to mean both what is currently owned and profits that could potentially be made. To compensate, we propose a new definition for 'pollution' and 'human destruction' to mean the pollution and human destruction that the policies of the IMF, World Bank and WTO are causing now in the world plus the pollution and human destruction that they will cause in the future to the next generations. By providing corporations with a mean to override governmental decisions, NAFTA and the WTO (and the proposed FTAA) shift power even more into the hands of the elite. And that is also a form of anti-government.

The global economy can be affected by the deregulation in the movement of capital and thus by speculation. Money is made off tiny fluctuations in the relative prices of currencies. Speculation makes it possible for huge amounts of money to be transferred half-way around the world in a matter of seconds. Whereas world trade associated with actual goods and services is estimated at $7 trillion a year, speculation is estimated at $1.5 trillion a day. If a country's economy starts to slow, billions of dollars can be transferred out of the country instantaneously, which can significantly affect its economy and the people. This has been the case in 1997 of a number of East Asia countries. They were bankrupted by speculation. The people were enormously affected for the worst. Speculation can exert tremendous pressure on the internal politics of a country. It can bankrupt a country's economy. Speculation should be de-institutionalized. Humanity has no real need for speculation, and it does way more damage than good.

Rich countries manipulate trade agreements in order to ensure profitability. Their governments insist on tariffs and protectionism in areas in which they are weak. For instance, Canada and the USA are now going through the process of an economic war in the softwood industry. The imposition of a 29 percent tariff on softwood lumber by the U.S. Commerce Department shows that Canadians were duped by the Free Trade Agreement(FTA) and NAFTA. The U.S. Government protectionism is itself aimed at reducing the value of the Canadian companies just long enough for American competitors to acquire them. Many Canadian industries have already been bought by US competitors. The energy sector is one of them. Free trade opens up a poor country's economy to competition with strong, developed, well-financed, multinational corporations. In consequence, most of the local producers and manufacturers go out of business thus leaving a poor country's economy entirely in the hands of the transnational elite. It is a form of colonization and of world anti-government. Rich countries force poorer countries to open up their markets, and then take them over.

Over the years, the IMF and World Bank interacted with one another and still do today. The IMF looked after the new systems of fixed exchange rates by making exchange easy between different currencies thus making trade easy between countries. The IMF provided short-term emergency loans (5 years maximum to repay) to governments. The World Bank was to focus on long-term loans at low interest rates to allow European nations to rebuild and restore. Later on in the 1950s, after European nations had recovered from the war, the World Bank continued to exist by lending to the governments of poor nations especially in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

In 1973, US President R. Nixon decided to take America off the gold standard to devalue the US dollar. This US policy destroyed the system of fixed currency exchange rate. After this action, the effect on the global economy was felt positively by the rich nations of the world, currencies could no longer 'float' relative to each other and the debt of the poor nations increased as they were all created in US dollars. Then the World Bank loaned more dollars to the poor nations. Often the money was used for war purposes such as in the Philippines and Argentina. War equipment was bought from America, and this had a positive effect on the US economy. Poor nations saw their debt grow astronomically and were forced to make new loans just to pay for the interests. The IMF supplied more loans under the condition that the poor nations undergo "Structural Adjustment Programs". This had the effect that a poor nation's economic policy would be dictated by the IMF. The IMF simply said to the poor nations: do all you can to attract business and pay off your debts. The IMF and the World Bank are a form of anti-government gone bad as their policies brought poverty to more than half the population on Earth and are causing a major threat to the global life-support systems. Poor nations started to privatize many services and reduce spending on others so that they would have more money available for debt repayment. The overall effect was that governments were cutting on education, healthcare and subsidies to keep food prices affordable. Governments had to promote 'free trade' and to devalue their currency. Now in a nation whose currency is worth less, all the costs of doing business are less and prices for imported goods increase. The IMF basically forced poor nations to focus their economy toward exports, especially cash crops such as coffee, sugar, cotton, etc. and raw materials such as copper and timber. In consequence of this, several nations produced the same products all at the same time and thus prices for those products went down enormously. The overall effect of the US policy within the IMF and the World Bank was to increase poverty and ecological destruction in the poor nations while the rich nations got richer.

The Earth Community Organization is calling for the creation of the Earth Court of Justice to rule that the debt of the poor nations or 'developing nations' to the rich nations was in actuality a form of global tax and therefore the poor or 'developing' nations dont have to pay it back. In fact poor nations should expect way more money as a tax by the rich nations and not as loans.

Back to top of the page


1. Establishing fundamental aspects and criteria of the New Age Civilization: all Peoples together, the Human Family, the Soul of Humanity, the Earth Community, the Global Community, Global Economic Cooperation, Earth Governance, Earth Environmental Governance, global cooperation, global Ministries, and Earth Government.


Andrea Luger-Hoefling said that we are part of the nature, when we kill the nature we kill ourselves, the environment, that nourrishes us.

Dr. Gennady N. Karopa explained that in conditions of increasing crisis of the environment of special importance are the questions of the environmental education directed at the formation among the population of norms of the responsible attitude towards nature. The primary role and basic functions in solving this problem belongs to contemporary schools providing good facilities for systematic training, education and development of each citizen of our community. However schools today have certain difficulties in carrying out the effective environmental education of the pupils. First of all it can be explained by the fact that the mechanisms involved in the process of forming the person's responsible attitude towards nature have not been investigated yet. One more reason is the absence of educational and methodical manuals, textbooks and scientifically based programmes checked in school practice. Realizing these difficulties and trying to help school teachers the Belarusian National Green Class Association for many years has been making experimental researches to create a new system of environmental education of schoolchildren. The Green Class has been working out manuals and programmes on ecology. The results of this work have been illustrated by local and national press and presented as reports at many international forums, conferences and seminars.

Prof. Richard C. Rich explored the relationship between the features of collaborative environmental management and the conditions necessary for achieving sustainability. It draws on examples from eight cases of collaborative environmental management in the state of Virginia to discuss the conditions under which this is an appropriate response to environmental problems. The analysis asks how collaborative environmental management practices could be extended to efforts to promote community sustainability, and identifies the elements of this approach that are especially relevant to application in developing nations.

Jim Christiansen explored How to Influence Business Organizations on Issues Related to Managing the Earth in the Long Term. His study is an outgrowth of the way in which international law influences the development of domestic legal systems.

Nikolai Grishin and Olga Tokmakova promote Public Participation in Environmental Decision Making, as Tool for Solving Environmental Problems. They addressed the following issues of public participation in environmental impact assessment: (a) goals and principles; (b) practical acpects; (c) legal, administrative and institutional frameworks; and (d) methods for arranging public participation in EIA.

Larisa Khomik used video film to demonstrate and promote keen emotional perception and understanding of the present ecological problems, encourage interesting discussions and, most important, the wish to solve problems.

Heinrich Wohlmeyer and Hermann Dissemond attempt to denominate the major causes of the present ecological and social misery, which cannot be denied, and to shed some beams of light onto the subject of the preconditions of long term sustainable development from a multidisciplinary array of views. Thus it tries to overcome the blinkers of the specialised branches of science and of particular interests towards an interdisciplinary (holistic) view.

They proposed a vision of life in physical and psychical wellbeing both sides of human existence have to be addressed, the physical and the psycho-spiritual. In such a vision civilisation has to be geared in conformity wit human demands and the ecosystem. Based on an ethical foundation it has to strike the balance between economy and technology on the one side and human rights and respect of fellow creatures on the other. In order to achieve this, we need a balanced legal framework providing the social rules necessary to meet these aims.

If there is a conflict of goals an values, there is also a need for guiding principles as to the hierarchy of these "goods". Practical ethics have already developed some road signs. Five major orientations shall be enumerated.

The Funding Principle demands, that those realities on which others build upon, have to be protected first. This to say, that saving the biological base of life has to have priority before certain social aims, which loose their value, if the biological base of life is destroyed.

The Irreversibility Criterion calls for extreme caution, if the consequences of an action cannot be reversed – especially in the ecological sphere.

The Criterion of Integration asks in the case of a conflict of aims that systems-protection has to have priority over singular measures. This criterion should be applied to Art. XX lit. b of the GATT, which exempts measures "necessary to protect human, animal, or plant life or health". At present only singular phytosanitary and veterinarian measures are acknowledged, but systems protection is denied.

The Criterion of Urgency demands, that the existential needs of future generations have to have priority over less urgent wishes and needs of the present generation.

The well known Precautionary Principle demands that precautionary measures (which also my consist in refraining from an action) have to take precedence over repairing strategies.

The Criterion of Cooperation means, that measures, which are based on the cooperation of Regions and States should have preference before those, which are taken by individual bodies, since normally environmental problems transgress national borders and universal standards exclude negative systems competition, usually called ecological and social dumping, which leads to a race to the bottom ( i.e. towards the lowest standards ).

All these Principles have to be applied in a way which does not violate human dignity, which has found its normative formulation in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Further rules have been developed by the Experts Group on Environmental Law of the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1986.


Mr.Mamady Diallo and Mr. Mory Sanda Diakite

Mr.Mamady Diallo and Mr. Mory Sanda Diakite

dmamady@yahoo.fr


REPUBLIQUE DE GUINEE

Travail - justice - Solidarite
....................................................
Ministere de l'Administration du Territoire de La Decentralisation et de la Securite
.....................................................

Service National De Coordination et D'Intervention Des O N G "SACCO" Conakry.

.....................................................

O N G " AGUIDEPE / ALKADIAF "

....................................................

CONGRES INTERNATIONAL SUR :
"GLOBAL DIALOGUE ON EARTH MANAGEMENT - ALL PEOPLES TOGETHER , TORONTO du 17 au 22 Aout 20002

.....................................................

THEME: " EARTH GOVERNMENT FOR EARTH COMMUNITY "

...................................................

Rapport Presente Par:

1) Mr. Mamady Diallo , President de l'ONG
2 ) Mr. Mory Sanda Diakite , Vice President

.....................................................

Conakry , Aout 2002

.....................................................

PLAN DE TRAVAIL

1° INTRODUCTION
2° QUELLES GESTION DE LA TERRE EN 2024.
3° QUELLE POPULATION TERRESTRE EN 2024
4° CONCLUSION

1° INTRODUCTION

Dieu à créer l'huniver pour que vivent les hommes , les animaux et les êtres inanimés.

Il donnat en suite la conscience à l'homme de reflechir sur les maintiens de cet bien precieux de de sa propre survie.

Vu le procres sans cesse croissant de la science, la technique et la technologie plus poussée, n est en droit de ce demander aujourd'hui quelle destinée donnerons nous à cette univer en ce debut du 3è millenaire?

La vie sur la planet n'est elle pas devenue une menace réelle à l'extiction des races?

De la course aux armes de destructions massives en passant par la famine et la misert dans certains endroits de la planete, l'humanité court à un danger si les dispositions d'urgences ne sont pas prises pour erradiquer le fleau qui nous menace.

Pour un observateur averti, est ce que l'humanité est elle une gouvernance ?

Les politiques mises sur pied en fonse d'avantage les fosses entre les riches et les pauvres.
Dans l'un ou autre camp, on se rejette les responsabilites.

De cette decadance, quelle place reservons nous à l'Afrique, aux pays en developpements dechirés par la guerres, la famine, la misert.

Est ce qu'il ya des dirrigeants au monde qui pensent réellement à la situation des plus demunis ?

La politique de la mondialisation est elle la meilleur voie pour sauver l'humaniter de la misert, la famine, les guerres inter ethniques, la heine des hommes ?

Un chercher n'à t'il penser que pour que vive une harmonie entre les hommes, il faut confier les pauvres aux riches ?

Ces sur ce plateau de composition multiple que nous tenterons de developper nos rapports de vision sur la gestion de la communaute en 2024.

Nous esperons nous faire entendre à travers ce message pour que vive une harmonie sur la planete.

