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(1) - "Every country should have a population stabilization policy..."
I understand how this would help with our overpopulation problem but unfortunately there aren't any good ways to stabilize populations that don't involve seriously immoral acts. For example, China allowed it's people to only have one child. This caused Chinese families to abort their female babies so that they could propagate the family name with a male baby. Although, a population stabilization policy sounds good in theory, it is not great in practice. Unless we can come up with something better than the Chinese, we are at a stand still with this issue.
THE EARTH CHARTER
(1) Respect and Care for the Community of Life
The Earth Charter states that we should "care for the community of life with understanding, compassion, and love". Shiva felt the same way in the excerpt we read for class. When I first read the excerpt I was very skeptical and didn't fully agree with Shiva's point of view. Now that I have learned more about the environment and the destruction we are instantiating, I have changed my point of view. As a child, I was very compassionate for living things and I even picked trash up off the sides of the street. As I got older, I became more and more apathetic to the environment and its creatures and began throwing trash out the window and ending the lives of animals who trespassed in my home. I'll make sure not to kill the next frog that gets in my house but instead capture it and put it back where it belongs.
(2) Ecological Integrity
The Earth Charter states that we should "adopt patterns of production, consumption, and reproduction that safeguard Earth's regenerative capacities, human rights, and community well-being". I remember while reading Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and coming across a quote. She stated that we are "an era dominated by industry, in which the right to make a dollar is seldom challenged." She's completely right. It's not very often that someone is discriminated for trying to make some money. Unfortunately, there is a lot of crooked people in this world that will attempt to make money at whatever cost to the environment and those around them. Not many people have made millions of dollars without some sort of fraud and that is completely immoral. Unfortunately, the way that this world is set up, it's very difficult to change the reoccurrences of this behavior. Money is power and that's the way it is until we can devise a different method.
(3) Social and Economic Justice
The Earth Charter states that we should have "...universal access to education, health care, and economic opportunity". In Plan B 4.0 Chapter 1, Brown states that "China has become banker to the United States". Well he is right. This same statement applies to this section of the Earth Charter. Unfortunately, universal access to education and health care will come at a price whether we like it or not. Someone is going to have to pay for these services and that is an inevitable part of the world we live in. If all these services were free, there would be no incentive to work hard and prosper. People would be fine with menial jobs because there would be no reason to reach for the stars.
(4) Democracy, Non-Violence, and Peace
The Earth Charter states that we should "treat all living beings with respect and consideration". I remember in class we discussed endangered species and during that discussion, I thought about fishing and hunting. If I take a step back and truly analyze fishing and hunting, it's all very cruel if the animal is not killed immediately. No animal should suffer. When people fish for fun they reel a fish in, unclip it and throw it back in the water with a hole in its mouth. I think that is very cruel. why not just catch the fish and then eat it for dinner that day so that the fish would serve a purpose and not suffer?
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