The Earth Charter is a declaration of fundamental ethical principles for building a just, sustainable and peaceful global society in the 21st century. It seeks to inspire in all people a new sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the well-being of the whole human family, the greater community of life, and future generations. It is a vision of hope and a call to action.
The Earth Charter is centrally concerned with the transition to sustainable ways of living and sustainable human development. Ecological integrity is one major theme. However, the Earth Charter recognizes that the goals of ecological protection, the eradication of poverty, equitable economic development, respect for human rights, democracy, and peace are interdependent and indivisible. It provides, therefore, a new, inclusive, integrated ethical framework to guide the transition to a sustainable future.
The Earth Charter is a product of a decade-long, worldwide, cross cultural dialogue on common goals and shared values. The Earth Charter project began as a United Nations initiative, but it was carried forward and completed by a global civil society initiative. The Earth Charter was finalized and then launched as a people’s charter in 2000 by the Earth Charter Commission, an independent international entity.
The drafting of the Earth Charter involved the most inclusive and participatory process ever associated with the creation of an international declaration. This process is the primary source of its legitimacy as a guiding ethical framework. The legitimacy of the document has been further enhanced by its endorsement by over 4,500 organizations, including many governments and international organizations.
In the light of this legitimacy, an increasing number of international lawyers recognize that the Earth Charter is acquiring the status of a soft law document. Soft law documents like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are considered to be morally, but not legally, binding on state governments that agree to endorse and adopt them, and they often form the basis for the development of hard law.
At a time when major changes in how we think and live are urgently needed, the Earth Charter challenges us to examine our values and to choose a better way. At a time when international partnership is increasingly necessary, the Earth Charter encourages us to search for common ground in the midst of our diversity and to embrace a new global ethic that is shared by an ever-growing number of people throughout the world. At a time when education for sustainable development has become essential, the Earth Charter provides a very valuable educational instrument. READ MORE
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I AM God’s Divine LOVE in Action I AM God’s Divine WILL and POWER in Action. I AM God’s Divine WISDOM and INTELLIGENCE in ACTION. and I intend to bring PEACE, Love and Light to BALANCE the powers in the world – NOW! I AM APOLLO SOLARIS
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UBUNTU Contributionism
A BLUEPRINT FOR A NEW SOCIAL STRUCTURE
Michael Tellinger presents the philosophy of UBUNTU Contributionism in Durban South Africa on the 3rd Nov 2012. A Blueprint For a New Social Stucture – What do we do when the global economy collapses? What do we do when the banks close down? We have to consider a brand new social structure – something that we have never tried as the human race. The UBUNTU Liberation Movement and Political party are active in South Africa and are supported by thousands of people around the world. Michael Tellinger is involved in several legal cases against the unlawful activity of the banks in South Africa – the UBUNTU Party is the platform to take this information to the people of the world. Join the UBUNTU Movement and support us with small donations if you can to keep us alive and effective – READ MORE
NEW WORLD EVOLUTION 14 hours, 53 minutes ago
(Earth Matters) In this revealing conversation Michael Tellinger talks to Anthony Migchels (realcurrencies.wordpress.com) about the connection between ancient stone circles, freedom, bankers, hypersound technology (free energy), Ubuntu, the origins of humankind, contributionism and much more. With the latest news and insights in alternative currencies and monetary reform.
Highly recommended for anyone who wants to understand what actually happened in our past, how this is enslaving to us today and most important:
The simple and gracious road to freedom!
http://www.earth-matters.nl
http://www.michaeltellinger.com
http://www.realcurrencies.wordpress.com
http://www.sterk-water.com
U.N. REPORT WARNS ENVIRONMENT IS AT TIPPING POINT
Posted by Alisa Battaglia on May 26, 2014 at 11:30pm
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U.N. report warns environment is at tipping point
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – The earth’s environmental systems “are being pushed towards their biophysical limits,” beyond which loom sudden, irreversible and potentially catastrophic changes, the United Nations Environment Program warned Wednesday.
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In a 525-page report on the health of the planet, the agency paints a grim picture: The melting of the polar ice caps, desertification in Africa, deforestation of tropical jungles, spiraling use of chemicals and the emptying out of the world’s seas are just some of myriad environmental catastrophes posing a threat to life as we know it.
“As human pressures on the earth … accelerate, several critical global, regional and local thresholds are close or have been exceeded,” the report says. “Once these have been passed, abrupt and possibly irreversible changes to the life-support functions of the planet are likely to occur, with significant adverse implications for human well-being.”
Such adverse implications include rising sea levels, increased frequency and severity of floods and droughts, and the collapse of fisheries, said the report, which compiles the work of the past three years by a team of 300 researchers.
The bad news doesn’t end there. The report says about 20 percent of vertebrate species are under threat of extinction, coral reefs have declined by 38 percent since 1980, greenhouse gas emissions could double over the next 50 years, and 90 percent of water and fish samples from aquatic environments are contaminated by pesticides.
It adds that of the 90 most crucial environmental goals, little or no progress has been made over the past five years on nearly a third of them, including global warming. Significant progress has been made on just four of the objectives, the report says.
“This is an indictment,” UNEP executive director Achim Steiner said at a news conference in Rio De Janeiro, which is to host later this month a U.N. conference on development that protects the environment. “We live in an age of irresponsibility that is also testified and documented in this report.
“In 1992 (when the first of the agency’s five reports was released) we talked about the future that was likely to occur. This report 20 years later speaks to the fact that a number of the things that we talked about in the future tense in 1992 have arrived,” Steiner said. “Once the tipping point occurs, you don’t wake up the next morning and say, ‘This is terrible, can we change it?’ That is the whole essence of these thresholds. We are condemning people to not having the choice anymore.”
Steiner called for immediate action to prevent continued environmental degradation, with its ever-worsening consequences.
“Change is possible,” he said, adding that the report includes an analysis of a host of environmental preservation projects that have worked. “Given what we know, we can move in another direction.”
The United Nations’ upcoming Rio+20 conference on sustainable development would be the ideal forum to spearhead the kind of global action that’s needed if the worst is to be avoided, Steiner said.
However, the run-up to June 20-21 conference has been plagued with problems, as developing and developed countries continue to bicker over what the objectives of the event should be.
Speaking in New York on Wednesday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged that negotiations on a final document for the conference have been “quite difficult” but he said he was “cautiously optimistic” that the 193 U.N. member states will reach agreement.
“We live in a world of economic uncertainty, growing inequality and environmental decline,” Ban told a news conference at U.N. headquarters. “This (conference) is a once in a generation opportunity. … We need leaders to have political commitment and political courage and vision. Short-term measures will not be the answers. You need to have mid- and longer-term visions for sustainable development.”
UNEP spokesman Nick Nuttall said the agency deliberately scheduled the release of its report to coincide with the run-up to the conference.
“It tells, we hope in a polite way, but in a scientifically honest way, world leaders who are coming in a few weeks’ time why they are coming and why they need to define an impressive outcome for everybody in the world,” Nuttall said at the Rio news conference.
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