The living earth ethical principles.

• Author: Assadourian, Erik
• Position: Essay

Every day there is more news about floods, fires, hurricanes, acidifying oceans, bleaching coral reefs, drowning polar bears. Scientists and journalists increasingly point to climate change as the root cause. But what's at the root of climate change?

In a word: consumerism. This dominant socioeconomic and cultural system encourages us to define our success, our very happiness, through how much we consume, how much we travel, how rich our diet, how big our house, how fancy our car, and on and on. On a finite planet (particularly with a population of 6.7 billion humans), this system is an impossibility, though one that is hard to resist. Yet deep down, many now grasp that the consumer system is fatally flawed, making people fat and sick, shortening lives, increasing stress and social isolation, and wreaking havoc on the global and local environments.

What we need is a new socioeconomic/cultural system, namely an ecological-ethical-social-entrepreneurial system, where people work decent hours, for decent pay, in jobs that are designed to do good, not exploit people or the planet (like most jobs do today). I described what this system could look like in the last issue. But how do we get there? To start with, we will need an ethical code that can mobilize people to work toward this cultural reboot.

At the heart of this ethical code will be a new understanding of our relationship with the Earth. Right now, most of us treat the Earth like a reservoir of resources, there for us to tap in building our homes, cars, cities, and civilization. But we must recognize that the Earth is a complex living system that we are a small part of and completely dependent on. If we're not careful we will shift this system dramatically--quite possibly to a new "set point" that is unfriendly to millions of species, including our own.

In shorter form, we must get people to understand that the Earth is a fragile living system, and that we're dependent on it for our ability to survive and thrive.

The next step is making it clear that it is our responsibility--not to mention in our self-interest--to heal this system (as we have destabilized it significantly) before it shifts to a new set point. How do we do this? Essentially, we need to demonstrate that we can live our lives in ways that are restorative not destructive, and moreover, that this can provide a more ethical and more meaningful way to orient our lives than the consumer dream. Every action becomes an opportunity...