à Suivre


Leslaw Michnowski
kte@psl.org.pl
elmamba@poczta.onet.pl


To all people of good will!

We speak to you because we are concerned about the fate of the Human Race and of the Earth.

The World is in crisis.

We are exploiting our natural resources of minerals and fuels faster than we are gaining access to alternative sources. We are polluting the natural environment and soil faster than the environment can regenerate itself to reach the level suitable for human needs. Depreciation (devaluation) - moral degradation of the existing forms of living - is going on faster than new forms, consistent with new living conditions for humans and for nature, are being introduced. This situation is complicated also due to demographic expansion, especially in those parts of the human family that are lagging in their development.

This crisis results mainly in lack of adjustment of two dominating systems - the system of values and the economic system - to the contemporary state of changes in the living conditions of humans and nature. These changes are proceeding very fast with the development of science and technology.

At the same time, there is no absolute deficit of material resources (minerals, fuels, ecological resources). However there is a lack of knowledge, technology, active intellectual potential and human conscience, and time - the factors that are necessary for limiting the futile utilization of scarce resources, as well as for developing alternative sources, whilst the resources which are currently under exploitation are being drained.

This crisis not only constitutes a serious hazard for everybody; it also constitutes an opportunity. This opportunity will occur if we carry out a radical reconstruction of the mentality and social relations, which could create the possibility for sustainable development.

Currently two methods of overcoming the global crisis seem to be possible.

The first, traditional method is based on decreasing the number of consumers of the resources that are in deficit. This method represents a pathology of social Darwinism - eco-fascism that leads to ecological holocaust of the weak, and subsequently - to the extinction of all humans.

The second method is based on the popularization of intellectual creative activity aimed at the common good and supported by science and high technology. This would be an ecohumanistic method.

Ecohumanism is a partnership-based co-operation for the common good of all people (rich and poor, from countries highly developed and behind in development), their descendants, and natural environment - commonly supported by science and high technology.

The first, traditional method may seem effective only at first glance. Social Darwinism does not allow the elimination of the crisis-provoking results of the moral degradation of the life forms that are not adapted to the new, quickly changing conditions.

The higher the level of development and the application of scientific and technological achievements, the faster is the pace of changes in living conditions for people and nature. This implies a very large acceleration of moral degradation pace for diverse, previously well-functioning forms of life. Moral degradation is as dangerous as the overexploitation of natural resources. This type of degradation, which is almost invisible, only to an insignificant extent depends on the number of people. It is caused mainly by the development of science and technology. This development cannot be stopped.

In order to eliminate the third factor of global crisis - the moral degradation of life forms, which in fact constitutes the basic factor - it is necessary to undertake stability-oriented solutions, which are radically different from traditional solutions.

These are:

I - increasing far-sightedness and the flexibility of the methods of human activities,

II - supplementing calculations of the costs and benefits of social and economic activity with comprehensively assessed social and natural components.

III - implementation of a system of stimulating ecohumanistic and intellectually creative activity and its popularization.

IV - increasing the intellectual potential of the human race (i.e. through popularization of the at least medium-level, comprehensive education of the youth, what would ensure intellectual independence, responsibility and the ability to participate in the development of science and technology).

This requires the further development of system dynamics - computer simulation methods for large-scale environmental and social (ecosocial) systems, flexible automation of production, and development of information technology (teleinformatization). It is impossible to prepare the appropriate economic statement without forecasting and a measurable assessment of comprehensive, broad in time and space, results of human activities and of the other changes in living conditions of people and nature.

The information problem is a key issue in overcoming the global crisis and in the creation of possibilities for sustainable development of the whole global society.

Both, contemporary and forecasted development of science and technology, especially of information technology, makes the possibility of a significant increase of the level of cognizability of human activity results more real. However, we are not able to predict fully all life hazards. Therefore, there is a necessity of the parallel development of flexible automation of production, advanced construction of diverse expert information systems, data bases, and collection of other intellectual, scientific, and technological reserves that are indispensable for the quick elimination of the hazards, which were impossible to predict in advance.

The second key problem is harnessing people's wealth to make it serve creative, innovative input to the common good. This is a potential for releasing enormous intellectual creative activity, which is so indispensable for eliminating the deficits in material and spiritual life resources.

It is impossible to solve both of these key problems related to global crisis at the local level. Joint public activities are necessary, with support from the world intellectual elite and powerful authorities.

Undoubtedly, for the development of the capability of forecasting and for a measurable assessment of the results of human activities, and for appropriate stimulation of ecohumanistic and innovative, creative activity it would be helpful - and this is what we are proposing - to create a World Center for a Strategy of Sustainable Development, under the auspices of the United Nations. This would be a professional center, for large-scale scientific, technological and organizational operations (Apollo-type), based on subsidiarity principle. The main goal of this Center would be to create information foundation of ecohumanism and sustainable development for the world society.

Its official establishment might take place in 2002, during the Special Session of General UN Assembly - "Rio+10".

The first task for the Center should be improvement and popularization of the methods for forecasting of the changes in conditions on Earth and in local societies, as well as in the natural environment.

It is necessary to create urgently, as a priority, the information basis of ecohumanism and sustainable development in order to prevent the development of eco-fascism and ecological holocaust of weaker parts of the human family that might lead to the ecological extinction of the whole human race. Without creating the information foundation of activities for our common good, such effort will not be effective!

The Sustainable Development Creators' Club.
The Polish Federation for Life
This Appeal was published inter alia in:
- “Zielone Brygady”, nr 4(149)/2000, 16-29.2.2000
- „Polish Academy of Sciences, Dialogue and Universalism, Metaphilosophy as the Wisdom of Science, Art and Life”, no. 4-5/2002.
mail to: kte@psl.org.pl

Leslaw Michnowski said:

To all the communities, governments and elites of the world!

We, who are gathered in Warsaw, at the World Congress of Universalism, both theoreticians and practicians: men and women of science, technology and faith as well as from other areas of activities - we all turn to you with an appeal to cooperate in the ECODEVELOPMENTAL TRANSFORMATION OF OUR CIVILISATION.

We appeal to you, in the spirit of cherishing human life and nature, to stop in a steady and gradual way the current ethically immature and pathological forms of GROWTH AT THE COST OF THE ENVIRONMENT. We appeal to you to replace them with qualitatively new forms of socio-economic life, which will achieve DEVELOPMENT TOGETHER WITH A SOCIAL AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENT.

New ECOHUMANISTIC forms of synergistic - mutually supportive, fruitful - coexistence are becoming possible as an indispensable condition for the SURVIVAL OF ALL, both rich and poor societies.

We are seriously concerned about the lack of a practical and positive response by world power elites, in spite of warnings from such respected sources as the Club of Rome, the Holy See (encyclical Sollicitudo rei socialis) as well as the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

A very high level of development in science and technology has been accomplished in the 20th century. It has rendered inefficient and wasteful the obsolete forms of economy. Because of these we have crossed the limits of nature's ability of self-reproduction to provide the needs for human life. Instead of integration we have fallen into a fundamental CONFLICT: HUMANKlND VERSUS NATURE. We face therefore a global socio-economic and ecological crisis. This crisis has already begun with PERIPHERAL and economically weaker or younger societies and their economies.

We must move to create harmony between both developed and underdeveloped communities; between the wealthy and the poor, as well us between Humankind and Nature - and simultaneously adjust the forms of life and economy to the requirements of a qualitatively new, present-day, SITUATION OF CHANGES in the interrelations of human life and nature. If we do not respond to this, we will not survive the current crisis or its results. Deep economic recession may lead to social disturbances, which destroy the wealth achieved by previous generations - the wealth so needed to sustain life and further development in the situation of change. This recession may lead to ECOFASCISM - an attempt to achieve a particular solution by minimizing the activity of the weaker parts of World Society. The danger will arise if the powerful and wealthy - while eliminating the weaker and depriving them of their life possessions - will try to overcome a mounting deficit of resources, while "carefully" protecting nature.

Meanwhile there is in fact no absolute deficit of material life resources. Sustainable and sufficient livelihood for all is possible through the properly stimulated development of science and technology; through the increase of human creativity, through socio-institutionai transformation in the forms of human existence, and through a change in procreation and consumption patterns. New ample sources will be found before the old ones are depleted. We can look forward to a good life not only for ourselves but also for FUTURE GENERATIONS.

To attain these ends it is necessary to direct our activities toward the INCREASE OF QUALITY - including the length of biological and creative LIFE OF ALL members of a human family. The basic problem is to change the mechanisms of institutions and economies - while taking into account all social and natural costs of human actions. It is crucial to create the social and scientific-technical basis for long-range development and to share the results of common work in proportion to the ECOSOCIAL USEFULNESS of its subjects.

In order to survive we must form a UNIVERSAL CIVILIZATION OF PARTNERSHIP based on the principle "to possess in order to be" to be a co-creator of life and future, both our own and that of the social and natural environment.

It is indispensable that we understand new limitations and the interdependence of human beings in the contemporary situation of change in order to overcome the deepening global crisis.

We promise to dedicate ourselves to act on behalf of the ecodevelopmental civilizational transformation. JOIN US! TRANSFORMATION OF OUR CIVILIZATION INTO AN ECODEVELOPMENTAL ONE IS ESSENTIAL!

The participants of the I-st World Congress of Universalism

Warsaw, August 1993

Leslaw Michnowski said:


World is in the socioeconomic and (nature) environmental crisis. To avoid global catastrophe we ought to know what is the essence of this crisis and what are the main causes of it. We ought to understand also the essence of process of development of the world society and know consecutive transformations (qualitative changes) of socioeconomic relations, which are indispensable to adapt these relations to challenges of the high science and technology era. To overcome this global crisis, adapt our civilization to the state of change (in life-conditions – conditions of life) and achieve the sustainable development of the world society, it is especially necessary to change methods of shaping policy into methods based on wisdom.

In state of change, for wisdom policy we need:

- a knowledge of complex and future results of human activity and other changes in life-conditions, and
- the ecohumanistic value system.

Ecohumanism is a partnership-based co-operation for the common good of all people (rich and poor, from countries highly developed and behind in development), their descendants, and natural environment - commonly supported by science and high technology. Therefore we ought to create a possibility of forecasting and measurable evaluating socioeconomic activity effects and other changes in life–conditions. This will allow us to change nowadays egoistic (self-interests) economy into ecohumanistic economy (eco-economy) - based on FEED FORWARD, common good, account of complex profits and costs with its social and nature elements and ecosocial justice. This new, ecohumanistic economy will allow to substitute of intellectual evolution for - nowadays crisis generating, very ecosocially expensive and informational inefficient – social Darwinism. With this end in view a large-scale international science, technology and social operation for creation of information basis for sustainable development and popular and common use of such global information system should be undertaken.

Adapting of socioeconomic relations to demands of high technology and achieving the sustainable development needs multilevel subsidiarity governance, including global governance (CIA, 2000).. For ecohumanistic overcoming the global crisis with help of information basis for sustainable development I propose, inter alia, to create by the UN professional World Center for Strategy of Sustainable Development. I also propose - for proper governance (based on system thinking) - a conceptual model of real world: System of Life (SoL). The SoL reflects common properties and structural features of systems: man – technology – environment (social and/or natural). It also reflects the process of life of such systems and its general consecutive transformations. The SoL includes static as well as dynamic properties and structural features of these systems.

The SoL shows us qualitative changes in:

- infrastructure,
- control(governance)-subsystem and
- value system,

which are necessary for supporting of development of different forms of such life(living)-systems.

The SoL shows us also the changes in human needs realized together with socioeconomic development. The SoL can help us to understand essence of global crisis and find methods of it overcoming.


