Challenge

Value Life Itself Above All Else !!!

Reasoned persuasion on the basis of scientific evidence is not enough to produce effective change in individuals or in governments.

Other motives and values drive them, and have to be brought to the surface of awareness for re-evaluation,  in order to make behavioural change sustainable.

The predominent Western ideology of economic growth, consumerism and exploitation of human and natural resources, is the main driver of behaviour, causing both climate change and all the other current threats to survival.

The New Movement for Survival  proposes an alternative, all-inclusive global ideology aimed to 'Value Life Itself Above All Else'.

The Movement will appeal to those already persuaded and then snowball out to draw in as many other people as possible, and so reach a critical mass of influence on both individuals and governments, working in coalition with all likeminded groups.

The following DECLARATION and PLEDGE form a proposal for this world-wide Movement. It is being distributed to all relevant organisations and individuals. We invite you to show your support by signing the main Pledge, offering to help to build the Movement and choosing one or more supporting pledges to change your life.

See below the Declaration and Pledges for links to supporting arguments, and for the other Challenges on this page.

This Challenge and Pledges can now be read and signed on our newly created micro-site by CLICKING HERE

DECLARATION

I give my wholehearted support to the New Movement for Survival, for its goal to develop a critical mass of public insistence that world governments and societies transform their priorities and values, as an essential step for averting calamitous climate change.

In committing my support in this way I recognise:

PLEDGE

As part of my commitment, I pledge to Value Life Itself above everything else, including individual self-interest, and to adjust my lifestyle in order to do so, as well as to take collective action in order to uphold this value.

This Challenge and Pledges can now be read and signed on our newly created micro-site by CLICKING HERE. It supercedes the Bravenet Guestbook link below, which is only retained for the purpose of viewing earlier entries.

 

1. Save energy at home: e.g. turn off lights, use low energy bulbs, change to green energy supplies, wear jumpers and turn down thermostats, insulate and draft-proof, fit solar panels.

2. Reduce carbon emissions to a personally sustainable level, reckoned to be 1.1 tonnes CO2 per annum. Visit Quaker Green Action to work out how much effort you need to make.

3. Purchase: only what I need, locally, organic food, go vegetarian, cut down on packaging, re-pair, re-fill, re-use, re-cycle, compost food waste, buy efficient non-polluting appliances.

4. Travel: on foot, by bicycle, by public transport, and by car and air as little as possible.

5. Lifestyle: simplify my life; lead by example; inform myself more; and don't be put off by others. Increase awareness of everything around me and learn to delight in it.

6. Encourage Family, Friends and Workplace to do the same as me.

7. Lobby my Council, my MP, government and corporations.

8. Join a green organisation.

9. Participate in activities and organisations which are dedicated to promoting holistic values, practices and initiatives, as well as those trying to halt gross exploitation of natural resources, other species, vulnerable human groups and cultures.

10. Switch my investments to ethical causes, and review and adjust the balance of my expenditure between personal, household and wider social concerns, with regular giving. Give fully without any expectation of return.

11. Become my own detective (by cross-checking differing accounts and perspectives) in order to get behind 'spin' and 'double-speak', and thus establish dependable viewpoints.

12. Try to start the day with inner peace and contentment. Look for and see the best unfold throughout the day. Feel a connection with all Life and cultivate it through yoga, meditation, contemplation and appropriate study.

13. Practise letting go of attachment to the fruits of my actions, detach from 'doership'. Practise listening to my 'small inner voice' and acting on it.

14. Develop faith in abundance and being the cause of what happens in my life, in place of being the victim of circumstances, never having enough and needy. Cease looking to others for help. Never give up.

15. Constantly practise being here and now in the present moment, let go of pre-occupations with past and future events, outcomes, and 'mental soap operas'.

