We Can Take Action As a NationRecently environmental leaders from around the world gathered to find ways of implementing the Earth Charter for sustainable living. This charter consists of 16 general principles designed to guide all humans toward a sustainable way of life. There are also 60 supporting principles on how to implement the charter. We support the Earth Charter and encourage you all to do your bit to saving our first home, Earth. 1. Respect Earth and life in all its diversity. 2. Care for the community of life with understanding, compassion and love. 3. Build democratic societies that are just, participatory, sustainable and peaceful. 4. Secure Earth’s bounty and beauty for present and future generations. 5. Protect and restore the integrity of Earth’s ecological systems, with special concern for biological diversity and the natural processes that sustain life. 6. Prevent harm as the best method of environmental protection and, when knowledge is limited, apply a precautionary approach. 7. Adopt patterns of production, consumption and reproduction that safeguard Earth’s regenerative capacities, human rights and community well being. 8. Advance the study of ecological sustainability and promote the open exchange and wide application of the knowledge acquired. 9. Eradicate poverty as an ethical, social and environmental imperative. 10. Ensure that economic activities and institutions at all levels promote human development in an equitable and sustainable manner. 11. Affirm gender equality and equity as prerequisites to sustainable development and ensure universal access to education, health care and economic opportunity. 12. Uphold the right of all, without discrimination, to a natural and social environment supportive of human dignity, bodily health and spiritual well being, with special attention to the rights of indigenous peoples and minorities. 13. Strengthen democratic institutions at all levels, provide transparency and accountability in governance, inclusive participation in decision-making, and access to justice. 14. Integrate into formal education and lifelong learning the knowledge, values and skills needed for a sustainable way of life. 15. Treat all living beings with respect and consideration. 16. Promote a culture of tolerance, non-violence and peace.
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