Nowadays we are living in the quite new life-state – in the STATE OF CHANGE. It is the result of big science-technology progress. We are not adapted to live and develop in such new life-conditions. The main cause of global crisis is rapidly pacing moral degradation of existing forms of life not fitted to the new, rapidly changed conditions of life of human and nature. For avoiding global catastrophe and achieving of sustainable development it is necessary to substitute intellectual evolution for social Darwinism. Computer simulation should be in state of change a basic method of selection of developmental undertakings – in "virtual reality", instead of in practice.. Continuation in state of change of old patterns of development through very expensive "trial and error" and putting to the pieces forms of life not fitted to the new life-conditions - in era of globalization lead us to global catastrophe.

For avoiding the global catastrophe we ought to change patterns of development. We - humankind - ought to achieve ethical maturity and symbiotical skill to develop "together with environment (social and/or natural)". For this end we should incorporate into our socioeconomic infrastructure quite new developmental mechanisms – FEED FORWARD and ECOHUMANISTIC value system. We should change patterns of consumption. Consumption of developed parts of world society should be used as a drive of their intellectual, especially innovative, activity. Consumption of weaker parts of world society should allow them reach maturity - education and possibility of their creative partnership cooperation in sustainable development activity.

Nowadays, the approaching dangerous must be eliminated in anticipatory way. Without Earth community partnership and cooperation for common good it is impossible to get access to adequate information and generate big intellectual, innovative creativeness that is indispensable for anticipatory elimination of negative effects of rapidly pacing moral destruction of existing forms of life.

For life in state of change we need efficient and SUBSIDIARITY multilevel GOVERNANCE. This governance must be based on world integrated information system - for aiding sustainable development policy.

For sustainable development we especially have to:

1 - create the possibility of prediction and measurable valuation of complex effects of socioeconomic activity and other changes in life-conditions of human beings and nature,
2 - join access to wealth and deficit resources with ecosocial usefulness of creative - especially innovation - activity.

As a result of it we could reach an opportunity to create new economy – ecohumanistic economy (eco-economy) - based on common good (egoaltruistic, ecohumanistic) value system and complex, long-term calculations of profits and costs (including social and environmental components).

To this end we ought to create, by the UN, the professional World Center for a Strategy of Sustainable Development

The main tasks of this Center ought to be creation of:

1. world integrated (and distributed) warning forecasting system,
2. world information system for prediction and measurable valuation of complex effects of socioeconomic activity and other changes in conditions of life.
3. ecohumanistic economy (eco-economy),
4. system of accumulation of intellectual and material resources that could be necessary for avoiding non predicted dangers.

Therefore I propose to recommend to Johannesburg Rio+10 UN Summit Meeting creation of the World Center for a Strategy of Sustainable Development and undertaking with help of this Center of large-scale international science, technology, and social operation of building information basis for sustainable development.

The creation of World Information Basis for Sustainable Development is essential for avoiding global catastrophe through Inclusive Globalization, eco-economy, sustainable development, multilevel governance and partnership for common good cooperation of world society and Earth community.


Back to top of the page


2. Leadership for the Human Family: Reflective Human Action for a Culture of Peace

Dr. Sue McGregor illustrated how pre-service and in-service professional socialization can be augmented with a peace perspective such that leaders are socialized to see themselves as global citizens prepared to shape the future of humanity via RHA leadership strategies.

Germain Dufour promotes the Peace Movement of the Earth Community. The people of the Earth Community are dedicated in using our resources to resolve conflict, promote democracy, and fight hunger, terrorism, disease, and human rights abuses. In order to bring about the event of peace, the Earth Community is offering communities around the world to work together to bring warring parties to peace. We can accomplish this task by concrete actions such as:

a) Tracking armed conflicts within and between nations around the world and offering assistance in dispute resolution;
b) Promoting human rights and democracy;
c) Monitoring democratic elections;and
d) Educating the public about the advantages of a peaceful solution to any conflict.

Declaration of Peace of the Earth Community


We utterly deny all outward wars and strife and fightings with outward weapons, for any end or under any pretence whatever, and we do certainly know, and so testify to the world, that the Spirit of Allah, God, which leads us to all truth, will never move us to fight and war against any human being with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Allah, God, not for the kingdom of this world. The Will of God is for life to reach God in the best possible ways. Life is the most precious gift ever given by God to the Universe. Life allows Souls to be conscious of God in as many different ways as possible. Life is the building block through which Souls can have a meaningful relationship with God. By observing the Universe, the galaxies, we are observing and studying God. We are seeing His magnificence, His greatness, and His complex making. There is more to the Universe we observe today, that is there is more to God, much more. God is self-existent, eternal and infinite in space and time. Follow God's Word. God's Plan was revealed to humanity a short while ago. The Divine Plan for humanity is:

a) for everyone to manage Earth responsibly, and
b) about to reach the stars and spread Life throughout the universe and thus help other Souls to evolve and serve God in the best possible ways.



Back to top of the page


1. Reforming the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the FTAA

John M. Bunzl explained that we live in a world of nations at vastly differing stages of economic development and, therefore, with widely varying priorities in terms of how labour and environmental considerations should impact on their economies. To expect Guatemala, for example, to have the same environmental and labour standards as Germany would be wholly unrealistic. So to expect any organisation to develop, adjudicate upon and enforce rules that are fair to most, let alone all nations is surely little short of ridiculous. Furthermore, ‘trade’ is the exchange of the end products of often complex production stages taking place in different parts of the world and carried out under widely varying labour and environmental conditions. To seek to equate a spoon produced under responsible environmental and labour conditions in one factory with one produced under sweat-shop conditions in another, and to call such trade ‘free’ as the WTO does, points up the hollow neo-liberal assertion that ‘free’ trade is necessarily ‘fair’. In this context, ‘de-powering’ the WTO or vesting the interests of labour and the environment in other supra-national bodies, who would then compete with one another for the supremacy of their particular standpoint, seems calculated only to result in yet more confusion and is therefore hardly likely to lead to greater fairness.

In considering what reforms might be appropriate, NGOs need to look rather deeper than just the WTO. For they need also to recognise that the motor of today’s neo-liberal global economy is competition. The ability of capital and corporations to move, or merely threaten to move, elsewhere now means that nation states and politicians are no longer in control of the global economy but are themselves subject to its competitive forces and must themselves compete for capital and jobs. For today, their ability to implement any policy that might incur the displeasure of world currency or bond markets in the face of the threat of capital and jobs moving elsewhere has all the robustness and resistance of a chocolate fireguard. Similarly, tighter national laws to promote environmental or labour protection have become but hollow platitudes when markets and corporations can switch investment and jobs to any country offering more attractive, less restrictive (i.e. less costly) conditions. Little wonder that implementation of even the current, very mild, Kyoto climate change agreement stands in jeopardy. Indeed, it can now truly be said that the unfettered free movement of capital has engendered a world market in government policies: an international competition which causes the will of the people to become subordinate to the will of the markets. Even more frightening, however, is the fact that governments are powerless to re-regulate capital markets and corporations because, if attempted, such action would result in capital and corporate flight. Even the G-7 acting together would be powerless for fear of capital fleeing to Singapore, Zurich or the Cayman Islands. So it can truly be said that the free market represents the global institutionalisation of unrestrained competition: competition that is now beyond the control of any single nation nor of any group of nations. It should also be clear that global free-market competition, such as we have it today, is not a basis upon which fairness, environmental or labour protection can result. Indeed, competition is not about fairness – it’s about winning.

In the light of this lack of control on the part of national governments, it is perhaps inaccurate to see the WTO as the cause of our global ills. After all, financial market deregulation and the ability of transnational corporations to move production across national borders are both phenomena which clearly pre-date the establishment of the WTO. But having unwittingly lost control over the global economy, and having then found themselves abandoned to its competitive forces, the only response national governments could make was to ensure that competition be allowed to exert its power more rigorously and ‘fairly’ by setting up the WTO for the purpose. The WTO should, therefore, more properly be regarded as a symptom of the absence of control over the global economy rather than its cause.

Germain Dufour stipulated that:

a) the formation of global ministries to manage the world affairs in several aspects of our lives: energy, agriculture, environment, health, Earth resources, Earth management, security and safety, emergencies and rescues, trade, banks, speculation on world markets, peace, family and human development, water resources protection, youth, education, justice, science and technology, finance, human resources, ethics, human and Earth rights, sustainable development, industry, and manufacturing products, etc. Global ministries will be given power to rule themselves in harmony with each other. The WTO will not be the only global ministry that can rule on cases related to trade. the formation of global ministries to manage the world affairs in several aspects of our lives: energy, agriculture, environment, health, Earth resources, Earth management, security and safety, emergencies and rescues, trade, banks, speculation on world markets, peace, family and human development, water resources protection, family and human development, water resources protection, youth, education, justice, science and technology, finance, human resources, ethics, human and Earth rights, sustainable development, industry, and manufacturing products, etc. Global ministries will be given power to rule themselves in harmony with each other. The WTO will not be the only global ministry that can rule on cases related to trade.The Earth Community Organization, the Human Family, is calling for the immediate formation of the Earth Ministry of Health. The globalization of trade, the extensive mouvement of people all over the world, the increase of poverty and diseases in developing countries and all over the world, have caused pathogens and exotic diseases to migrate over enormous distances and now, are an increasing threat to local ecosystems and communities, economies and health of every human being and all life. The Earth Community Organization, the Human Family, is calling this threat of the upmost importance and must be dealt with immediately by every nation. We must manage health in the world. We are calling for the immediate creation of the Earth Ministry of Health .

b) the debt of the poor nations to the rich nations was in actuality a form of global tax and therefore the poor or 'developing' nations dont have to pay it back. In fact poor nations should expect way more money as tax by the rich nations and not as loans. The state of the world today is the result of a specific set of interlocking institutions: the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO. These institutions are designed to generate massive wealth for the few and poverty for the rest. The same people who make the decisions in government and corporation make the profit. They create a tight concentration of power. Together they are a form of anti-government whose only goal is profit. The IMF, through Structural Adjustment Programs, now directly runs the economies of over 70 countries. That means that about 1000 economists and bureaucrats control the economic policies for 1.4 billion people in these countries. That is a form of anti-government. The people that profit most from the global economy are white people. The people who are most oppressed by the global economy are people of colour. Racism and sexism have become the norm. The entire planet is in a state of low intensity civil war. The ruling elite profit off of the exploitation of the rest of the world. The Earth Community Organization was looking for a method of raising global taxes, of redistributing incomes to the poorest communities, of providing debt-free technical assistance to non-industrial and developing countries to help them out of poverty and to meet environmental and social standards, but there it was all along right on our eyes. The Earth Court of Justice will be asked to decide on the debt be changed into an actual tax to be paid by the rich nations to the poor nations, and to decide on the amount of tax to be paid. Developing nations will then be able to start rebuilding their communities as per the Scale of Human and Earth Rights and the Charter of the Earth Community. They will not have to satisfy the economic needs and wishes of the rich nations. The Earth Court of Justice will also be asked to rule illegal the activities of the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO unless they become a part of a greater whole such as the Earth Ministry of Financial Institutions, a part of the future Earth Government. These institutions will be controlled by the greater whole.

c) reforming the structure and the voting system of the United Nations to reflect democracy. Democracy of the New Age Civilization will blossom out of the Scale of Human and Earth Rights.

d) requiring that the FTAA, the EU and the WTO be governed by the Scale of Human and Earth Rights and the Charter of the Earth Community.


Back to top of the page


2. Global financial institutions serving the Earth Community

This section is represented at the following site http://www.globalcommunitywebnet.com/public/gdufour/EarthManagement.htm




3. A method of raising global taxes, of redistributing incomes to the poorest communities, of providing debt-free technical assistance to non-industrial and developing countries to help them out of poverty and to meet environmental and social standards

Hector Sandler, Rashmi Mayur, Tatiana Roskoshnaya and Alanna Hartzok proposed A Green Tax Shift Policy Approach To Financing Local-To-Global Public Goods. There is a troublesome and painful contradiction in the lives of many of us who are working for peace, justice, poverty eradication, debt cancellation and sustainable development. While our hearts and minds focus on building a better world for everyone, each day we hand over fistfuls of dollars to build weapons of mass destruction, fuel dangerous, dirty and polluting technologies, and subsidize huge conglomerates which concentrate the wealth of the world in the control of the few. But together we can end tax tyranny and align our visions and values with how we finance our governments.

