Earth Government for Earth Community A grassroots process |
NEWSLETTER Newsletter Volume 3
Issue 4, December 2002
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Table of Contents
The hope that we can create an Earth Society, a sustainable society, composed of sustainable communities, is not new. What's new is that we are doing it. It is no longer a talk, a hope or a concept. It is a reality! Sustainability is no longer a concept it is us, all of us, now, today. Human beings have the capacity to continuously adapt to their nonhuman environments by means of social organization. This is why the People aspects have been included in the definition of sustainable development. This is why sustainable development is essentially not about just the environment and economic development, but it is also about people. We the Peoples of the Earth will find ways to protect and improve the delicate balance between human activity and our natural life support system. We are now working together, all of us, all Peoples on Earth, the Human Family, to keep our planet healthy, productive and hospitable for all human beings and living things. We have created the Earth Community Organization, and now we are forming the Interim Earth Government, with the mandate of forming Earth Government from the grassroots. The World Congress on Managing and Measuring Sustainable Development - Global Community Action 1 was about establishing the foundation for a sound Earth Management. The Interim Earth Government has the mandate of forming Earth Government, its organizational structure, its voting system, the elective procedure, and promoting its creation all over the world. Once representatives from every country have been elected, they will form the Legislative body of Earth Government and will be governing Earth. They will decide how the Executive and the Judiciary bodies of Earth Government will be elected or chosen.
Participate in the new Global Dialogue to be held August 2004: New Age Civilization of the 3rd Millennium:
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 Project Officer and Chairman Earth Community Organization (ECO) and Interim Earth Government gdufour@globalcommunitywebnet.com gdufour@telusplanet.net
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 Earth Community Organization (ECO) Interim Earth Government
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 Earth Community Organization (ECO)
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 Earth Community Organization (ECO)
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 Earth Community Organization (ECO)
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7.0 Articles A) The need to protect our first language, by Trevor Steele B) Join the team, become a Minister of Earth Government C) Kyoto is only a beginning to protect LIFE on Earth D) Kyoto and the Climate Change Ministry of Earth Government E) Improved Democracy, Nonviolence, and Peace F) Respect and Care for the Global Community of Life G) Ecological Integrity H) Social and Economic Justice I) The Charter of the Earth Community | |||||||||||||
Trevor Steele Director General of Universala Esperanto-Asocio Rotterdam, Netherlands That our humanity is facing multiple threats is quite clear. Some of the threats, such as a nuclear conflict or an ecological catastrophe, could even destroy us completely. There are other dangers that threaten to reduce all of us to some dreadful uniformity of lifestyle and economic action and thought patterns, akin to the loss of biological diversity when a forest is reduced to a few columns of planted trees. Mind you, there would not be “uniformity of wealth” in the world that is currently visible in its contours. Let us concentrate on one threatened area of our human life, but one which is very significant: that of language. So much of our intellectual and spiritual wealth is bound up with our way of expressing ourselves audibly and in written form. Perhaps even our ability to think is linked to our linguistic skill. Imagine for a moment that the language that you speak were suddenly to die, so that you were left unable to communicate with anyone else. A desperate situation! But since you are reading this in English, the dominant language of today, that fear is utterly remote from your thoughts. However, languages are dying all the time, and the last speakers are powerless. I remember a poignant poem about a lonely old Australian aborigine with a title that says it all: The Last of his Tribe. It is estimated that of the 6,000 or so languages still spoken today the vast majority will not be used in a century. Does it matter? Well, if we put aside all sentiment and think only of the “utility” of languages, we can look again at the significance of the disappearance of so many aborigines and their tongues. To quote Australia again: vast amounts of botanical knowledge that were “stored” only in those vanished spoken languages are today being slowly, partially and at great expense recovered by people working in modern laboratories. It may be that you regard the loss of languages as regrettable but inevitable, just like the passing of older technologies. The analogy does not hold true. If a language is strong, it survives any number of social changes, though it is modified as time goes by. What destroys a language is a very complex matter, but it is usually interference from outside by a more powerful group. And that is the most important element in the death of the world’s languages today. Even languages with a long tradition and literature are now feeling the pressure of English hegemony in so many areas. Not all of the pressure to use English comes from native speakers of those languages. Once I attended a