Eco Principles


Sustainable Worldviews, according to G. Tyler Miller, include the following
beliefs:

    We are part of nature (the principle of oneness)

    We are a valuable species, but we are not superior to other species. 
     All living beings, human and nonhuman, have the same inherent
     worth.  In the words of Aldo Leopold, each of us is "to be a plain
     member and citizen of nature" (the principle of humility)

    Our role is to understand and work with the rest of nature, not to
     conquer her. (principle of cooperation)

    Something is right when it tends to maintain the earth's life-support
     systems and wrong when it tends otherwise; the bottom line is that
     the earth is the bottom line (principle of sustainability)

    Our primary purposes should be to share the earth's finite resources,
     care for other people and other species, and interfere with nonhuman
     species only to satisfy vital needs -- not frivolous wants.  Success is
     based on the degree to which we achieve these goals (the principle of
     love, caring, and joy)

    Resources are limited and must not be wasted -- there is a lot, but
     there is not always more (principle of limits)

    To prevent excessive deaths of people and other species, people must
     prevent excessive births (birth-control-is-better-than-death-control
     principle)

    All people are entitled to a fair share of the world's resources as long
     as they are assuming their responsibility for sustaining the earth
     (principle of equity)

    All people must be held responsible for their own pollution and
     environmental degradation (responsibility principle)

    No individual, corporation, or nation has a right to an ever-increasing
     share of the earth's finite resources.  As Mahatma Gandhi said, "The
     earth provides enough to satisfy every person's need but not every
     person's greed." (principle of enoughness)

    We can never completely "do our own thing."  Everything we do has
     present and future effects on other people and other species.  Most of
     these effects are unpredictable (principle of ecological backlash)

    It is wrong to treat people and other living things primarily as factors
     of production, whose value is expressed only in economic terms.  As
     Aldo Leopold said, "We abuse land because we regard it as a
     commodity belonging to us.  When we see land as a community to
     which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect (the
     economics is not everything principle)

    Premature extinction of any wild species, or the elimination or
     degradation of their habitats, by human activities is wrong (the
     biodiversity principle)

    Everything we have or will have ultimately comes from the sun and
     the earth; the earth can get along without us, but we can't get along
     without the earth; an exhausted planet is an exhausted economy
     (respect-your-roots or earth-first principle)

    Don't do anything that depletes the physical, chemical, and biological
     capital of the earth; the earth deficit is the ultimate deficit (balanced-
     earth-budget principle)

    When we alter nature to meet what we consider to be basic or
     nonbasic needs, we should choose the method that does the least
     possible harm to other living things.  In minimizing harm, it is, in
     general, worse to harm a species than a an individual organism, and
     still worse to harm a biotic community (principle of minimum wrong)
 
    We must leave the earth in as good a shape as we found it, if not
     better (rights-of-the-unborn principle)
 
    In protecting and sustaining nature, go further than the law requires
     (ethics-often-exceeds-legality principle)

    To love, cherish, celebrate, and understand the earth and yourself you
     must take time to experience and sense the air, water, soil, trees,
     animals, bacteria, and other parts and rhythms of the earth directly,
     not just indirectly in books, TV images, and ideas is not enough
     (experience is the best teacher principle)

    Learn about and love your local environment, and live gently within
     that place; walk lightly on the earth (love-your-neighborhood
     principle)


Throwaway Beliefs, according to G. Tyler Miller, include:

    We are apart from nature

    We are superior to other species

    Our role is to conquer and subdue wild nature to further our goals

    Resources are unlimited because of our ingenuity in making them
     available or in finding substitutes -- there is always more

    The more we produce and consume, the better off we are

    The most important nation is the one that can command and use the
     largest fraction of the worlds' resources.

    The ideal person is the self-made individualist who does his or her
     own thing and hurts no one.









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