Taxation not only raises money to fund government services, it also reflects the overall value system of a society. The goal of green tax policy is to create a system of public finance which strengthens and maximize incentives for:

* Fair distribution of wealth
* Environmental protection
* Basic needs production
* Provision of adequate government services
* Peaceful resolution of territorial conflicts

Green tax reform makes a clear distinction between private property and common property. Private property is that which is created by labor. Common property is that which is provided by nature. Green tax policy removes taxes from wages and other private property and increases taxes and user fees on common property. Reducing taxes on labor increases purchasing capacity, reducing taxes on capital encourages efficiency. Shifting taxes to land and resources curbs speculation and private profiteering in our common property and is a practical way to conserve and fairly share the earth.

Captured in brief soundbites, tax waste, not work; tax bads, not goods; pay for what you take, not what you make; and polluter pays become tax shift principles readily translated into voter friendly policy recommendations with broadbased political support.

Green tax policy CUTS taxes on:

* Wages and earned income
* Productive and sustainable capital
* Sales, especially for basic necessities
* Homes and other buildings

Green tax policy INCREASES taxes and fees on:

* Land sites according to land value
* Lands used for timber, grazing, mining
* Emissions into air, water, or soil
* Ocean and freshwater resources
* Electromagnetic spectrum
* Satellite orbital zones
* Oil and minerals

Green tax policy seeks to ELIMINATE subsidies environmentally or socially harmful, unnecessary, or inequitable. Slated for drastic reduction or complete removal are subsidies for:

* Energy production
* Resource extraction
* Commerce and industry
* Agriculture and forestry
* Weapons of mass destruction

Danny Cassimon attempted at making a strong case in favour of the introduction of a specific type of tobin tax as a powerful instrument of the promotion of sustainable development, both directly as well as indirectly. Indirectly, it can discourage financial speculation and currency crises with their devastating effects on countries; directly, as a tax, the proceeds of it can be used as an alternative source of sustainable development finance in order to promote the establishment of international public goods. The original Tobin tax proposal can be made into a feasible instrument by engineering it as a two-tier tax (the so-called Spahn version of the Tobin tax), with tax collection through the international settlements system.

Germain Dufour explained that:

The Earth Community Organization was looking for a method of raising global taxes, of redistributing incomes to the poorest communities, of providing debt-free technical assistance to non-industrial and developing countries to help them out of poverty and to meet environmental and social standards, but there it was all along right on our eyes. The Earth Court of Justice will be asked to decide on the debt be changed into an actual tax to be paid by the rich nations to the poor nations, and to decide on the amount of tax to be paid. Developing nations will then be able to start rebuilding their communities as per the Scale of Human and Earth Rights and the Charter of the Earth Community. They will not have to satisfy the economic needs and wishes of the rich nations. The Earth Court of Justice will also be asked to rule illegal the activities of the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO unless they become a part of a greater whole such as the Earth Ministry of Financial Institutions, a part of the future Earth Government. These institutions will be controlled by the greater whole.

The WTO, the World Bank, the IMF and the UN are worldwide organizations that can and should be used to raise global taxes to redistribute to the poorest and developing nations. The Earth Court of Justice will see to that.


Back to top of the page


4. Means and action plan of eradicating poverty in the world

Mr. Stanley Agbonifo introduced our organization, Poverty Alleviation Crusaders (NGO), in accordance to our organization’s commitment towards Poverty Alleviation. Among our mission statement objectives are contributing to diminishing information gap and furthering a better understanding of the need to promote democratic rights and good Governance, small scale Agricultural production, promotion of small scale commercial and industrial enterprises, promotion of skills acquisition and self employment scheme, coupled with provision of rural and community based infrastructural facilities, youth employment and vocational skills development/open apprenticeship programme and other related project in relation to our focus on enhancing the survival capabilities of the disadvantage/destitutes and under-represented in our host communities, we are also part of the UNESCO Culture of Peace and Non Violence Initiatives for Children of the world.

MALIK AMIN ASLAM described How to ensure Sustainable Development in Developing Countrie.

Germain Dufour explained that the debt of the poor nations to the rich nations was in actuality a form of global tax and therefore the poor or 'developing' nations dont have to pay it back. In fact poor nations should expect way more money as tax by the rich nations and not as loans. The state of the world today is the result of a specific set of interlocking institutions: the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO. These institutions are designed to generate massive wealth for the few and poverty for the rest. The same people who make the decisions in government and corporation make the profit. They create a tight concentration of power. Together they are a form of anti-government whose only goal is profit. The IMF, through Structural Adjustment Programs, now directly runs the economies of over 70 countries. That means that about 1000 economists and bureaucrats control the economic policies for 1.4 billion people in these countries. That is a form of anti-government. The people that profit most from the global economy are white people. The people who are most oppressed by the global economy are people of colour. Racism and sexism have become the norm. The entire planet is in a state of low intensity civil war. The ruling elite profit off of the exploitation of the rest of the world. The Earth Community Organization was looking for a method of raising global taxes, of redistributing incomes to the poorest communities, of providing debt-free technical assistance to non-industrial and developing countries to help them out of poverty and to meet environmental and social standards, but there it was all along right on our eyes. The Earth Court of Justice will be asked to decide on the debt be changed into an actual tax to be paid by the rich nations to the poor nations, and to decide on the amount of tax to be paid. Developing nations will then be able to start rebuilding their communities as per the Scale of Human and Earth Rights and the Charter of the Earth Community. They will not have to satisfy the economic needs and wishes of the rich nations. The Earth Court of Justice will also be asked to rule illegal the activities of the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO unless they become a part of a greater whole such as the Earth Ministry of Financial Institutions, a part of the future Earth Government. These institutions will be controlled by the greater whole.

The Earth Community Organization proposes a unique way to eradicate poverty around the world: giving to the people of the developing nations an essential democratic right, the right to vote, one vote per million people.


Back to top of the page


5. Water resources protection and management

JAMES MWAMI investigated the need for public participation in watershed development. Soil and water conservation activities are under various agro-ecological and socio-economic circumstances in different parts of the World. However, for a multitude of reasons farmers do not generally engage on their own in investment in soil and water conservation. In the more advanced economies farmers may sometimes take initiative, but in most cases they are stimulated to do so as a result of specific government policies, direct incentives on participation in specific projects. Uganda government has now come to realise that proper implementation of such activities depend on the acceptance by and full participation of the population, so that soil conservation and reforestation activities become less dominated by regulations. There is a shift towards "protect and produce" including less direct soil conservation related activities (e.g. promoting tree crops) and the measures are accompanied incentives (e.g. subsidies) or by rural development "starter" activities (e.g. drinking water supply) to incite farmers to participate. In other words conservation has gradually evolved into regional development activities using "watershed activities"


Back to top of the page


6. The formation of global ministries to manage the world affairs in several aspects of our lives: energy, agriculture, environment, health, Earth resources, Earth management, security and safety, emergencies and rescues, trade, banks, speculation on world markets, peace, family and human development, water resources protection, family and human development, water resources protection, youth, education, justice, science and technology, finance, human resources, ethics, human and Earth rights, sustainable development, industry, and manufacturing products, etc. Global ministries will be given power to rule themselves in harmony with each other. The WTO will not be the only global ministry that can rule on cases related to trade.

Professor Gerard D’Souza explained that over the past decade or so, the underlying emphasis of U.S. farm policy has changed dramatically. The earlier emphasis was on price supports and a commodity orientation More recently, the emphasis has shifted to broader societal goals including resource conservation and environmental protection. Simultaneously, worldwide, there is increasing emphasis on decision-making consistent with sustainable development principles. This paper analyzes the extent to which U.S. farm policy is consistent with the growing emphasis on sustainable development. To achieve this objective, first an inventory of current conservation-related policies is undertaken. Next, various sustainable development measures are reviewed. Finally, the so-called Bellagio principles are used to determine consistency of U.S. farm policy with sustainability principles. The Bellagio principles, often used to conduct objective assessments of sustainable development, were articulated by an international body that convened in Bellagio, Italy, in 1996. Our analysis reveals that while current conservation policies are consistent with sustainable development principles in the short run, they appear to be contradictory in the long run.

The various conservation programs reflect the awareness of sustainability concepts, that natural resources are finite, that there are limits to the carrying capacity of the earth’s ecosystem and that economic, environmental and societal goals need to be pursued within these limits. However, the incorporation of intergenerational equity into the program objectives seems to be inadequate. Thus, while current conservation policies are consistent with sustainable development principles in the short run, they appear to be contradictory in the long run.

Heinrich Wohlmeyer and Hermann Dissemond have analyzed the Effects of the present World Trade Order on the agricultural markets in the light of conditioning sustainable Development. Identification of necessary changes and proposals for the positioning of Austria within the coming WTO-negotiations. The analysis of the effects of world trade in general and on agricultural markets in particular is put into a comprehensive context, in order to gain the scientific coordinates for a balanced judgement. Therefore the study encloses a description of the present world trade order as well as deliberations on the theory of trade and of welfare economics - up to a chapter on ecological economics.

Germain Dufour described the Governance of the Earth in the true colour of the purple. We have the responsibility of managing Earth. The partnership of government, civil society, and business is essential for an effective global governance based on global concepts, the Scale of Human and Earth Rights and the Charter of the Earth Community. One cannot talk about the governance of the Earth without talking about the most influential bodies or institutions of the world that actually govern or rule the world today, or have the power to change it and actually do change the world in many different ways. So we will talk about the United Nations, the major global economies or planetary economic blocks, the richest people and corporations on the planet, the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO, religions, the debt of the poor nations, the restoration of the planet and the global life-support systems. And of course we will also talk about sound solutions to the world problems.

Brain-storming exercise during Global Dialogue 2002 in Toronto
Participants: Mrs. Kuri Jayafure, Mrs. Alka Karir, Textile designer, Ms. Tamara Sanchez and Germain Dufour Title: Formation of a Global Ministry of Environmental Health.

1. Must be non-profit, grassroots, and at community level.
2. Finances: drug companies and governments.
3. Global Declaration

a) very strict and mandatory
b) all nations participate
c) scientists and professionals in the fields who have dedicated their lives to environmental health
d) humanitarians

4. Manifesto

a) Self-sustainable society or NGO focusing on environment and health
b) Global market should not deplete natural resources
c) cut down in pollution
d) Reassessing American culture, consumerism in America
e) Consumer responsibilities and accountabilities
f) Environmental health costs
g) Cost on the environment
h) Prices should reflect environmental cost
i) Recycling whenever possible
j) Reducing
k) Each nation should see that they are sustainable communities before exporting
l) Taking on a nation's problem at the roots level (if a deisease exist there then the nation should address that issue)
m) ECO should help manage getting rid of that disease
n) Make use of traditional methods to solve problems
o) Use natural ways to put in the environment when solving problems

Recommendations:
The recommendations are now a part of http://www.globalcommunitywebnet.com/public/gdufour/Recommendations2002.htm
This is section in F1.

