DECLARATION OF INTERDEPENDENCE

by David Suzuki

THIS WE KNOW

We are the earth, through the plants and animals that nourish us. We are
the rains and the oceans that flow through our veins. We are the breath of
the forests of the land, and the plants of the sea. We are human animals,
related to all other life as descendants of the firstborn cell. We share
with these kin a common history, written in our genes. We share a common
present, filled with uncertainty. And we share a common future, as yet untold.

We humans are but one of thirty million species weaving the thin layer of
life enveloping the world. The stability of communities of living things
depends upon this diversity. Linked in that web, we are interconnected --
using, cleansing, sharing and replenishing the fundamental elements of
life. Our home, planet Earth, is finite: all life shares its resources and
the energy from the sun, and therefore has limits to growth. For the first
time, we have touched those limits. When we compromise the air, the water,
the soil, and the variety of life, we steal from the endless future to
serve the fleeting present.

THIS WE BELIEVE

Humans have become so numerous and our tools so powerful that we have
driven fellow creatures to extinction, dammed the great rivers, torn down
ancient forests, poisoned the earth, rain and wind, and ripped holes in the
sky. Our science has brought pain as well as joy: our comfort is paid for
by the suffering of millions. We are learning from our mistakes, we are
mourning our vanished kind, and we now build a new politics of hope. We
respect and uphold the absolute need for clean air, water, and soil. We see
that economic activities that benefit the few while shrinking the
inheritance of many are wrong. And since environmental degradation erodes
biological capital forever, full ecological and social costs must enter all
equations of development. We are one brief generation in the long march of
time; the future is not ours to erase. So where knowledge is limited, we
will remember all those who will walk after us, and err on the side of caution.

THIS WE RESOLVE

All this that we know and believe must now become the foundation of the way
we live. At this turning point in our relationship with earth, we work for
an evolution: from dominance to partnership; from fragmentation to
connection; from insecurity to interdependence.

http://www.davidsuzuki.org

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
(805) 962-2571
sbpcnet@silcom.com
www.sbpermaculture.org

"We are like trees, we must create new leaves, in new directions, in order to grow." - Anonymous