conference of eastern European scientists who were told that until they read and published in English they would remain backward - and the person urging that was Dutch! Of course the speaker had devoted decades of his life to improving his English, and could not imagine that Russian, at that time the lingua franca of that part of the world, might have equal value. That Dutchman could even claim a certain visionary altruism: he was convinced that the world needs a common language, and he was pushing not his own language, but the most suitable one (just how suitable English is for that role is another question). He was even aware that English is in some areas stunting the growth of Dutch. True, we do need a common language: the world is in many ways shrinking and the need to communicate with people speaking other languages is constantly growing. But the growth of English (and other hegemonic languages in some places) is the greatest contributor to language death. This problem is fundamental. How can we communicate with everybody but not lose our linguistic treasures? There is only one solution. We need a second language that we can all feel is our own, but at the same time it must not exterminate our first language. That must be a conscious choice, made by rational human beings, not a mere repetition of history in which the strongest wins. What are the characteristics of such a language? One obvious one: it must be relatively easy to learn. We do not want to waste time on mastering the irregularities of existing national languages. Let our common tongue be regular and phonetic. But it must also be able to convey the thoughts and feelings that our first languages do: it must be able to produce literature at all levels. Almost by definition it must have been tried and proved itself capable of avoiding collapsing into “dialects”. Has anyone heard of such a language? I speak one. It is called Esperanto. No doubt you too have heard of it. If you have till now dismissed it as “utopian” or “artificial” - as though every language were not artificial, i.e., made by art! - I hope you will give serious thought to the alternative massacre of our linguistic heritage.
Both global dialogues, Global 2000 and Global Dialogue 2002, show our results: universal values,
global concepts, the Scale of Human and Earth Rights, the Earth Court of Justice,
new local and global indicators, positive and constructive actions to sustain Earth and all life, a sense of direction for humanity, global ministries,
a campaign to design the Earth flag is well on its way, and the determination of the membership of the Earth Community Organization in forming a
democratically elected Earth Government. 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. Nations of the world 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. Our job is to create a government model we prefer amongst others: an Interim Earth Government. We hope that the elected representatives will adopt the model as theirs and govern Earth. We will work together on a democratically elected Earth Government. Its foundation, values and principles, global concepts, will be taken from the results obtained during the World Congress, Global 2000. There are 51 Ministries listed on our website. Anyone of you may apply for those positions. Choose a Ministry and start defining it completely: what it will do, why is it needed, the money needed to run it, the people needed, the work it will do all over the world, etc. Each and everyone of us (and new Participants) can pick a Minister's position and find absolutely everything there is to be found about the Ministry. You may create brain-storming exercises in your community to help you. We will gather all our information and create a new Discussion Roundtable for each Ministry and do more discussion and research. The idea is to pass on to the elected representatives for Earth Government the work we have done to help them govern Earth. This way representatives will have an idea about what to do before they are elected as representatives to Earth Government. Once they are elected they may want to adopt our research work as a starting point for governing Earth. Now to each global ministry was added the 'Global Community Overall Picture' which describes the situation in all nations of the world, and we divided the world into five different regions: North America, Latin America & the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, and Asia & Oceania. Each global ministry has a description of what is happening in the different regions. They are actual facts concerning issues we have discussed during both global dialogues in year 2000 and 2002. Issues of global dialogue 2004 are also included in this project. Our work is too create a plausible scenario(s) of what the world could be between now and a million years. This project will help humanity understand itself better. Certainly our work is sound. We have already produced very valuable and original tools to help humanity: the Vision of Earth in Year 2024, the Scale of Human and Earth Rights and the Charter of the Earth Community, the Earth Court of Justice, global ministries, and we stood for the values we promoted no matter how big was the opponent. Now is time to expand our work for the good of all humanity. Send your scenario. We will have workshop sessions on the scenarios in Global dialogue 2004. We have also redefine 'global security'. You may read on it in 'Earth Security'. Several new global ministries were formed and old ones were updated.
If anyone is interested in becoming a minister please submit an application.
Letter to the Prime Minister of Canada, Jean Chretien, concerning ratifying the Kyoto Protocol and Peace in the world.