Formation of a Global Ministry of Environmental Health

1. Must be non-profit, grassroots, and at community level.
2. Finances: drug companies and governments.
3. Global Declaration

a) very strict and mandatory
b) all nations participate
c) scientists and professionals in the fields who have dedicated their lives to environmental health
d) humanitarians

4. The functioning of the NGO is as per Manifesto.



Back to top of the page


1. The Earth Court of Justice

This section is fully described at the following location http://www.globalcommunitywebnet.com/public/gdufour/EarthCourtJustice.htm



2. The Earth Ministry of Justice

This section is fully described at the following location http://www.globalcommunitywebnet.com/public/gdufour/EarthMinistryJustice.htm




3. The Earth Ministry of the Environment

This section is fully described at the following location http://www.globalcommunitywebnet.com/public/gdufour/EnvironmentalGov.htm



Back to top of the page


4. Formation of other global ministries

This section is fully described at the following location http://www.globalcommunitywebnet.com/public/gdufour/OtherEarthMinistries.html



5. The Earth Resources Ministry: assessing, compiling, managing and protecting Earth resources, and the Earth Court of Justice prosecuting cases involving crimes related to the relentless misused of the Earth resources.

Alanna Hartzok described A Model of Resource Rents for Public Investment and Citizen Dividends. Wars are often fought over the ownership and control of land and natural resources. Inequitable ownership and wasteful, unsustainable use of the earth¹s resources are root causes of both the unjust wealth gap between the rich and the poor and the depletion and collapse of our natural resource base.

This paper describes the form and function of the Alaska Permanent Fund as a model governmental institution for collection and distribution of natural resource rents, particularly oil, and makes suggestions for improvement of the Fund. It also presents an analysis of fundamental issues regarding natural resource and territorial claims and urges the establishment of a Global Resource Agency to collect and distribute transnational resource rents.

Vassily A. Agaphonoff explained his World Economic-Ecological Model. Growth of the planet's population and growth of personal consumption stipulate the necessity of economic growth. The ruling world economic model (market economy based on private property and competition) goes to aims of economic growth.

Factors limiting economic growth are limitation of Earth and all her resources and also final's man's opportunities and human society (physiologic, mental and social opportunities) as moving power of economic growth and consumer of its results. Limiting factors of biosphere will be narrower and harder in case of loosing biovariety.

Germain Dufour proposed that we have the responsibility of managing Earth. The partnership of government, civil society, and business is essential for an effective global governance based on global concepts and the Scale of Human and Earth Rights. The Earth Community Organization (ECO) has created the Earth Resources Ministry for Earth Governance. ECO is also proposing the creation of several other global ministries for the management of Earth (energy, agriculture, environment, health, Earth resources, Earth management, security and safety, trade, peace, youth, education, justice, science and technology, finance, human resources, ethics, human and Earth rights, sustainable development, industry and manufacturing products, etc.). Each ministry would have a similar power as that given to the WTO organization.

The creation of global ministries is a part of the "Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age" (see the Charter of the Earth Community on our website). The Earth court of Justice will prosecute cases stemming from the global ministries.

Prosecuting is based on:

a) the Scale of Human and Earth Rights
b) the "Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age" (see the Charter of the Earth Community on our website and see Articles in Newsletters for latest updates)
c) international treaties and conventions in force
d) international custom
e) the general principles of law and
f) as subsidiary means, judicial decisions and the teachings of the most highly qualified publicists.

ECO has summarized the rights of every person on Earth by developing the Scale of Human and Earth Rights. The scale will eventually be replacing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Divine Will has caused the event of the New Age Civilization, the age of symbiotical relationships and global cooperation. ECO has begun to establish the existence of the New Age Civilization all over the planet. An economically base symbiotical relationship exists between nations of the European Union. Other types may be created all over the world between communities, nations, and between people themselves. They may be geographical, economical, social, business-like, political, religious, and personal. There has always been symbiotical relationships in Nature, and between Souls and the matter of the universe to help creating Earth and life on Earth to better serve God. National governments and large corporations have taken the wrong direction by asserting that free trade in the world is about competing economically without any moral safeguards and accountability to peoples and the environment. The proper and only way is for free trade to become a global cooperation between all nations. The Earth Community is proposing a solution that the process of trading within the planetary trading blocks be changed from a spirit of global competition to that of global economic cooperation. This is the new way of doing business, the new way of life.

The Earth Court of Justice will hear cases involving crimes related to the relentless misused of the Earth resources. The Earth Resources Ministry will have a similar power as that given to the WTO organization. It will have the power to rule on cases involving crimes related to the relentless misuse of the Earth resources.




1. Settling of disputes between nations through the process of the Earth Court of Justice: the peoples of Kashmir, India and Pakistan are invited to dialogue about the disputed territory of Kashmir

Germain Dufour said that the Earth Community Organization is promoting the settling of disputes between nations through the process of the Earth Court of Justice.

War is the greatest violation of human rights that one people can inflict on another. It brings deaths and injuries, starvation, diseases, millions of people losing their homes and livelihoods, and massive destruction of property. Children and teenagers are placed in internment camps, and several are often forced to serve as soldiers. War not only corrupts the morals of soldiers, it leads to a decline in the morality of the whole nation. Political and military leaders are always convinced that their particular war is justified. From their point of view, there are several reasons to go to war: loyalty to allies, religion, a thirst for power, greed, ancient grievances to be settled, or the desire to alleviate suffering among their people. A nonviolent settlement to a conflict would always be more advantageous. War is self-defeating because it cannot secure what it sets out to achieve, protection against attack. The hatred for the enemy whipped up by war and the desire for revenge among the losers leads to an accursed vicious circle from which there is no escape. The difference between agressive and defensive, or just and unjust wars, is ridiculous. They are tags each side adopted to suit its interests. War and militarism destroy civil liberties within a nation.

What happens to a person's conscience when he/she wears the uniform of the soldier? It is enslaved to the state. He must kill when ordered. No government, whether democratic or despotic, can allow the soldier to decide what to do according to his conscience. That would undermine discipline and the power to fight.

The Earth Community claims that everyone on Earth should be able to live in peace. This peace mouvement is about courage. Not the courage it takes to go into battle but the courage to organize resistance to war when a bloody taste for it inflames the world, and the threat of prison in a nation where the human rights and freedom of expression have diminished significantly. It is about the courage to say NO to the war industry. It is an industry that destroys life on Earth, corrupts society, and violates morality. Military intervention in the affairs of other nations is wrong. There are other ways, there are peaceful ways, ways that are not based on profit-making and the gain of power for itself. We are conscientious objectors, "nonresistants". That word comes from Jesus, opposing the use of violence: "Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you, that ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also."

The evil is the war industry. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus develops the ethic of nonviolence and love of the enemies. Early Christians were probably the first individuals to renounce participation in war unconditionally. "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." And he told Peter, "All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." Christ has taught us to show mercy, to forgive enemies, to put up patiently with oppression, to return only good for evil and love for hatred and, therefore, war is inconsistent with the Spirit of Jesus Christ. This shows that a Christian should take no part in war, never, in any way. This all means that violence is futile in the long run. To respond to violence with violence is only perpetuating a vicious cycle of violence.

The people of the Earth Community are dedicated in using our resources to resolve conflict, promote democracy, and fight hunger, terrorism, disease, and human rights abuses. In order to bring about the event of peace, the Earth Community is offering other good organizations around the world to work together to bring warring parties to peace. We can accomplish this task by concrete actions such as:

a) Tracking armed conflicts within and between nations around the world and offering assistance in dispute resolution;
b) Promoting human rights and democracy;
c) Monitoring democratic elections;and
d) Educating the public about the advantages of a peaceful solution to any conflict.

The Earth Community Organization (ECO) has given back responsibility to every citizen on Earth. Everyone shares responsibility for the present and future well-being of life within Earth Community. We will work together in working out sound solutions to local and global problems. It would be wrong and dishonest to blame it all on the leader of a country. Most problems in the world must find solutions at the local and global community levels (and not assume that the leader alone is responsible and will handle it). There is a wisdom in the ways of very humble people that needs to be utilized. Every humble person deserves to have ideas respected, and encouraged to develop his or her own life for the better. Sound solutions to help manage and sustain Earth will very likely be found this way. Everyone can help assess the needs of the planet and propose sound solutions for its proper management, present and future. Everyone can think of better ideas to sustain all life on Earth and realize these ideas by conducting positive and constructive actions. When there is a need to find a solution to a problem or a concern, a sound solution would be to choose a measure or conduct an action, if possible, which causes reversible damage as opposed to a measure or an action causing an irreversible loss; that is the grassroots process. The Earth Community Organization can help people realized their actions by coordinating efforts efficiently together.

The responsibility of a peacemaker is to settle differences through compromise and negotiation before they erupt into violence. Conflicting views do not have to bring about fighting. War is an irreversible solution to a problem. War is never an appropriate solution to resolve a conflict.

The worst environmental degradation happens in wars. Farm products in fields and livestock are abandoned, there is no more control on toxic wastes, and water, air, and land are polluted. People are displaced and feel no longer responsible for the quality of life in their communities. Historically, the industrialized nations have caused the most damage to the environment, with their careless technology and policies. Emissions from factories and vehicles have caused ozone depletion and acid rain. Leaders of the wealthier nations must be willing to accept responsibility for past mistakes and to help pay the financial burden for environmental protection of the developing nations. This is the most damaging conflict of interests between the rich industrialized countries and those that are poor and struggling just for existence. The Earth Community must help wealthy and poorer nations reach a better understanding of each other's needs. All aspects are interrelated: peace, human rights and the environment. The poor is more concerned with ending starvation, finding a proper shelter and employment, and helping their children to survive. Environmental issues become meaningless to the poor. In reality, all concerns are interrelated. As soon as the environment is destroyed beyond repair, human suffering is next. Ecology has no boundaries. All nations suffer the effects of air pollution, global warming, loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, acid rain, ozone depletion, silting of streams, and countless of other environmental problems. This was the reason for proposing to the Earth Community the Scale of Human Rights.

The Earth Community wants to provide a forum where international conflicts could be argued and resolved peacefully. Because of hatred and mistrust, disputing parties always find it difficult to express constructive ideas or proposals. A face-to-face meeting may not even be possible. The Earth Community offers to be a trusted third party that would carry ideas back and forth, put forward new proposals until both sides agree. When both parties feel they have gained more than they have lost from the process, the outcome is a win-win settlement for peace.




2. The Earth Court of Justice be asked to prohibit the process of market speculation worldwide, abolish speculation altogether. It can bankrupt a country's economy in seconds. Speculation should be de-institutionalized. Humanity has no real need for speculation, and it does way more damage than good.

Danny Cassimon attempted at making a strong case in favour of the introduction of a specific type of tobin tax as a powerful instrument of the promotion of sustainable development, both directly as well as indirectly. Indirectly, it can discourage financial speculation and currency crises with their devastating effects on countries; directly, as a tax, the proceeds of it can be used as an alternative source of sustainable development finance in order to promote the establishment of international public goods. The original Tobin tax proposal can be made into a feasible instrument by engineering it as a two-tier tax (the so-called Spahn version of the Tobin tax), with tax collection through the international settlements system.

Germain Dufour explained that the global economy can be affected by the deregulation in the movement of capital and thus by speculation. Money is made off tiny fluctuations in the relative prices of currencies. Speculation makes it possible for huge amounts of money to be transferred half-way around the world in a matter of seconds. Whereas world trade associated with actual goods and services is estimated at $7 trillion a year, speculation is estimated at $1.5 trillion a day. If a country's economy starts to slow, billions of dollars can be transferred out of the country instantaneously, which can significantly affect its economy and the people. This has been the case in 1997 of a number of East Asia countries. They were bankrupted by speculation. The people were enormously affected for the worst. Speculation can exert tremendous pressure on the internal politics of a country. It can bankrupt a country's economy. Speculation should be de-institutionalized. Humanity has no real need for speculation, and it does way more damage than good. Speculation is a form of gambling and is evil.



3. Fight against terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction

Germain Dufour explained that politicians create wars. They send the military to solve their problems, satisfy their interest and needs, and destroy the problems or create new ones to be in line with the war industry lobbying. The political game is as deadly as the military game. Peace is the worst enemy to both the potical and military people as peace does not pay for monthly mortgage bills, car payments and lust of the people living off the war industry. It was estimated that in the United States alone the war industry feed over fifty million Americans and has a monthly budget of more than ten trillion american dollars. These people are evils. All of their Souls have already been purified. They will never see the light again.

