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Archive for June, 2009

Sustainable Development for the Earth Community, Discussion of the meaning and implications of sustainability.

Forum: Sustainable Development - A Sound Ethical Guideline? Eight organizational leaders, writers and thinkers voice their opinions.
The Ecological Imperative, by Mikhail Gorbachev. Remarks on new ecological policies and ethic from address to the January 1990 Global Forum on Human Survival.  Read the rest of this entry »

The Social Responsibility of Land Ownership, by Leonard Weber. Individual vs. community in land management decisions.The Sun is Among Us, by Martha Heyneman. Creative essay.

A New Set Of Values, by Lester Brown, Christopher Flavin, and Sandra Postel. New values needed for the transition to a sustainable world. Read the rest of this entry »

Economism or Planetism, by John B. Cobb, Jr. Discussion of the inherent tension between contemporary economic theory and the welfare of the planet.

The Joint Appeal in Religion and Science. A statement made by leaders of major American religious denominations in response to a request for the religious community to address the planetary environmental crisis.Putting Technology in its Natural Place, by Henry Mitchell. The need for renewed ties between people and nature in the age of technology. Read the rest of this entry »

Re-Inhabiting the Earth: Genesis Farm, by Miriam Therese MacGillis. The connections between spirituality and global ecological issues.

Operational Principles for Sustainable Development, by Herman E. Daly. Guidelines for the criteria of sustainable use of renewable and non-renewable resources. Read the rest of this entry »

Healing Community: Restoring Creation, by Nancy C. Alexander. Support for local communities as a central value in an agenda for a sustainable future, and North vs. South in the 1992 UNCED.

How Much is `Enough’? by Alan Durning. Worldwatch Institute Senior Researcher calls for a simpler lifestyle, living by the criteria of sufficiency rather than that of “the hunger for more.” Read the rest of this entry »

Population, Poverty, and Planet Earth, by Donella Meadows. The net primary productivity as a direct reflection of human overpopulation.

Deep Ecology and the Population Factor, by Arne Naess. The concept of carrying capacity and the need to include the importance of diversity and quality of life.Population Growth and the Status of Women, by Jonathan Adams. Women’s role in population control. Read the rest of this entry »

Green Grace, by Jay McDaniel. Ecological spirituality as a binding force in the community is the key to a sustainable future.Developing Sustainable Communities, by Richard Clugston. Ideas about what it means to live sustainably.

EcoCommunities: The Re-Inventing of America, by John Cobb, Jr. Recognizing the social costs of growth and challenging this ideology must begin with EcoCommunities. Read the rest of this entry »

What is Education For? by David Orr. A discussion about the myths that drive modern education and a presentation of a set of principles that might replace them in order to develop a stronger earth ethic.Higher Education’s Ecological Mission, by Richard Clugston. A list of critical steps that can be taken to refocus the academic mission towards a commitment to the earth. Read the rest of this entry »

Nature’s Laws and Human Ethics, by Rosemary Radford Ruether. A leading writer in the ecofeminist movement offers her version of basic ecological principles and their implications for the ordering of human society. Excerpted from Gaia and God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing.

Worldviews, Ethics, and Environment, by G. Tyler Miller, Jr. A discussion of three human-centered levels of environmental awareness, contrasted to a Sustainable Earth, life centered view, in which we recognize ourselves as just one particular strand in a web of life. Read the rest of this entry »

The Constitution and the Land, by Donald Worster. An environmental historian comments on the Constitution’s lack of attention to the land out of which this nation’s wealth arose, and suggests an important constitutional revision.

Land of the Free, Home of the Brave: Iroquois Democracy, by Oren Lyons. The author, speaker for the Onondaga nation, discusses the history and structure of the Grand Council of the Iroquois Indians, and calls for the recognition of the influence of the council on the form of government created by the U.S. Constitution. Read the rest of this entry »