EARTH VALUES CAUCAS WORKSHOP SUMMARY
Below is a summary of the EVC workshop held at the 60th Annual UN DPI/NGO Conference. The summary was prepared by Henry Nilshan Fonseka, a graduate student at the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs of Fordham University.
The Climate Change Crisis: Seeing Wider; Digging Deeper
Sponsored by Centre for Women, the Earth, the Divine, Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic, Congregation of Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, The Findhorn Foundation, The Global Ecovillage Network, and The National Service Conference of The American Ethical Union
Moderator: Susan Golas, Director of WATERSPIRIT and representative for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace
Speakers: Carl Murrell, Co-facilitator of The Values Caucus at the UN, founding member of The Earth Values Caucus, DPI/NGO representative for the National Spiritual Assembly of Baha’i - USA
Eleanor Rae, Founder/Co-Chair of The Earth Values Caucus, President of ECOSOC/NGO, Center for Women, the Earth and the Divine
Ann Braudis, Associate Member, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, NY, Founder and Director of the Maryknoll Ecological Sanctuary
Michelle Yoon-Kyung Lee Kim, Respondent: Franciscans International; Fordham University
Participants: Approximately 30
The moderator of the workshop, Sister Susan Golas, described today’s workshop as an examination of the perspectives we have, and paradigms relevant to, our relationship with the planet today, and the potential opportunities available for bonding between human beings and the rest of the community of life.
The first speaker of the workshop, Mr. Carl Murrell, gave a brief synopsis on the MA – the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a document prepared by 1360 international scientists over a period of 4 years, which emphasizes the reality of human dependency on nature, and the importance of healthy eco systems for the continuing human well being and prosperity. He gave a brief description of how the MA had been developed, and the issues it addresses. Of importance was his point about the key finding of the MA – that “we are living beyond our means”, that over the recent past, human beings had made unprecedented changes on the eco system, and that if people did not change their attitudes, these pressures would grow significantly worse over the first half of this century. Mr. Murrell described the MA as a pragmatic new framework for solving environmental problems and went on to list some of the institutions were already using the documents in their respective fields to make changes / influence perspectives on how things should happen.
The next speaker, Dr. Eleanor Rae, discussed the paradigms that we are presently dealing with, that have influenced global culture, and brought us to where we are today, while emphasizing that these had been developed from the perspective of the Western world, and would not necessarily be reflective of every individual. She discussed the four main assumptions that had been identified – that other components of Earth have no intrinsic value, that human ingenuity and technology were key, that Earth is merely a collection of resources for human use and that humans are the superior species, in control of Earth’s processes.
The moderator, before introducing the next speaker, took the opportunity to emphasize the above, and how it is more or less an ingrained, unconscious mindset in most of us, by referring to a speaker at a previous session who had referred to the need to exploit our water resources, as well as the need to start thinking of water as a commodity.
Dr. Anne Braudis spoke of the necessity of nurturing our dying eco systems back to life. She recalled her experience in the Philippines, working to create an ecological sanctuary, working to improve the soil of the chosen area, and the joy of seeing earth come to life, and seeing the ‘flowering forest of the Philippines’ bloom again. She spoke of the evolution of humans, from the primitive times when everything was integrated, when knowledge of the earth was an integral part of human consciousness, to the progressive ages when knowledge became separated into the various categories, with little interaction between the various categories and a clear distinction between science and religion, to what she called the ‘dawning post-modern age’ where an integration of the facts and information gathered from the various bodies of knowledge could be seen. Dr. Braudis described and set out the principles, values and visions that had been drawn up, which while not all encompassing, attempted to encapsulate the main beliefs and attitudes necessary that would help protect and enhance the continuing evolution of the planet. Using one of her own examples, the Principle would be that each aspect of Planet Earth is essential to the well being of the whole, the Values would involve enhancing the whole earth community remembering that humans are but one part of the whole, and the Vision would be to apply the precautionary principle to protect the well being of every aspect of the earth community.
Dr. Michelle Yoon-Kyung Lee Kim, the final speaker of the day, addressed the ethical and moral aspect of the ecological crisis. She spoke of the various opinions people had put forward for the current crisis, all of which ultimately pointed to the separation between humans and nature, either via religious or other means, as the ultimate cause. She used the big bang theory and the concept of a handful of soil, related in story form, to emphasize the continuously evolutionary nature of the universe. The world, she said, is no longer predictable, and it governed by both law and chance, making it’s outcomes unpredictable. She also used the word ‘holistic’ to describe nature, saying that the whole cannot be explained as the sum of its parts. She emphasized that we human beings have responsibility for the continuing evolution, that creation is the primary revelation of the divine, that the cosmos is not random, but is intelligent and evolving and that there has been a paradigm shift from autonomous ethics, to ethical that are of a communal nature.
9/24/2007