Respect and Care for the Community of Life
Part 1 of the Earth Charter says that,"Care for the community of life with understanding, compassion and love." In a way, our class field trip to ECHO helped us understand this concept. ECHO taught us a lot about ways to grow life and food while being as cheap and conscious of the environment as possible. These simple concepts can be handed over to communities in under developed countries.
Ecological Integrity
One section of Part 2 states that, "Establish and safeguard viable nature and biosphere reserves, including wild lands and marine areas, to protect Earth's life support systems, maintain biodiversity, and preserve our natural heritage." It reminds me of our Shiva reading where she explains why biodiversity is so important. The diminishing of our biodiversity is a result of rapid industrialization to keep up with our high demands and reproduction. Shiva explains that even the smallest microbe plays a significant role in our ecosystem.
Social and Economic Justice
The first part of this principle states:"Eradicate poverty as an ethical, social, and environmental imperative." My research paper was on Eradicating poverty and stabilizing population, and the key to achieving this goal starts with global education. If people had better knowledge as to what there actions had on the environment, I'm sure they'd feel a lot differently. I don't believe that anyone who litters is a bad person, just a little misguided. And with better education, people can make it out of slums and find jobs to support themselves.
Democracy, Non-Violence, and Peace
"Prevent cruelty to animals kept in human societies and protect them from suffering." This most relates to the way our food industry has gotten out of control with the treatment of our future food, and also with the use of GMO's that inhumanely alter our cattle and chickens. "Protect wild animals from methods of hunting, trapping, and fishing that cause extreme, prolonged, or avoidable suffering." Overhunting a certain species or illegally poaching rare animals can have greater long-term effects on the environment, which relates back the the Verdana Shiva excerpt on biodiversity.