The Earth Community Organization is promoting the settling of disputes between nations through the process of the Earth Court of Justice. Justice for all is what we want.

Ever since the end of World War I the British tried to colonize the arabs and Moslems of the Middle East and surroundings. Over the past two years, we have proven in articles of several of our Newsletters that the British and American peoples have tried to invade and colonize the Arabs and Moslems of the Middle East. Israel is the Trojan Horse to achieve their goal. Back in 1947, the US have coerced the United Nations to create the State of Israel. It was an illegal and arbitrary process (or the lack of it) that created the State of Israel. There was never a Referendum conducted in the region to find out if there were any reason at all for the creation of Israel (at the time there were only a few Jews in the region) against the will of over one billion Arabs and Moslems. The reason was colonization and invasion of the Middle East for profit and self-interests. Brut and simple exploitation of the people of the Middle East and of their resources. Another invasion but different than the invasion of Vietnam and of other Peoples by the same invaders. After World War II, at the UN, it was easy for the US to get all the allies on their side. The Five Permanent Members of the UN (Great Britain, France, China, US, Russia) had no objection and all passed the resolution that created the state of Israel. That was all that was required. No process! All political! Politicians created the State of Israel without any reason except preparing grounds for a systematic invasion of the Middle East and the exploitation of the Arabs and Moslems and of their resources. In Canada, every province have jurisdiction over their resources. Ask to the Premier of Alberta what he would say if Ottawa was to create a new agency to manage or take over the resources within his province. He would probably seperate from the rest of Canada and join the US. So why would it be any different in the Middle East? Dont people from other nations have the rights to own and control their resources? The US do not think so. We are asking the US to justify their action in the Earth Court of Justice (not in the news media which they own and control). We want Justice for all and universal. We want a process for the creation of new nations. We want the Earth Court of Justice to be an independent and impartial body that will create the process and verify it for the case of the creation of the State of Israel.

It has become a necessity to implement a total embargo on all US, Russian and European Union nations mass destruction chemicals, nuclear war heads, weapons, war products and war equipment. The war industry throughout the world must be put to a complete halt and shelved forever from humanity. The Earth Community is asking all peoples never again to buy there products. The war industry is the "Mother of all evils in the world".

Let us define what is meant by the "war industry". The war industry comprises all persons (a person can be an organization such as a government, a business, a non-government organization, an institution such as a university or an institute of technology, or it can be a professional, an individual, or the like) directly or indirectly related to the research, engineering, production, manufacturing, promoting, selling, use of war products, war equipment, war ships, war planes, or the like. Conflicts and wars are often created for the exploitation of tax payers of a country and resources, for the purpose of making a profit and protecting self-interests. The war industry will use every mean possible to survive as an industry.

All persons working, directly or indirectly, for the war industry, are responsible and accountable to humanity and to God for anything happening to their products after they are sold. Even here in Ontario, Canada, we manufacture weapons and war products. Workers go home happy after a good day of work. They have to pay for their mortgages and make car payments and others. They are mostly Christians. When they go to work, they leave their religious beliefs at home. Ethical and moral values no longer touch them. They dont think that are actually responsible and accountable for spreading evil all around the world. They think they are "good people", good citizens. Every single bullet you manufacture you are responsible and accountable for it, all of you from the President of the company to the employee on the industrial line. Our Society holds responsibility and accountability as well. And if that bullet happened to be a nuclear war head then it becomes even more imperative to held the manufacturer and the people involved responsible and accountable.

It is the same idea for any consumer product. You manufacture, produce, farm or create a product, you become responsible and accountable of your product from beginning to end (to the point where it actually becomes a waste; you are also responsible for the proper disposable of the waste).

People in our society often argue that their manufacturing products and the trading principles or rules that regulate their actions are all legal! But what about ethical values and moral principles?!

Greed is what drives belonging or involved with the war industry. By making an astronomical profit through the selling of arms, war products and equipment to all of the Middle East countries, including Iran, Irak and Afghanistan, and by sucessively calling these old friends their new enemies and terrorists, and destroying their countries, America and Great Britain have shown that they could never be trusted. Since the Cold War is over, the only American interests in the Middle East are the cheap crude oil and the protection of Israel. The Jews come first even if it mean to fight and annihilate the entire Islamic Civilization with nuclear war heads. If you have any doubt that they would do such an atrocious crime, ask the people from Japan and also, ask the Russians as they have back off from rubbing their noses with those of the American and the British.

Today the war industry is exploiting the issue of terrorism for profit. Everyone knows terrorism cannot be fought by conventional warfare but that would not deter the industry from saying it is the best way to get rid of terrorists. Our governments are now spending tax dollars used for social and environmental programs and services to pay for more war products and equipment. Terrorists have committed the horrible acts of september 11 because the war industry brought terror in their homeland and is continuing to do so today in Afghanistan and in Palestine. In the "Letter to the people of the Middle East", the Earth Community has asked Muslims not to buy war products and equipment from the West or from any country in the world. The only way to fight evil is by not buying its products. The industry should die eventually, hopefully. But now the war industry is organizating a massive international media campaign to make taxpayers pay for their expenses. More illusions about protecting the humble people from nuclear war heads being sent from one continent to another. The terrorist act of September 11 has shown that if terrorists wanted to use war heads they would not use intercontinental missiles.

Throughout the 20th Century, the war industry has created the worse evil humanity has ever encountered: the business of conflicts and wars. It is a business that has made trillions of dollars (American) and will continue to do so. It is the "mother of all evils" created by human beings. It has no moral value, no understanding about Life, no respect for anyone or anything, no law except the ones that it makes for itself, and all its products are meant to kill and destroy. It has sold its products to the enemies for the purpose of making more profit. It has subdued governments all over the world to make them buy its products. It has given trade and way of doing business a bad reputation and, therefore, it is a threat to the establisment of business. Although the war industry has a good public image, it does not really matter who is the buyer as long as he pays good money. The proof of this reality was easily verified by finding out what war products and equipment were being used by Iran, Irak, Afghanistan, and other Middle East countries. Over 90% of all war products and equipment were made in the USA, Great Britain, Germany, France and Russia. Four out of five of these countries are Permanent Members of the United Nations and that means they have almost a 100% control on any proposal submitted to the organization. The fifth Permanent Member missing here is China. Shortly after the September 11 event, the UN Security Council has approved war against the people of Afghanistan. To get China to vote YES they gave China a membership in the World Trade Organization(WTO).

War brings terror to the children and wonen of Afghanistan. War brings deaths, and destroy everything. War creates more hate and, therefore, more terrorism. War brings money and wealth to the war makers in the West and the war industry. And the taxpayers pay for it. Innocent people here in the West and in the Middle East are killed because of the greedy war industry.




4. Poster presentation and student project viewing




1. Restoration of the planet, our home

SUSAKI Ayato and ASUKA-ZHANG have examined the potential impact of carbon credit revenues on the attractiveness of projects, we conducted a financial assessment of thirty-five energy projects and one forestry project that have been supported with the AIJ/JI/CDM feasibility study subsidy schemes by the Japanese Government. For scenarios with different carbon credit price, we calculated the payback period, internal rate of return (IRR), or net present value (NPV) of the projects. The results indicate that: 1) majority of energy projects proposed were .$B!H.(Bplant rehabilitation.$B!I.(B and .$B!H.(Bfuel use change.$B!I.(B; 2) in general, financial viability of the projects proposed in the subsidy scheme was not so high considering the opportunity cost and transaction cost; 3) revenue from carbon credits will have the most impact for forestry projects. Therefore, for energy projects that are not very attractive to the private sector without carbon credits, the additional incentive provided by such revenues may not be sufficient to induce private investment in many cases.

Slav Akimov and Ozod Mukhamedjanov described the global degradation of ecosystems:

* Global degradation of ecosystems
* Collapse of Central Asia
* Findings and proposals

Brad Bass examined what should our cities look like in a restorative economy? This question is not often asked in discussions on industrial ecology or biomimicry (an attempt to mimic biological processes in energy production, materials production, information storage, etc). A focus on the factory or office without considering the larger locational context in which these activities take place will not fully address problems of water quality, water supply and air quality, not to mention climate change.

Alexander Wegosky explained that Modern waste-lands in their absolute majority are the effects of irrational activity of people. Among them one can take out gains, sites after fires, gullies, deserts, salt – ridden lands, scrubby lands, swamplands, dirt piles, land having not been used in agriculture for considerable period of time for any reason, etc. To the same category should be applied deserted villages and other settlement abandoned by people, as well as desolated industrial objects, firing grounds, spontaneous dumps, zones of radio and chemical contamination and other territories having been left because of depleting their resources. Mosaic archipelago of Russian waste-lands occupies the territory more then 500 mln hectares and area in is getting larger at a rate of 4 hectares per minute. In the planetary scale this value must be in at least ten times of higher level. The process of degradation of Russian landscapes keeps its rate and even gets faster. It occurs at the expense of bedding of the plough-lands because of ass-arts, military actions, degradation of bottomlands, spontaneous creation of new dumps likely to appear by the sides or railroads and motor – ways, as well as at the places used by the urban population for recreation.

Roger Doudna explained that it is no longer enough to stop the current destruction of the world's ecosystems - we need to embark on a major programme of ecological restoration, to help heal the wounds which we have already inflicted on the planet. To achieve the shift required of us all so that the continued health and well-being of humanity and all other species may be assured, we propose that the United Nations declare this to be the Century of Restoring the Earth, that the next 100 years be dedicated to helping our planetary ecosystems heal. The scope and magnitude of work required to achieve this necessitates long-term thinking, on the scale of a century, and a whole series of projects, both small scale local ones and larger, internationally coordinated initiatives.

Germain Dufour proposed that the restoration of the planet be conducted through GCAC.

Index
of the
for discussion and joint action
on issues of local and global concerns

and for the restoration of the planet, our home





2. Global Warming and ratifying the Kyoto Protocol

ZHONGXIANG ZHANG investigated the implications of progressively broadening the scope of the market of tradable permits from no emissions trading to full global trading. We start with the no emissions trading case where each Annex I country must individually meet its Kyoto targets. Next, we consider a case where trading of emissions permits is limited to Annex I countries only. We then expand the scope of the market to include all the non-Annex I countries but China. Finally, to investigate the role China plays in bringing down Annex I countries' compliance costs, we further broaden the market to include China into full global trading. Our results clearly demonstrate that the gain of the OECD as a whole increases as the market expands. Our results also show that developing countries themselves benefit from such an expansion too because it not only provides them for additional financial resources, but also helps to cut their baseline carbon emissions by a big margin. By contrast, the former Soviet Union tends to become worse off as the market expands. The potential conflict of interest between the former Soviet Union and developing countries underlines the importance of establishing clear rules of procedure about admitting new entrants before emissions trading begins.

The Kyoto Protocol incorporates emissions trading, joint implementation and the clean development mechanism to help Annex I countries to meet their Kyoto targets at a lower overall cost. This paper aims to estimate the size of the potential market for all three flexibility mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol over the first commitment period 2008-2012, both on the demand side and on the supply side. Based on the national communications from 35 Annex I countries, the paper first estimates the potential demand in the greenhouse gas offset market. Then, the paper provides a quantitative assessment of the implications of the EU proposal for concrete ceilings on the use of flexibility mechanisms for the division of abatement actions at home and abroad.

S. Augustin, J. Katima, E. Klawe & B. Lyimo analyzed tropical tree plantations may be an important component of the global carbon cycle because they represent a carbon sink that can be manipulated by humans and they ca mitigate the effects of tropical deforestation, which is the main biotic source of atmospheric carbon.

