7.0.5 Environmental Obligations - Overview

Version 1.3 December 2016                                                        (Previous Version)

All organizations, non-government organizations, area governments, large corporations, small business, local communities, families, and individuals, are responsible for maintaining a livable environment.  We all breathe, drink, eat and excrete.  We all consume energy and make waste.

We are all the custodians, the stewards, responsible to the following generations, of the planet, of sentient beings, of humankind and our humanity – what we value.  Life of some kind may survive and evolve after an environmental catastrophe, but humanity is at risk: we need the planet as it is.

Our physical environment is at a critical stage.  Excessive resource consumption and pollution is causing climate change, loss of arable land and living areas, and unprecedented species extinction.  This is caused by increasing population and increased consumption per head as the world becomes more affluent.  The solutions are to limit population growth, by promoting birth control, and reduce each person’s impact on the physical environment, while maintaining growth in living standards.

More action is required on a global scale to address global climate change, which is now critical.

Our social environment is also a concern.  History shows that excessive inequality – poverty and oppression – within and between nations, causes civil unrest, revolution and war.  Conflicts and wars are already occurring between nation-states over access to resources such as water and oil.

The world is threatened by the overuse of antibiotics (and antivirals), in medicine and agriculture.  This allows bacteria (and viruses) to evolve until they are immune to current drug treatments.  New drugs cannot be developed fast enough.  Drug resistant diseases can spread around the globe in days or weeks, spread by international tourism and trade.  No-one is immune from this risk.

Area governments – national and local – are primarily responsible for maintaining a livable environment.  They have the coercive powers required to ensure people and organizations comply with the law, and they have the obligation to preserve the environment they control into the future.  National governments must avoid making treaties that limit their ability to protect their citizens.

The United Nations, as a collection of nation states, is responsible for coordinating global responses to issues.  To become more effective, its executive administration and enforcement capabilities must become more independent and less subject to vetoes and the political influence of major powers, especially in regard to the global environment and infectious disease control.

Global corporations also have obligations to maintain a livable environment, locally in the areas they operate, and globally, to avoid exploiting the weaknesses in one area government’s regulation, and to avoid manipulating public opinion on environment management issues for commercial gain.

Individuals and small business are also obliged to minimize their adverse impacts on the local and global environments, to promote and comply with area government’s environmental regulations.

We work through the next level of detail on each of the above issues (more).  After considering this evidence, we’ve looked for a way to state our conclusions briefly, and we come to the following summary.

Is this the best way to state our conclusions in this area?  Click on feedback, or add a comment below, if you can improve the substance or the phrasing.

   more                                                                            Statement 39

Our core values require political action to maintain a globally livable environment.