Dear Prime Minister:
Over the past several years our research team at the Global Community Assessment Centre (GCAC) has shown over and over again that global warming is here and we need to act now. The planet is getting warmer. Ratifying the Kyoto Protocol is only a first step to protect our global life-support systems. Much more has to be done. To a politician, a week is a long time. To an economist, thirty years is the 'long term'. Politicians and economists deal only in desperately trivial twinklings of time. To a pessimistic person, in the long run we are all dead so why bother. To a religious person, we are all here on Earth for the glory of God but eternal life is after we passed away so why bother. Why bother? Why will it matter whatever we do now on Earth when eternal life is next? This is also a pessimistic view. A large cross-section of people think that way. It just seems that life is defeated before even trying to fight for our survival. Unless God gives these people new Revelations about the worth of managing Earth than life does not stand a chance. When we think about life on Earth we must think as a matter of course in very long periods of time. Whatever happen in this 3rd Millennium, which we have called the New Age Civilization of the 3rd Millennium, will depend of us and to what degree we are willing to make a difference to manage wisely Earth, our home. Will our actions be geared to survive a decade, a hundred years, a thousand years, or a million years? If our actions were geared to survive a million years, the chances are that we would learn to master great things including harnessing the sun flare energy, interstellar travel, genetic engineering, and reajusting the planetary position of another planet in our solar system to initiate a new life on its surface. Is it no worth to make sacrifices now? A sound governance of the Earth is needed for the long term survival of our species. This is 'la raison d'etre' of the Interim Earth Government. ECO has proposed the creation of global ministries to manage Earth and humanity's global problems. History can help us understand ourselves and what is happening to us, and our impact upon the rest of the world, only when we look at ourselves on the grand scale of time. As members of families, we note the passing generations. Historians traditionally deal in centuries. For the most part we are unaware of the deep rhythms that lie beneath naturally occurring events, rhythms that must be measured in millennia, or in millions of years, or in tens of millions of years. We have a huge effect upon all life on Earth and the fabric of the planet itself yet we are vaguely aware of the rhythms. From an engineering point of view that is totally unacceptable. If Earth was seen as a spaceship whith specific life-support systems, to think of those rhythms would be of outmost importance. The knowledge and understanding of the rhythms would determine our policies now, today. Even though our lives are so brief, a million years should be a proper unit of political time. Politicians would become in a way engineers who can think not only a week at a time but can also think ahead a million years. The world needs 'engineer politicians' with the highest integrity of judgment. We all know we are rapidly wiping out our fellow species on Earth. We tend to think that this present-day destructiveness is just an anomaly and that in the fullness of time the world will settle down again into some form that may be slightly different from the present but nonetheless agreable. Not so! By changing the climate as we do we influence the ecology and evolution of the whole world for the rest of time. It is important to understand that the way climate behaves, the extreme of which it is capable of, and the ways in which it can be influenced. Yet when we look at our own history as human beings and briefly at the 100 million years or so of prehistory, we see how dangerous this complacency is, the sheer precariousness of our existence and of all other lifeforms. Small events today can have huge global consequences that can change the flora and fauna of the whole world. Some people at least are bothered now by global warming and know that nothing can ever be the same again. But what is the cause of it? Just a rise in concentration of a gas in the atmosphere that in any case is present in barely more than a trace. That is all it takes to change the climate of the world. When we look at our own history and prehistory we see this very effect in action and the results. Without such effects, this time in reverse, that is, a loss in greenhouse gases rather than a gain, our own species probably would not have come into existence. Earth as it stands now is a miraculous jewel of a place, an oasis in an infinitely hostile and diverse universe, Shangrila. Nothing says that this Shangrila will ever come back again after we destroyed it. We are just beginning to see what a dangerous game we are playing. More specifically we begin to see how inadequate it is to think only in shorth periods of time, and to be satisfied with politics and policies of economics that deal only with the here and now. Over the past several years the Earth Community Oragnization has fought the economic systems of the world 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. The Scale was designed for the survival of our species and that of other lifeforms we want to take along with us over a period of one million years. Peace in the world is a state of being at peace within ourselves. Justice keeps us at peace. When there is no justice, human rights, peace and security are threatened and war is often thought as the only solution. The Earth Community Organization (ECO) believes that the United States have not accepted the principle of justice for all in humanity. They have already objected to have their military be subjected to the international court. They want a special treatment over and above the other nations of the world. As far as they are concerned, Justice is only for the other nations not for the US. So it is no wonder that war is at the horizon. The US can break the laws but not the other nations. There is no justice! This means Americans dont feel at peace within themselves because they are guilty of something terrible. We all know what this is. The whole world knows Americans have planned to invade the Middle East nations and other nations as well ever since they coerced the United Nations in creating the State of Israel, the Jews of Israel being their Trojan Horse. Americans are invaders, nation predators, just as the British were in the past. They will not stop at the Middle East, we all know China is their next target. If they get what they want, they will make Adolf Hitler look like a kid in the block. There will never be Peace this millennium. The September 11 event was a desperate response to this threat, and yes of trade issues as well but then what is