Environmental Issue                                        

We stand at a critical moment in Earth's history, a time when humanity must choose its future.

As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise. To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice and a culture of peace.

Towards this end, it is imperative that we, the peoples of Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life and to future generations.

Earth, Our Home

Earth is our home and has provided the conditions essential to life's evolution. The resilience of the community of life and the well-being of humanity depend upon preserving a healthy biosphere with all its ecological systems, a rich variety of plants and animals, fertile soils, pure waters and clean air. The global environment with its finite resources is a common concern of all peoples.

The Global Situation

The dominant patterns of production and consumption are causing environmental devastation and a massive extinction of species. The benefits of development are not shared equitably and the gap between rich and poor is widening. An unprecedented rise in human population has overburdened ecological and social systems. The foundations of global security are threatened. These trends are perilous but not inevitable.

The Challenges Ahead

The choice is ours: form a global partnership to care for Earth or risk the destruction of ourselves and the diversity of life. Fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions and ways of living.

We have the knowledge and technology to provide for all and to reduce our impacts on the environment. The emergence of a global civil society is creating new opportunities to build a democratic and human world.

Universal Responsibility

We must live with a sense of universal responsibility, identifying ourselves with the whole Earth community as well as our local communities. We are at once citizens of different nations and of one world in which the local and global are linked.

Everyone shares responsibility for the present and future well-being of the human family and the larger living world. 

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 product of a decade-long, worldwide, cross cultural dialogue on common goals and shared values.