Nicholas Robinson | Environmental Law, The Earth Charter, and Ecological Civilizations

In this interview, Jeremy Lent starts by offering an overview of some key ideas he articulates in his book “The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe.” He emphasizes the importance of generating an alternative worldview based on the understanding of our deep interconnection, and the notion of flourishing, particularly flourishing as an integrated organism. On Ecological Civilization, he invites us to visualize how the world could look like if we changed the dominant underlying operating system of our current civilization from one of extraction and exploitation to one that seeks to set the conditions for all beings to flourish on a regenerative Earth. This means envisioning not just changing one aspect, but everything. He stresses that in order to get on the path to an ecological civilization, we can look at life itself and ecosystems and apply that learning to our human societies, such as by cooperating and working together for mutual benefit. Lent makes the point that deep transformation starts with the recognition that our own ways of thinking need to be questioned and changed.

Almost thirty years after the end of apartheid, Black South Africans still fight for African liberation from colonial narratives. While previous generations struggled to end apartheid, younger generations now face the task of reimagining themselves, their communities, and the world. Mamphela Ramphele and Nolita Mvunelo discuss the need for intergenerational collaboration to combine the wisdom of older generations with the energy of younger ones. The need for social equity ties into the idea of ecological civilizations as an alternative to our current society. Ramphele and Mvunelo emphasize the need to consider freedom for all life, not just humans and see the Earth Charter as an opportunity to help build a new narrative for ecological civilizations.

Professor Nicholas Robinson first explains the history of environmental law and the role of the IUCN in its development. He then continues to discuss the importance of the Earth Charter, its connection to environmental law, and its current relevance. Dr. Robinson believes that the Earth Charter is unique because of the diversity and number of people involved in its drafting. This resulted in a consensus on shared principles and ethics accepted by people all over the world. Robinson sees the Earth Charter as a beacon amidst the current anxiety about the environment and believes that it provides a framework to implement the Sustainable Development Goals. Finally, Dr. Robinson discusses the concept of ecological civilizations and how it could be the answer to capitalism. 

Dr. Vandana Shiva shares key ideas from her book Earth Democracy and discusses the need to establish an Earth Democracy where we acknowledge that we are all part of the Earth, and that everything, including trees and rivers, have a right to exist. She connects this to the idea of Ecological Civilizations, democracies based on ecological oneness. These stand in opposition to today’s western civilizations that separate humans from nature and each other. Shiva also talks about her work fighting industrial agriculture and promoting seed sovereignty. When companies like Monsanto began patenting seeds and making farmers dependent on them, she began to promote seed sovereignty and native seeds. She believes seeds are the embodiment of life and should not be treated as inventions or commodities, but rather as a commons. Through her work she has found that native seeds promote biodiversity and are more nutritious and outperform industrial seeds. If we work with the Earth and replace what we take, using organic practices, she believes we can meet our food needs, reverse climate change, and regenerate biodiversity.

Tu Weiming, one of the most influential Confucian thinkers of the 20th and 21st centuries, contributed to the drafting process of the Earth Charter bringing Confucian thoughts of the importance of interconnectedness and community into its principles. In this conversation he talks about Confucianism, how it can apply to our current societal and environmental challenges, and how it relates to the Earth Charter.  He also discusses the importance of self-cultivation or “learning to be human” within Confucianism. He emphasizes that the purpose of this it not to attain inner happiness or develop individualism. Rather, the emphasis is on the communal act and becoming part of a network of relationships in four dimensions, the self, community, Earth, and heaven. 

Dr. Bourn shares some key ideas he addressed in his latest book and discusses education’s role in society and social change, particularly the purpose of higher education. Given that it can be difficult to differentiate between themes like education for sustainable development, global citizenship, and peace education, Bourn advocates for understanding the context and how the people using these terms define them. Dr. Bourn believes that higher education educators and administrators need to take the lead to create a pedagogy of hope to address the anger and anxiety students feel about environmental issues. Rather than viewing key topics like sustainability and decolonization simply as items to check off on a to-do list, Dr. Bourn believes higher education administrators should focus on creating spaces for dialogue about them. While there are no quick fixes or ready-made toolkits to remedy these issues, the Earth Charter can be used as an ethical framework to provide guidance. 

Carol Anne Hilton is the founder of the Indigenomics Institute and the Global Center of Indigenomics and author of Indigenomics: Taking a Seat at the Economics Table. Her work centers on rebuilding and strengthening Indigenous economies to combat Canada’s history of oppression against them. In her work, Hilton addresses the economic impacts of this history by shaping a new space around Indigenous economics using traditional Indigenous ideas of conservation, sustainability, and well-being, concepts that are closely connected to the Earth Charter.

In the episode, author, social scientist, and sustainability practitioner, Thomas Legrand speaks with Mirian Vilela about his new book, The Politics of Being, and his work with the UNDP Conscious Food Systems Alliance. Legrand believes that we must move away from a development model based on economic growth and instead to one that ties directly into the Earth Charter’s idea of “being more, not having more,” an idea he sees as very important but has of yet been mostly ignored. He sees an answer to this in reorganizing our society and politics to focus on helping individuals realize fulfillment through wellbeing, rather than emphasizing competition, status, wealth, and consumption. Legrand discusses some concrete examples of achieving this shift toward an economy of being in which everyone’s basic needs are met. He proposes policies that emphasize secure attachment between parents and children by supporting childcare and parental leave. He also sees providing a universal basic income and healthcare as a way to allow people more time to achieve wellbeing and fulfillment through means other than work. He also emphasizes the importance of the rights of nature, restorative justice, moving from a global economy to local economies, and the need for all of these ideas to be incorporated into the education system and national policies. 

En esta entrevista Edgar Gutierrez, incluye una reflexión sobre el papel de la Asamblea Ambiental de Naciones Unidas, la UNEA por sus siglas en inglés, creada en 2012, de brindar un sistema más eficaz de gobernanza ambiental internacional. Comenta su experiencia, como presidente de UNEA en dos periodos, en hacer que este ente tuviera un papel político, además de técnico. Y comparte algunas anécdotas vividas, en el proceso de negociación para desarrollar la primera declaración política de la UNEA aprobada en UNEA 3 en 2017. Destaca lo especial de la UNEA en cuanto a brindar la participación de actores no gubernamentales en su proceso. Edgar comenta uno de sus desafíos como ministro en disminuir el algo uso de combustibles fósiles en Costa Rica dado la flota vehicular. Termina resaltando le importancia de asegurar enfoques holísticos y no seguir abordando desafíos de manera fragmentada dando el ejemplo de la problemática de seguridad alimentaria y gestión sostenible de suelos en el país y la necesidad de construir puentes entre la agenda de conservación, de cambio climático, de agua...

In this episode, Dr. Michelle Maloney discusses the need for systems change toward an Earth-centered culture where people re-consider their relationship to the Earth and their place within it. She sees Earth Jurisprudence and Earth Law as effective tools to make this cultural shift and to protect the environment from human destruction. In this conversation she reflects on the shift that needs to take place towards Earth Law and Rights of Nature, and on what it means: giving nature legal rights in the same way that humans have legal rights so that it must be legally protected. She shares the examples of both Ecuador and Bolivia that have recognized the Rights of Nature in their constitution, and on a smaller scale, rights can be given to individual parts of an ecosystem like a river or forest. She comments on the work of The Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN), a global organization dedicated to the universal adoption and implementation of legal protection for the Rights of Nature, and on how she sees the relationship between law, economics, education, and ethics. Towards the end of this conversation, Dr. Maloney shares that she sees the Earth Charter as an important tool to help people envision an Earth-centered culture.