16. Consider myself great. Never belittle myself. Think the very best and I will draw the very best to myself.

17. Be inclusive in loving all people, living beings and things, without picking and choosing.

18. Move forward into new ways, new and even uncharted waters without fear. Keep wide open. Never be wholly satisfied with my outlook on life. Changes are coming and I am part of those changes.

Supporting Arguments

in Back Issues:

July 2004 'Surviving Climate Change: By Force, Persuasion or Enlightened Self-interest?

and January 2005 'New Movement for Survival'

Current issue of Boiling Point 'Why Value Life Itself Above All Else?'

return to Declaration

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OTHER CHALLENGES

Climate Change Petition to the US Congress

An Organic Alternative to GM Crops

Original Challenge to the UK government at the UN Summit

The first two can be signed on-line, by clicking on the respective Bravenet Guestbook icons below each of them.

Petition to the US Congress

A link is provided below to our Petition to the US Congress for it to ratify the Kyoto protocol and make material reductions in greenhouse gases. We originally intended to submit the Petition at the World Summit, but as the Bush Administration effectively prevented climate change being discussed there - let alone tackled (!) - we are keeping the Petition running until a more favourable opportunity presents itself. Petition to the US Congress

Finally, a demand follows for an Organic alternative to GM crops, initiated at the end of a half-hearted 'public debate' by the UK Government in the summer of 2003. It is included here because of its international implications.

Organic alternative to GM Crops

We call upon the UK Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in the first instance, and, more generally, the Governments of the World, to promote and invest in organic methods of producing food, in place of the current drive towards genetically modified processes. Organic methods comprise a safe, sustainable farming system, free from the use of pesticides and artificial additives, conducive to health and beneficial to the environment [1].

The only advantages for genetically modified processes for food production, that we can detect, accrue as profits for the corporations that produce and market them, whereas the disadvantages appear to us to be:

they increase poverty in developing countries, rather than reducing it as claimed by its proponents, by: disallowing traditional subsistence farmers from keeping the seeds from GM crops and re-using them; forcing them to buy seed at prices driven up by the corporations - as well as herbicides and pesticides; thereby forcing them off the land and many to suicide [2];

they cause the cross-pollination of crops, thereby undermining organic and other non-GM markets [3];

their use of herbicides and pesticides is a danger to wildlife, liable to produce resistent 'superweeds', reduces biodiversity per se as well as undermining ecosystems and putting human life at risk [4];

the fact that their use of herbicides and pesticides is integral to their processes, whether or not at a reduced scale as claimed by their proponents, perpetuates the dangers of such chemicals to human health [5];

they are a potential direct danger to human health which has been denied as lacking scientific evidence from GM promoters on the deceitful basis of omitting to carry out or commission 23/08/04 the necessary research [6].

 

[1] 'The Case for a GM-Free Sustainable World' Independent Science Panel 2003 www.indsp.org; 'Meacher rages at inaction on organic food'Guardian 23 May 2003.

[2] 'GM crops no benefit to the poor, says Action Aid' Guardian 28 May 2003; and Vandana Shiva, on numerous occasions. George Monbiot has also said that farmers are reduced to the role of sub-contractors for producing food for animals, not human beings: 'Let's do a Monsanto' Guardian 10 June 2003.

[3] For example: 'The Killer Tomatoes head for California crop summit' & 'Seeds of doubt' Guardian 20 June 2003

[4] For example: 'Early exchanges in the GM Forum' Letters to the Guardian 6 June 2003; 'Superweed fear from GM' Guardian 10 July 2003; 'Grave risk to humans from loss of species' Guardian 22 May 2003

[5] 'Committing pesticide' The Ecologist Dec 2002/Jan 2003; 'FSA Double whammy!' Save our World letter to The Guardian 23 May 2003 (in Save our World Yahoo Group), and 'Food row rumbles on' Guardian letter 28 May 2003.

