ECOLOGICAL ALARM – WE ARE DOOMED UNLESS WE CHANGE COURSE

By Leonardo Boff Reprint | | Print |

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 1 2006 (IPS) - It is already evident that the planet cannot support the violence and voraciousness of the current mode of production and consumption, writes Leonardo Boff, a Brazilian theologian and writer and member of the International Commission of the Earth Charter. In this analysis, the author argues that what is needed is a new paradigm of co-existence between nature, earth, and humanity which puts life at the centre and maintains natural and cultural diversity. The foundation of this new ethics has been set out in two documents: the Earth Charter, an international initiative adopted by UNESCO in 2000; and the Manifesto for Life, approved in 2002 by the environment ministers of Latin America. Both have much in common with the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The mission of the human being, as the bearer of consciousness, intelligence, will, and love, is to take care of the earth, to be the gardener of this splendid garden of Eden. This mission must be urgently undertaken, because the earth, life, and humanity are sick and threatened in their entirety.

The expression ”sustainable development”, coined in 1972 by the Brundtland Report of the United Nations, has been adopted by all international organisations and in governmental policy around the world. From the beginning, however, the expression was a target for critics because of the contradiction it seemed to embody.

The term development comes from the existing market economy –capitalism– and its limitless and systematic exploitation of all natural resources in pursuit of three fundamental goals: increasing production, expanding consumption, and generating wealth. This logic involves the progressive exhaustion of natural resources, the devastation of ecosystems, and the extinction of about 3000 natural species per year, ten times the normal rate in the process of evolution. In social terms, this creates growing inequality and replaces cooperation and solidarity with ferocious competition. More than half of the human race lives in poverty.

This model presupposes that both earth’s natural resources and economic growth are infinite, which is sheer illusion. Today it is already evident that the planet cannot support the violence and voraciousness of this mode of production and consumption.

Despite its critics, the concept of sustainable development is useful in describing a specific type of development found in certain regions and in particular ecosystems. It postulates the possibility of preserving natural capital, prioritising the rational use of resources, and maintaining the entire system’s capacity for regeneration. It is possible, for example, to use the natural resources of the Amazon forest in a manner that conserves its integrity and maintains its ability to meet the needs of present and future generations.

What is needed is a new paradigm of co-existence between nature, earth, and humanity which puts life at the centre, maintains natural and cultural diversity, and guarantees the continuity and co-evolution of the physical-chemical-ecological nexus that supports life on earth.

This is where the question of ethics arises. In Greek ethos means human dwelling, but today ethos is not only the home that we live in, the city or country we inhabit. Ethos is the common home, the earth. As a consequence, we need a planetary ethos, and a new ethics.

The foundation of this new ethics has been set out in two documents: the Earth Charter, an international initiative adopted by UNESCO in 2000; and the Manifesto for Life, approved in 2002 by the environment ministers of Latin America. Both have much in common with the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Our current plight is well expressed in the introduction of the Earth Charter: ”The foundations of global security are threatened.” This requires us to ”live with a sense of universal responsibility, identify with the entire community of living beings as well as our local communities.” The situation is urgent and demands that ”humanity choose its future. The choice is to form a global alliance to take care of the earth and one another, or to risk our own destruction and that of the diversity of life.”

The new ethics must arise from a new outlook which recognises that ”humanity is part of a vast evolving universe. The earth, our home, is alive with a unique community of life; the earth has provided the conditions essential to life’s evolution; every one of us shares responsibility for the present and the future, for the well-being of the human family and all living beings. The spirit of human solidarity and kinship with all life is strengthened when we live with reverence for the mystery of being, gratitude for the gift of life, and humility regarding the human place in nature.”

The earth, life, and humanity are expressions of a single immense evolving process that began 13 billion years ago and form a single, complex, and diverse reality. The mission of the human being, as the bearer of consciousness, intelligence, will, and love, is to take care of the earth, to be the gardener of this splendid garden of Eden.

This mission must be urgently undertaken, because the earth, life, and humanity are sick and threatened in their entirety. In brief, the Earth Charter postulates that we ”live in a manner of sustainable life”. This is the new civilising principle, a promissory dream for the future of life.

The Manifesto for Life puts it well: ”The ethics of sustainability places life above political-economic or practical interests: the ethics of sustainability is an ethics for the permanent renewal of life, from which everything is born, grows, sickens, and dies and is reborn.”

The result of this ethics is what we are searching for in this time: peace. In the definition of the Charter, peace is ”the fullness created through right relationships with oneself, other persons, other cultures, other life, Earth, and the larger whole of which all are a part.” Humanity must move towards this new type of future. The current situation is one of crisis and not tragedy, and certainly, as at other times, we will know how to bring about the new conditions for the realisation of life and its destiny. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)