trade when the US military is left out of Justice? What is trade when the US military is taken over a nation's resources? Trade has no meaning except when the US is getting richer at the expenses of all other nations, including Canada, and at the expenses of the global life-support systems. The US is willing to disregard global warming as 'the major threat to the world' today, to all life on Earth. The risk is insane! America has lost credibility as a leader nation. America needs to be told with action that global warming is here and now. America needs to be told that it wont matter all the oil in the world and all the Saddam Husseins in the world if we do not protect our global life-support systems. Sir, you go ahead and be tougher than you can ever be and imagine. Humanity needs a leader with integrity. Be that leader! Kyoto is only a beginning. There is a whole lot more work to do to save humanity and all life from extinction. As far as the US are concerned they lost their mind, heart and Soul. Dont follow into their steps. There is a chance that they might follow into yours. As far as an action to be taken to bring America in line with the rest of the world, close the Canadian border from coast to coast to all consumer products, goods and services going back and forth, and triple the prices of oil, natural gas, coal, electricity, wood products, food products, water being sold to America, until they have agreed and taken all actions to resolve the problem with global warming and peace in the world and that means no war. God hope they do! You have a chance to be a great leader and as a Canadian I want you to be even greater. God blesses us all! I pray God to give you strength. 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 Earth Community Organization (ECO)
In the light of the U.S.A., Japan, Australia and Russia refusal of taking actions to avert certain global calamity in regard to global warming,
and the lack of a strong commitment from India, China and Indonesia, the
Earth Community has decided to pleade the people of these countries to reason and good sense. We are asking them to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and to plan for strong actions to stop greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse
gases are accumulating in the Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, and temperatures are rising globally due to these activities.
Canada is willing to reach the Kyoto target of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions to 6 per cent below the 1990 level. 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 and offer national governments 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 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.
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.
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;
The most sophisticated climate models take into account factors such as: * The changes in the radiation balance of the Earth; 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. * Introduction of appropriate sustainable agricultural system with balanced use of chemical fertilizers incorporated organic minerals and green manure's. 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 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. The support of the Climate Change Ministry of Earth Government in coordinating efforts.
The Earth Community Organization promotes a culture based on an 'improved democracy', nonviolence, and peace. To achieve our objectives we recommend to: A) Strengthen democratic institutions at all levels, and provide transparency and accountability in governance, inclusive participation in decision making, and access to justice a. Uphold the right of everyone to receive clear and timely information on environmental matters and all development plans and activities which are likely to affect them or in which they have an interest. B) Integrate into formal education and life-long learning the knowledge, values, and skills needed for a sustainable way of life a. Provide all, especially children and youth, with educational opportunities that empower them to contribute actively to sustainable development. C) Treat all living beings with respect and consideration a. Prevent cruelty to animals kept in human societies and protect them from suffering. D) Promote a culture of tolerance, nonviolence, and peace a. Encourage and support mutual understanding, solidarity, and cooperation among all peoples and within and among nations. E) An 'improved democracy' is one that is based on the Scale of Human and Earth Rights and the Charter of the Earth Community Organization.
The Earth Community Organization promotes a culture based on respect and care for the Global Community of Life. To achieve our objectives we recommend to:
A) Respect Earth and life in all its diversity a. Recognize that all beings are interdependent and every form of life has value regardless of its worth to human beings. B) Care for the community of life with understanding, compassion, and love a. Accept that with the right to own, manage, and use natural resources comes the duty to prevent environmental harm and to protect the rights of people. C) Build democratic societies that are just, participatory, sustainable, and peaceful a. Ensure that communities at all levels guarantee human and Earth rights and fundamental freedoms and provide everyone an opportunity to realize his or her full potential. D) Secure Earth's bounty and beauty for present and future generations a. Recognize that the freedom of action of each generation is qualified by the needs of future generations.
The Earth Community Organization promotes a culture based on 'Ecological Integrity'. To achieve our objectives we recommend to:
A) Protect and restore the integrity of Earth's ecological systems, with special concern for biological diversity and the natural processes that sustain life a. Adopt at all levels sustainable development plans and regulations that make environmental conservation and rehabilitation integral to all development initiatives.B) Prevent harm as the best method of environmental protection and, when knowledge is limited, apply a precautionary approach a. Take action to avoid the possibility of serious or irreversible environmental harm even when scientific knowledge is incomplete or inconclusive. C) Adopt patterns of production, consumption, and reproduction that safeguard Earth's regenerative capacities, human and Earth rights, and community well-being a. Reduce, reuse, and recycle the materials used in production and consumption systems, and ensure that residual waste can be assimilated by ecological systems. D) Advance the study of ecological sustainability and promote the open exchange and wide application of the knowledge acquired a. Support international scientific and technical cooperation on sustainability, with special attention to the needs of developing nations.
