One of the best kept secrets of recent years is the emergence of a global grassroots effort to develop a shared ethical framework for dealing with the interdependencies across our planet of many ecosystems and cultures. The Earth Charter (EC) was finalized and launched in June 2000 at the Peace Palace in The Hague. As you can see from its worldwide list of endorsers, it is a grassroots charter that has a global support base. MEC and some of its member organizations, including the Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council, Urban Options and the West Michigan Environmental Action Council (WMEAC), have endorsed the EC.

The Earth Charter offers a vision of what a sustainable planet might hold for us. Its 16 principles are imbedded in language of care and respect. The four organizing concepts are:

• Respect and Care for the Community of Life
• Ecological Integrity
• Social and Economic Justice
• Democracy, Nonviolence and Peace

Like the Declaration of Independence and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that preceded it, the Earth Charter paints a vision of a better world-a "Declaration of Interdependence," if you will. Reading through it is to be swept into a vision that is at once empowering and hopeful.

Wil Cwikiel, a longtime staffer at Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council, says the group "signed the Earth Charter because we believe that it will help to empower citizens, organizations, businesses and governments across the entire globe to take local actions that contribute to the health of the Earth as a whole."

To focus solely on the environment without concern for these other necessary components of a vibrant quality of life will lead us to make choices that will undo our progress. The EC offers a holistic and connected worldview that stresses equally the importance of process in making it a reality.

It will take millions of concerted actions to turn the ship around-actions that are choices we make every day. They are not often glitzy or substantial in the eyes of a mass media that feasts on sex and violence, but they are what will either pull us apart or bring us together. The choices we make when we shop, when we go to the voting booth, the work we give ourselves to, and when we are in conversations with others are how we really change the world.

When asked what one might say to another group considering endorsing the EC, Sister Lucille Janowiak of WMEAC says, "Endorsement places one in solidarity with people throughout the world who treasure these principles. The U.S. does not have the best image abroad at this point in history. Endorsement of the EC by U.S. groups may provide a different image of the U.S. to people around the world."

For more information, visit www.earthcharter.org.

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