Most forest plantations in the tropics are planted with fast growing trees that culminate in volume and biomass production earlier than natural forests. These high biomass production forests have a high capacity to sequester atmospheric CO2 and hence assist in mitigating global warming. Sequestration of CO2 in plantations occurs in tree biomass (stems, branch, foliage and roots), forest floor and as storage in the soil. Young growing forests are one of the best means to removing CO2 (the gas partially responsible for the greenhouse effect) from the air. Thus planting forests help to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the air (by the action of sunlight on the green chlorophyll organic compound, CO2 is absorbed by trees through the small fissures in the leaves or needless, these gases are fixed as biomass).

Dr. Anastassios Gentzoglanis Carbon dioxide is one of the main culprits for greenhouse gases and the reduction of emissions of this toxic substance has become the topic of the agenda. Greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. Accelerated industrial activity in many developed and developing countries has dramatically increased the levels of these emissions in the air. Mass deforestation has also cut the globe’s ability to absorb these gases. The dilemma is how to find ways that permit the economic growth without jeopardising the environment. Canada along with other 37 countries has ratified the 1997 Kyoto protocol according to which the emissions of greenhouse gases must be reduced significantly by year 2012. It has adopted the policy of private-enterprise solutions to the global warming problem.

As the date of reducing significantly the emissions of greenhouse gases is approaching, many wonder whether governments would ever consider the adoption of some measures to reduce the accelerated deterioration of the atmosphere. It is feared that the uncontrolled industrial activity may lead to a situation where further economic development would be impossible. Greenhouse gases believe to cause warming of the earth’s climate, leading to erratic whether, melting polar caps and drought in already warm regions. The ecological equilibrium is in jeopardy. From a policy perspective the radical plan hammered out by politicians in Kyoto is the first concrete initiative to fix targets for a significant reduction of greenhouse gases. Although the timetable set for gases emissions reductions is considered by some too long and by others too short, the fact of the matter is that the countries which ratified the Kyoto protocol have not taken, as yet, any concrete measures to the application of the agreement. Plausible questions arise as to the seriousness of politicians and policy makers to tackle this problem.

Canada is a case in point. It has pledged, under the Kyoto agreement, to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 6 per cent from 1990 levels by 2012. It has opted to use a market where every ton of carbon dioxide that is removed from the atmosphere or prevented from being emitted is bought and sold on an exchange like the one that already exists in the U.S. for sulphur dioxide emissions – a market that is now worth an estimated $500-million (U.S.) in trade a year. Under such a regime overpolluters could offset their reduction obligations with credits. Demand and supply for credits would provide the appropriate incentives for reducing emissions. Actually, prices, as determined in the auction exchange market, would provide the appropriate signals for emissions reduction. A strong demand for the credits would push up the price of the units and create a powerful incentive for others to create more credits by devising innovative means of cutting emissions. Such an environmental regulation provides incentives for technological change and better environment.

Section II examines in more detail the greenhouse gas emissions problem and the measures developed to gauge sustainability. Section III analyses the economic implications of global warming and presents a review of the literature. Section IV examines the impact of the Kyoto protocol on both industrialised and developing countries and compares its effects under international tradable permits and independent abatement schemes. Economic arguments such as first-mover advantage and incentives for technological change under environmental regulation are also examined. The last section concludes and offers policy

The Kyoto accord has set the bases for a cleaner environment and the participating countries are currently trying to develop the necessary means for attaining the targets established. The most favoured approach is the use of trading permits. This private-firm solution is debated by many as far as its efficiency is concerned. Economists, however, demonstrate the superiority of this approach compared to most direct ones such as taxes and direct penalties. Little progress has been done though world wide even in the use of this approach. The apparent difficulty lies in the uncertainty surrounding the real threat emanating from the presence of sulphur dioxide and the sheer size of costs associated with the reduction or the curtailment of the emissions of gases. Given that the costs are ten times higher than the estimated benefits little interest exists from private firms and governments to implement the necessary measures for cleaner environment.

It is argued in this paper that the estimated costs and benefits, although valid in a strict economic sense, neglect some important facets that can make an important difference in the outcome. The benefits arising from the reduction of CO2 emissions are calculated as the environmental damages that are avoided by preventing rising concentrations of gases. Although costs are calculated in a more direct way the benefits are at best uncertain. Even the direct benefits are really difficult to calculate, never mind the indirect ones. Cleaner environment and better standards of living arising out of emissions curtailment are difficult to quantify accurately. Should such comprehensive calculations were possible we would have a more balanced picture of the true costs and benefits. The international trade in emission rights reduce the calculated costs without altering drastically the ecological capital. Weak sustainability is possible and it can be achieved by relying on the market mechanisms, such tradable pollution permits.

In a ever increasing competitive environment firms have a particular interest and incentive to comply with the Kyoto accord first before their competitors do so. The competitive advantage thus gained makes them more efficient and financially stronger, not weaker. The very recent experience with an ever increasing number of firms seeking to strike deals in getting trading permits is an evidence in point. Such a market is worth more than $60 billion-a-year in the U.S. alone. If politicians agree on clear rules for international trading, the global market could in time reach a trillion dollars a year. Such a growth in the market of tradable permits is quite promising as far as weak sustainability is concerned. Governments should abide to concrete and permanent rules on trading of pollution permits so that polluters and non polluters find the way to trade their permits and reduce the pollution of the environment. By rendering markets more perfect (information becomes more symmetric) the quality of the environment in the future can only get better.

Germain Dufour explained that what is truly remarkable about this year G8 Summit is that the problem of global warming is not on the Agenda. What is even more remarkable is that Canada, Japan, Russia, and the United States have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. That is four out of eight countries that dont care about protecting the global life-support systems. The people of those countries have no conscience about life. The Kyoto Protocol was agreed upon by the nations of the world in December 1997. It sets legally binding emission targets and outlines several innovative policy instruments. Possible alternatives concerning future international climate policies were analysed as well. Only the four above-mentioned nations have decided to withdraw from the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. Canada has already made clear that it was following the steps of the USA.

In the light of the U.S.A., Canada, Japan and Russia refusal of taking actions to avert certain global calamity in regard to global warming, the Earth Community has decided to try these nations for their crimes against humanity. We have asked them to ratify the Kyoto Protocol as it is. Greenhouse gases are accumulating in the Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, and temperatures are rising globally due to these activities. There are plenty of observable effects of the global warming. And certainly this ridiculous and false solution of buying environmental credits from each other should not be considered as a way out of resolving the problem. The ratification is only a beginning to protect the global life-support systems. There is much more to do! But those four countries are not even coming close to a first start in resolving the problem. And they are amongst the worst polluters on the planet.

The Earth Court of Justice has listed America as the first nation to be prosecuted for a global environmental crime. Because the leader of the USA was responsible for not ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, and because his leadership is questionably believed to be base on his religious believes (see Article in May 2002 Newsletter: Leadership of a nation and religion), President George W. Bush will be first to appear in Court. The reality here is that every American is on trial here. Every consumer producing the deadly gas causing global warming is on trial. The same goes for every person on Earth producing the deadly gas. The gas is just as deadly as the gas that murdered millions of Jews during World War II. It is even more deadly as it is destroying the global life-support systems of all life on Earth. We are killing billions of human beings and countless life species. Americans have closed their conscience to the reality of life on Earth. They are showing a bad example to the other nations of the world. Even Canada is following in their steps. Justice must prevail to stop the "killing fields". And therefore they are guilty as charge.

It is a crime against humanity and all life on Earth not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. It is a terrible crime against the global life-support systems, against the very existence of the next generations. On the Scale of Human and Earth Rights, the crime is of maximum importance. There is no need to wait for the election of the Earth Government to create the Earth Court of Justice. The Court can be formed now and incorporated to the Earth Government later.

Prosecuting criminals on the basis of universal jurisdiction regardless of a territorial or nationality nexus required a solid commitment of political will from national governments and Earth Community.


It is not clear how far Canada is willing to go to reach the Kyoto target of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions to 6 per cent below the 1990 level during the period 2008-12. The Canadian Action Plan 2000 on Climate Change includes no calculations, and it is not shown how the Action Plan will work.

As far as complaints from Canadians such as those from Premier Ralph Klein of Alberta and the rich Oil & Gas Industry, we let them know that the signing of the Kyoto Protocol is for their own good and that of the next generations. Every member of the Global Community understands your suffering but you are the richest province of Canada and you have for too long live a life of a spoiled child from the rich Canadian oil and gas resources. Certainly you have made enough savings by now to take your share of the burden of the pollution you have created ever since 1970 (the findings of the rich oil and gas wells). The Government of Canada has reimbursed 33 1/3 % for every dollar the corporations of the province of Alberta have spent on exploration and development work. The average cost of developing a new well was about one million dollars. One third of this one million was paid using Canadian dollars. Thousands of corporations have applied and received money back for their expenses (these expenses often included hidden parts such as meals, air flight costs, and the costs of a lustful life). Several billions of tax dollars were given away as incentives to the Oil & Gas Industry. It is the industry that truly and practically runs the Province of Alberta. Most of these corporations are owned by foreigners, a lot of them being from the USA. Not only you have wasted billions of those Canadians tax dollars but you are now complaining about not wanting to stop the effects of the global warming. You are obviously from the USA. Calgary and Edmonton are the worst cities per capita in Canada in creating the deadly gas causing global warming. Just how much of your kind of madnest is the world going to have to suffer before we stop you completely?

The Oil & Gas Industry throughout the world will take a large part of the burden of resolving the problem of global warming. All oil and gas producing nations of the world will take a large part of the burden. You have misused and wasted the natural resources of the Earth for personal profit and self-interests. You have made it cheap for others to do the same. Consumers are using your product in wasteful ways. You are responsible and accountable for the creation of global warming all over the world. Worst of all, all of the oil and gas producing nations are using their profits to feed the War Industry, the business of conflicts and wars. You have made it cheap to develop and manufacture more new ways to destroy ourselves as human communities and also destroy the global life-support systems of the Earth.

Over the past decades, the USA has dropped out from the rest of world in fighting against global warming. The US position on global warming was made very clear just before the September 11 events. They have decided to opt-out of the discussion. If we were to say what is the most important cause which brought about global warming and the near destruction of the Ozone layer we would have to say that it is trade. Trade is about the manufacturing and exchanging of consumer products all over the world. We have already explained in previous Newsletters whyFree Trade and the creation of planetary trading blocks are threatening the extinction of life on Earth. The free trade agreement between nations must protect and improve social and environmental rights, not just the economy. A sustainable development in the world would mean finding a sound balance among the interactions designed to create a healthy economic growth, preserve environmental quality, make a wise use of our resources, and enhance social benefits.

The European Union leaders have agreed to ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol by the end of this year. Let us hope that the action plan they will offer to the world will be real and honest. The Earth Community Organization has created the Climate Change Ministry, the Earth Ministry of the Environment, and offer national governments all over the world to coordinate efforts in implementing the Earth Community Action Plan with regard to climate change. There are thousands of actions everyone in Earth Community could take right now.

Several more of these actions were listed in the Proceedings of the World Congress on Managing and Measuring Sustainable Development - Global Community Action 1 held on August 1-22, 2000.

Positive actions:

A)     By developing a method of raising global taxes, of redistributing incomes to the poorest communities, of providing debt-free technical assistance to non-industrial and developing countries to help them out of poverty and to meet environmental and social standards.

B)     Aboriginal Peoples as well as everyone else in the world have noticed that the climate has changed over the past years. They came forward (actions) and said that they too had observed climate changes over the past years and generations. In some countries the temperature has increased by one or two degrees and natural catastrophes are becoming more and more frequent. Flooding or freshwater scarcity as well as water pollution are harming the environment of the Third World and developing countries and water and air pollution characterizes the industrialized regions. Therefore, poor and rich regions are facing a common problem which is linked to climate change, that's why we should negotiate honestly and find a compromise as quickly as possible. If no solution is suggested, developing countries like China will repeat the same mistakes as the developed world. In fact, the latter can expect a higher salary, which will close the gap between rich and poor regions. 