The Earth Community Organization promotes a culture based on 'Social and Economic Justice'. To achieve our objectives we recommend to:
A) Eradicate poverty as an ethical, social, and environmental imperative a. Guarantee the right to potable water, clean air, food security, uncontaminated soil, shelter, and safe sanitation, allocating the national and international resources required. B) Ensure that economic activities and institutions at all levels promote human development in an equitable and sustainable manner a. Promote the equitable distribution of wealth within nations and among nations. C) Affirm gender equality and equity as prerequisites to sustainable development and ensure universal access to education, health care, and economic opportunity a. Secure the human rights of women and girls and end all violence against them. D) Uphold the right of all, without discrimination, to a natural and social environment supportive of human dignity, bodily health, and spiritual well-being, with special attention to the rights of indigenous peoples and minorities a. Eliminate discrimination in all its forms, such as that based on race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, language, and national, ethnic or social origin.
The Charter of the Earth Community is a declaration of interdependence and responsibility and an urgent call to build a global partnership for sustainable development. It is a commitment to Life and its evolution to bring humanity to God. Earth Community has focused people aspirations toward a unique goal: humanity survival now and in the future along with all Life on Earth. The "Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age" of the Charter are closely interrelated. Together they provide a conception of sustainable development and set forth fundamental guidelines for achieving it; they were drawn from international law, science, philosophy, religion, and they were discussed as research papers during the World Congress on Managing and Measuring Sustainable Development - Global Community Action 1 held in August 2000. They are also a part of the August 2002 global dialogue on Earth Management - all Peoples together. The goal of sustainable development is full human development and ecological protection. The Charter recognizes that humanity's environmental, economic, social, cultural, ethical, spiritual problems and aspirations are interconnected. It affirms the need for holistic thinking and collaborative, integrated problem solving. Sustainable development requires such an approach. It is about freedom, justice, participation, and peace as well as environmental protection and economic well-being. The Divine Will was drawn to humanity and is now a part of the Soul of Humanity. The goals of the Divine Will are to enable each one of us to create the higher purpose of humanity, evolve spiritually, serve the greater plan of humanity and evolution of all Life. As never before in history, common destiny beckons us to seek a new beginning. Such renewal is the promise of these Charter "Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age". To fulfill this promise, we must commit ourselves to adopt and promote the values and objectives of the Charter. This requires a change of mind and heart. It requires a new sense of global interdependence and universal responsibility. We must imaginatively develop and apply the vision of a sustainable way of life locally, nationally, regionally, and globally. Our cultural diversity is a precious heritage and different cultures will find their own distinctive ways to realize the vision. We must deepen and expand the global dialogue that generated the Charter, for we have much to learn from the ongoing collaborative search for truth and wisdom. Life often involves tensions between important values. This can mean difficult choices. However, we must find ways to harmonize diversity with unity, the exercise of freedom with the common good, short-term objectives with long-term goals. Every individual, family, organization, and community has a vital role to play. The arts, sciences, religions, educational institutions, media, businesses, nongovernmental organizations, and governments are all called to offer creative leadership. The partnership of government, civil society, and business is essential for effective governance. In order to build a sustainable global community, each individual, each local community, and national governments of the world must initiate their commitment to the Earth Community Organization, fulfill their obligations under existing international agreements, and support the implementation of Charter principles with an international legally binding instrument on environment and development. Let ours be a time remembered for the awakening of a new reverence for Life, the firm resolve to achieve sustainability, the quickening of the struggle for justice and peace, and the joyful celebration of life. Our expanding consciousness will blend with that of the Soul of Humanity. Humanity welcomes the "Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age" with Faith in the Divine Will and without fears such as the fear of change. Humanity seeks meaningfull experiences and embraces the future for the better. Divine Will brings forth a sustainable global society embracing universal values related to human rights, economic and social justice, respect of nature, peace, responsibility to one another, and the protection and management of the Earth. Everyone on Earth shares responsibility for the present and future well-being of Life within Earth Community.
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