[6] See note [2, Monbiot] above and 'Are GM crops safe? Who can say? Not Blair' Independent on Sunday 22 June 2003; 'Meacher says health risks were played down' Guardian 23 June 2003; 'Failure to test chemicals "puts lives at risk" Guardian 27 June 2003.

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The Original Challenge to the UK Government

Our Challenge page developed out of an exchange of personal letters with the former UK Environment Minister, Michael Meacher, for the Prime Minister to set a challenge for stabilising the word's climate before all the countries of the world at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in September 2002. Our correspondence with him is still retained in Archive but, following the Summit, we broadened the subject area from specifically Climate Change to Sustainable Development as a whole. However, our original challenge to the UK government still appears below.

This is the only publicised version, for permission was specifically given to display it on this web-site when UNED UK decided it was too controversial to present at its own conference in January 2002. However, it was later submitted to the Department for Food and Rural Affairs, in response to invitations to present views on Sustainable Development.

PREPARED FOR UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT & DEVELOPMENT UK COMMITTEE (UNED UK) ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE WORKING GROUP October 2001

We call upon you to present to the Earth Summit 2002 a proposal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere by at least 60% instead of the minimal amount agreed at the Bonn Conference in July 2001, on the grounds that this extent of reductions is the minimum necessary in order to stabilise carbon concentrations at 450 parts per million within a few decades and thereafter fall below the levels in 1990. [1]

We are well aware that, in order to effect such an extent of reductions, huge changes are required at every scale, from the individual person to the global, in the private, educational, professional, commercial, economic, financial, administrative and governmental spheres. We are also aware that the largest economy of the world, in the USA, has already dismissed its own commitment to reduce emissions by 7% at the Kyoto Summit as politically and economically 'unrealistic'.

However, we know that human institutions are capable of change, since they are created by human beings and are therefore potentially under their control. Since this does not apply to the forces of nature, which are already revealing the consequences of greenhouse gas emissions by human beings, the only rational, wise and passionate response is to face the changes which have to be made, on a higher order of realism.

THE FIRST HURDLE: AWARENESS RAISING

The first problem that we consider needs to be tackled is awareness raising about the extent of the climatic dangers and the need for change at every scale and in every sphere. This involves considerably more than issuing information and publicity, because numerous counter-incentives to awareness raising also have to be tackled and overcome.

These are most obvious in the media because it reflects numerous conflicting interests which confuse the viewing, listening and the reading public. Existing efforts to spell out the need for cutting down on carbon emitting travel, for example, are countered by assertive marketing of carbon emitting vehicles and air-travel as well as the values and culture that elevates their use and lifestyle. The ownership and advertising revenue of much of the media and subsequent direct or indirect control of the published content, furthermore produce disincentives to highlighting climatic dangers and lifestyle changes that are expected to undermine current profitability levels.

The same or similar interests that control much of the media understandably try to prevail on the government to support their current modes of production, operation and sources of income and profit. In the absence of legal hindrances, these forms of influence can extend to donations to political parties which then oblige the party in government to favour their interests above those of the electorate. Such practices thereby weaken the democratic representation of elected members both generally and at the time of elections, expressed in low turnouts, apathy and cynicism among the electorate.

The government is particularly hindered from raising awareness about and responding to climate change issues by economic problems arising in fossil-fuel dependent industries, particularly where potential losses of jobs are involved, as happens from time to time in the coal, car-manufacturing and airline industries. This conflict of interests extends directly to the public, as most poignantly expressed in reductions in petrol taxes the day after the Prime Minister's last major speech on the environment, when he committed himself to attend next year's Earth Summit personally.

The attendant perception of the economy, on the part of government and most institutions, as being founded on current forms of energy, production and marketing processes, makes it very difficult to conceive of and realise an economy which embraces renewable forms of energy and reduced energy use. This is made doubly difficult on account of obligations which have been entered into through EU and international trade agreements and bodies that favour fossil-fuel dependent industries and corporations.

