THE EARTH PRECEPTS

Exploitation of the Earth must be accompanied by restoration of the Earth.

The basis for this precept is simple: the Earth is finite. Damaged land cannot be replaced, so it must be restored. Here the knowledge of indigenous peoples is of critical assistance. An example: for decades federal land managers have excluded fire from the forests of western North America. As a result, millions of acres have become tinderboxes, with dense thickets of stunted, highly flammable saplings. What is needed is a return to the Native American practice of setting cool-burning fires to maintain forest health and prevent the buildup of excess dead wood. The work of restoring the Earth is perhaps the deepest personal practice of the Earth Precepts: to engage, with a beginner’s mind, with the numberless paths of dependent co-arising that create environmental health.

Preserve the world’s biological diversity: all the Earth’s species and ecosystems.

The Earth is currently experiencing an extinction rate one thousand times higher than normal. This present mass extinction—caused almost entirely by human activity—could rival the catastrophic meteor impact that ended the age of the dinosaurs. To stop this disaster, we must take action before species are critically endangered. The best approach is to focus on preserving entire ecosystems, the integrated arrangements of life that cover the Earth. This protects all the connections in the web of life, and thus automatically preserves most species.

Ecosystem conservation requires that large stretches of the planet must remain, if not wilderness, at least wild. This may seem a daunting challenge, until we consider that there is no other way to assure the biosphere’s integrity, upon which all life, including our own lives, depends.

Do not have more than two children.

During the twentieth century, almost 4.5 billion people were added to the population of the Earth. That is more than all the people who existed in the history of the world up to that time. If present birth rates hold steady, the world population would reach 14.4 billion by 2050 and continue to climb. However, if a birth rate of 2.0 was adopted immediately and universally, it would produce an essentially stable world population of about 7.3 billion by 2050. It is hard to imagine a more important goal for us to reach in our quest to maintain a healthy, livable Earth.

Our overwhelming success as a species has placed human beings in a paradoxical position: to truly love our children, we must have fewer of them. To preserve life, we must restrict our own fertility. It is not consistent with our responsibility to the Earth to have more children than will replace ourselves.

Do not assert ownership over species or their genetic codes; they are not ours to claim.

With the development of DNA sequencing technology about 25 years ago, corporations began to assert ownership of basic genetic information and of forms of life themselves. These genetic codes developed over millions of years without human knowledge or contribution. It is as if a guest was invited to a sumptuous feast, pushed the host aside, locked up the kitchen, and forced the other guests to buy the food at ruinous prices.

The problem with the claim of ownership over genetic material is not simply its profound ingratitude. Patent rights, and the profits they promise, are the fuel driving the explosive growth of genetic engineering. Withdrawing that fuel is the best way to regain control over this deeply problematic activity. While genetic engineering may provide benefits, it also entails ecological risks and threatens social inequities that we have only begun to imagine. Our responsibility to the Earth requires that this uncontrolled experimentation with life itself be halted until we have developed a far better understanding of the possible consequences.

Do not exempt corporations from the environmental precepts that individuals must follow.

This final precept looks beyond personal moral responsibility to the Earth, to encompass the actions of gigantic impersonal organizations. If humanity does not assert control over corporations, all our efforts to foster a life-centered culture will fail.

As presently organized, corporations exist for one purpose: to maximize profit for shareholders. All other considerations, including the welfare of workers and the effects of corporate operations on the environment, are secondary. Every way in which corporations act as “good citizens”—such as honoring minimum-wage laws or pollution regulations—is due to legal compulsion. Indeed, the phenomenon of globalization is simply the relentless attempt by corporations to escape the legal compulsions that are, however feebly, enforced by national governments.

The present corporate ideology of limitless growth is incompatible with the health of our limited Earth, and cannot be allowed to continue.

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