World industrial activity is now profoundly affecting the atmospheric environment. It is now the population number and industrialization that makes the major impacts on the atmosphere. The most important changes affecting the atmosphere are due to the growth in the burning of fossil fuels. The burning of fossil fuels increases carbon dioxide concentrations and air pollutants. The clearing of forested lands for agriculture and other purposes has reduced the amount of carbon absorbed by the forests and contributed to the increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide. We have disturbed a fragile balance by causing chemical changes in the global atmosphere.

The most devastating effects of contamination of the atmosphere on a global scale include:

* An increase in greenhouse gas concentrations brought the warming of the climate;
* Depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer;
* Acidification of lakes and forests; and
* Toxic chemicals have contaminated our food chain on the land and in the waters.

The most sophisticated climate models take into account factors such as:

The changes in the radiation balance of the Earth;
Contamination of the atmosphere;
Greenhouse gas concentrations;
Absorption of heat by the oceans;
The ice and snow fields;
The hydrological cycle of precipitation; and
The melting of glaciers and the Greenland ice cap.

A consequence of a warmer climate is a rise in global mean sea-level. Several countries will be more susceptible to inundations. We will see hundreds of millions of environmental refugees searching for land.

The mid-latitude wheat belts of the planet will dry; forest fires will wipe out most of the forests; world food markets will have to adjust to help a starving population.

Tourism and wildlife in the tropics will be seriously affected by a temperature that is just too hot.

Tropical diseases will cause epidemics.

Major changes in evaporation and precipitation patterns will not adjust quickly enough to supply the population with water it needs to survive; agriculture will become a dying industry either because of too much water or not enough of it.

Sub-Arctic communities will disappear because of the melting of the permafrost.

It is well known that biological communities of the waters and of the land absorb and bio-accumulate toxic contaminants through the food webs. Trace concentrations deposited by the atmosphere have become harmful. They are chemicals carried through the atmosphere to seas, rivers, lakes and other streams, and subsequently into sediments and soils. Metals and chemical contaminants can be absorbed for a long time, and are in fact chemical 'time bombs'. 

Urban air pollution is a mixture of several pollutants emitted from different energy and industrial processes, and of secondary pollutants in the atmosphere. Some air pollutants are more important than others. At a given concentration some pollutants are more toxic or more unpleasant. Pollutants have different effects related to health, ecosystems,  economics and aesthetic.

C)     Tropical tree plantations may be an important component of the global carbon cycle because they represent a carbon sink that can be manipulated by humans and they ca mitigate the effects of tropical deforestation, which is the main biotic source of atmospheric carbon.

Most forest plantations in the tropics are planted with fast growing trees that culminate in volume and biomass production earlier than natural forests. These high biomass production forests have a high capacity to sequester atmospheric CO2 and hence assist in mitigating global warming. Sequestration of CO2 in plantations occurs in tree biomass (stems, branch, foliage and roots), forest floor and as storage in the soil. Young growing forests are one of the best means to removing CO2 (the gas partially responsible for the greenhouse effect) from the air. Thus planting forests help to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the air (by the action of sunlight on the green chlorophyll organic compound, CO2 is absorbed by trees through the small fissures in the leaves or needless, these gases are fixed as biomass).

D)     Ever-increasing anthropogenic releases of greenhouse gases are driving the United Nations Climate Change effort. As the atmosphere's concentrations of "greenhouse gases" increase, so too does the atmosphere's ability to retain heat radiated from the earth's surface. This phenomenon, known as the greenhouse effect, is linked by many scientists to a long-term rise in global temperatures.

The greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, are critical to the atmosphere's ability to retain heat and thereby maintain the global temperatures necessary to maintain life as we currently know it.

The increases in concentrations of these gases are produced primarily through the burning of fossil fuels, but also by such activities as deforestation and land clearing, which release the carbon naturally contained in vegetation. Over the past 100 years, humans have caused the release of these gases faster than natural processes can remove them from the atmosphere.

Some scientists predict that average global temperatures will increase 2 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit over the next 100 years if global emissions of greenhouse gases continue unabated. In addition to an increase in ambient temperatures, the other possible consequences of global warming include a speeding of the global water cycle. It is predicted that faster evaporation caused by higher temperatures would lead to drying of soils, exacerbating drought in some areas while increasing precipitation and flooding in others.

Warmer temperatures could melt polar ice caps, leading to what some predict as a rise in sea levels of between 6 to 37 inches over the next century. This, in turn, would endanger coastal populations and island nations and cause the degradation of coastal ecosystems. If these predictions prove true, human health will be affected directly as warmer temperatures increase the chances of heat waves, exacerbate air quality problems and lead to an increase in both allergic disorders and warm weather diseases. Agriculture, forests, natural ecosystems and vegetation patterns would also be adversely affected by both increases in temperatures and changes in the water cycle.

E)      By increasing vegetation in urban areas will reduce the urban heat, and the impacts of other urban environmental problems, which will be exacerbated under climate change. Reducing the urban heat will also reduce the energy demand for space conditioning, and hence greenhouse gas emissions. Plants directly reduce the urban heat through evaporative cooling but further reduce energy consumption through shading. The most common strategy to increase urban vegetation is to plant trees at ground level. However, where space is not available for trees, vegetation can be grown on building roofs, but walls offer far more space, hence vertical gardening is a viable alternative. 

F)     The Kyoto Protocol is the latest step in the ongoing United Nations' effort to address global warming. The effort began with the United Nations' Framework Convention on Climate Change (Convention) signed during the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. (The Convention entered into force in 1994 upon the ratification by 50 nations) Despite the continuing scientific debate on the likely occurrence of global warming, the nations took action under the "precautionary principle" of international law.

The Convention is intended to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations at a level that will prevent dangerous interference with the global climate system. The time frame is to be "sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure that food production is not threatened and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner."

To further that objective, the Convention sought to commit all parties to it to develop and implement programs to mitigate climate change by addressing emissions of greenhouse gases.

The Convention places the first level of commitment to reduce emissions on nations that have developed, prospered and established strong economies through the consumption of fossil fuels since the industrial revolution began. These developed countries are the 38 countries listed in Annex I to the Convention.

The Convention recognises the importance of preserving and enhancing the earth's natural ability to remove certain greenhouse gases from the atmosphere by FORESTS and other carbon stocks, referred to as "sinks". The removal by sinks is also a key component of the Protocol, which allows countries to meet their commitments by considering the effects of afforestation, reforestation and deforestation since 1990, a provision that is expected to promote cost-effective solutions to climate change and good forestry practices.

The Kyoto Protocol put forward three mechanisms for achieving the targets. These include mechanisms such as emissions trading, joint implementation and the so-called "Clean Development Mechanism" (or CDM), to allow flexibility in achieving the required reductions.

Assuming that development and maintenance of sinks will be accepted under CDM, knowledge on the calculation of the amount of Carbon dioxide that can be sequestered by a given project needs to be known. At times this will involve establishing the carbon offset potential of a given forest venture, before the project is in place. Use of mathematical models to predicted the carbon sequestration potential will be important. Our paper is discussing the results of study done in Tanzania.




3. Climate Change

Joy Hyvarinen and David Baldock provided a brief overview of issues related to climate change, agriculture and the EU and to consider related developments in the international climate negotiations. The paper focuses on carbon sequestration. The Sixth Conference of the Parties (COP 6) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will take place in November 2000 in The Hague, the Netherlands. One of the most contentious issues on the agenda concerns the extent to which 'carbon sinks', including agriculture-related ones, will be included in the Kyoto Protocol. The EU and the US have taken very different approaches to this issue. First, the paper describes the main Kyoto Protocol provisions and related decisions facing the UNFCCC Parties. It then looks at the links between climate change and the agriculture sector, before considering the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). In conclusion, the paper addresses some of the current negotiating issues.

Aubrey Meyer explained that:

(a) a history all country fossil fuel production and consumption 1800 - 2000. The consumption data comes from CDIAC and the production data comes from industry sources; all is expressed in gigatonnes carbon content.

(b) a scenario of all country fossil fuel production and consumption 2000 - 2200. The consumption data is generated from GCI's CCOptions model expressed in gigatonnes carbon content and the production data is as follows.

The 'scenario' projects a global carbon consumption/production contraction budget with an integral consistent with IPCC's stabilisation of atmospheric CO2 concentration at 450 ppmv (CO2 only) by around 2100. Consumption shares coverge to international equality per capita by 2030, which is then the (UN medium fertility) population base year, in this image.

The equivalent integral of oil, coal and gas production comes from integrating the data for the declining availability of conventional oil supplies consistent with the data published by the IEA in 'The World Energy Outlook" at the end of 1998, accompanied by Campbell's long range estimates for gas depletion. Future coal production is 'matched' to the balance of the 450 ppmv consumption integral. Future international production shares of coal remain proportional to shares in 1997 for simplicity.

Records show that global conventional oil discovery peaked in the 1960s and that global production of conventional oil is peaking in this decade.

This all country depletion data in the oil/coal/gas production production scenario, show that roughly two thirds of conventional reserves are in the Gulf Middle East and that their annual global production share is rising from 30% to +50% during this present decade [2001-2010}. The rising oil price is almost certainly a function of this shift already.

This has significant implications for global climate policy. To arrive at higher CO2 atmospheric ppmv futures the increased production/consumption of fossil fuel would have to come from rates of increased coal production that to many might seem unrealistic.

S. Augustin, J. Katima, E. Klawe & B. Lyimo have designed a model to assess the above ground-biomass for two even-aged, single species plantations with the same site class (Pinus patula and Eucalyptus saligna) as an attempt to quantify the carbon storage potential of the two species and their possible roles in carbon sequestration and atmospheric carbon dynamics.

Germain Dufour explained that the Earth Community makes the following recommendations to alleviate the effects of climate change in the world:

1)     Introduction of appropriate sustainable agricultural system with balanced use of chemical fertilizers incorporated organic minerals and green manure's.

2)      Phase wise replacement of chemical fertilizer by organic fertilizer. Similarly biodegradable insecticide should be replace by the non-biodegradable insecticides.

3)     The entrepreneur should take proper mitigation measures of industrial pollution by set-up of industrial waste treatment plant.

4)     Control of insect, pests through biological, natural process, alternatives of using harmful insecticides or fungicides is important to introduce.

5)     Promotion of research activities in the field of industrial waste utilization and waste recovery process.

6)      Reutilization of agricultural residues through bio-conservation to industrial products.

7)      Need proper implementation of Environmental Policy, Environment Conservation Act’s and Legislation.

8)     Enhancement of the capacity of NGOs, Govt. agencies to successfully implement poverty alleviation program including non-formal education on environmental pollution awareness.

9)      There are approaches to limit and regulate the pollution emissions of industrial activities. These are standards, taxes and pollution permits. The choice among these alternatives depends on the administrative structure of a nation.

In an urban community site, air usually contains materials such as nitric oxide, sulfur oxide, carbon monoxide, aldehydes, dust and many others. A city would have a department measuring indicators and indices in order to:

a) Provide a daily report to the public
b) Define air pollution in terms of the amount of pollution created by polluters
c) Define air quality in all parts of the city
d) Measure progress toward air quality goals
e) Propose abatement steps
f) Alarm the public in case of danger
g) Provide data to researchers
h) Provide information for compliance
i) Make intelligent decisions with regard to priorities of programs toward environmental improvement

10)      Immediate and honest actions by the USA, Russia, Japan and Canada, and all countries in resolving the problems creating the greenhouse gases. The ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and the implementation of measurable positive actions to resolve the problems of global warming.

11)      The support of the Climate Change Ministry, the Earth Ministry of the Environment, in coordinating efforts.




 

 

 


 

 

 

Home ] Main Index 2002 ] Proceedings ] Up ]

Recommendations 2002

 

Copyright © 2001 Global Community WebNet Ltd.