On a less obvious level, the government cannot help but be compromised to some extent by commercial sponsorships and faculty chairs in universities that favour industries which are presently fossil fuel dependent, together with commercial representation on grants awarding research councils, and bodies that are claimed to be 'Independent'. Furthermore it can lead to government avoidance of responsibility in its use of research 'findings' in claiming objectivity and neutrality in areas where it, or its industrial lobbyists, have hidden agendas.

All of these pressures are liable to result in misleading messages put out by government (spin), which promise action on 'sustainable' energy and climate change, while falling short of delivery, and revealing inconsistent and insufficiently enforced legislation, fiscal measures, taxes and levies to reduce carbon emissions, damage to the environment and externalisation of costs. These shortcomings inevitably create disbelief and distrust within the electorate, not only on directly related matters but also on issues of democratic representation.

FACING THE CHANGES THAT HAVE TO BE MADE

All these difficulties have to be overcome that prevent both awareness raising by the government on the extent of climate dangers, and facing the changes that need to be made in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere by at least 60%. Of course those reductions have to be made worldwide. Yet, a strategy for facing the changes in the UK is not only a moral obligation, but also a necessary demonstration that what has to occur in one country, can be applied in principle if not in detail, elsewhere.

As our elected government you have the mechanisms to determine how these and other difficulties which are unknown to us are best overcome. However, it appears to us that they need to include the following actions:

A declaration of intent and a clearly defined strategy for achieving a 60% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030, and to put global warming, and the energy policy response, centre stage both in government policy making and in terms of national awareness raising.

The rapid development of non-polluting renewable sources of energy so that the government can protect industries, such as car production, as well as their workforces, without at the same time putting the climate at further risk.

Education of the Treasury and the City to recognise the greater long-term stability of an economy based on renewable sources of energy and the jobs that can be gained from it, together with a strategy for an orderly transition to such an economy.

Transparency about obligations which have been entered into through EU and international trade agreements and bodies that favour fossil-fuel dependent industries and corporations, together with their renegotiation to give preferential treatment to renewable forms of energy, with full parliamentary accountability.

The introduction and firm enforcement of legislation, fiscal measures, taxes and levies to reduce carbon emissions, damage to the environment and externalisation of costs, on a scale which is proportionate to the above declaration of intent.

On the strength of steps already taken and in hand for developing non-polluting renewable sources of energy, regulating the interests that presently control much of the media (e.g. requiring carbon emissions warnings to be published for certain advertised products, similar to cancer warnings on smoking products), thus paving the way for clear messages to be conveyed on the lifestyle changes that will be necessary in order to achieve a 60% reduction in carbon emissions.

Strengthening the National Curriculum to be taught in schools in order to make it clear that true sustainability requires the lifestyle changes that will be necessary in order to achieve a 60% reduction in carbon emissions, together with the values, attitudes and habits that are needed to support such changes.

The initiation of public adult education programmes on the same lines as those which have proposed above for schools.

The phasing out of commercial sponsorships and faculty chairs in universities that tend to promote commercial above public interests, including those which favour industries which are presently fossil fuel dependent, together with phasing out predominant commercial representation on grants awarding research councils, and bodies that are claimed to be 'Independent'. Required instead is a substantial increase in publicly accountable research and development into energy efficient and renewable energy technology, financed by e.g. carbon taxes.

Producing effective forms of limiting donations to political parties and regulating the lobbying processes in order to ensure that the ruling party is primarily accountable to its electors and not corporate and other interest groups, including the placing of public interest higher than that of commercial confidentiality.

Footnote

This page has developed out of an exchange of personal letters with the former UK Environment Minister, Michael Meacher, for the Prime Minister to set a challenge for stabilising the word's climate before all the countries of the world at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in September 2002. Our correspondence with him is still retained in Archive but, following the Summit, we broadened the subject area from specifically Climate Change to Sustainable Development as a whole. However, our original challenge to the UK government still appears below.

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