Unsere Erde

Our home, Planet Earth, is a living organism - not an object to be
utilised for power, over-exploited, or speculated with.

It is not the sovereign territory of any one nation, unless that of the
creative force itself which created it, regardless of whether one
conceives of this force as God, as a creative principle or as the
meaningful interaction of natural forces.

The Earth is a part of the whole universe and is subject to cosmic
forces which we, its tiny inhabitants have to recognise and comply with,
if we wish to survive.

We should give the Earth the same rights which we as people give
ourselves and which we have proclaimed as human rights.

_Article 1:_ The dignity of the Earth is inviolable.

_Article 2:_ The Earth has the right to life and to the protection of
its well-being.

_Article 3:_ Any form of exploitation, serfdom, or humiliation is
forbidden; the Earth may not be haggled over, desecrated, or abused.

_Article 4:_ The Earth may not be - tortured with poisons, contaminated
by waste gases or rubbish, misused with weapons, viruses or poison
gases, or violated by nuclear waste or nuclear explosions.Its atmosphere
deserves protection as much as the private life of individuals.

_Article 5:_ Everything which we huMans call our property originates
from the Earth and actually belongs to it, from corn, wood and medicines
to the ore used to make motors and money. We have to return this loan in
an undamaged condition, not as poisonous waste or radioactive debris.

_Article 6:_ The rights of the Earth should be enshrined as a major
component of international law and of all constitutions. Attacks upon
and infringements of the well-being of the Earth are to be publicised as
'earth crimes'. The use of the death penalty against trees, waterways,
species, children and future aenerations should be abolished.

_Article 7:_ The Earth's right to protection as a basis for all life
includes the duty. to cure the Earth also. We humans have to stop being
thieves and parasites on this planet and become its gardeners and
protectors.

_Article 8:_ To achieve this, all those humans who are aware of their
responsibilities need to cooperate in order to draw up plans for a new,
protective and restorative way of treating the Earth - concrete,
imaginative and realisable - and to implement these plans. The
experiences, age-old wisdom and the needs of so-called indigenous
peoples should be given special consideration in that undertaking.

_Article 9:_ Each individual is responsible for upholding the rights of
the Earth. Politicians are to remove the official blessing given to the
destruction of the Earth, to call to account all those who cause
environmental pollution and to replace the politics of over-exploitation
with different ideas for a sustainable use of the Earth's resources.
They are directly responsible to our children as the inheritors of the
Earth.

_Article 10:_ These the basic rights of the Earth take effect as we, the
citizens of the Earth, practise them. Each of us must consider each of
our actions from the point of view of its effect on the Earth, whether
we are treating it as a sewer, or as our home planet, which nourishes
and sustains us.This gives us the opportunity of putting into practice
the unwritten and unprescribable inner principles of thankfulness, love
and vitality.

© Birgit Berg

WORTWERKSTATT POESIE & POLITIK

birgitberg@bigfoot.de 

To publish and to write over this text is allowed, when it is in the
interest of "the earth's right". Please sign who had created this text.
Any comercial with this text is not allowed.

"The Earth's Basic Rights" were pronounced the first time at "Earth Day"
22.April.1990 in Freiburg/South Germany. At 1993 the "Earth's Basic
Rights" were the motto of the whole German "Earth Day".

Information about the global "Earth Day" find at www.earthday.net


© Birgit Berg  1990, 2000, Wortwerkstatt
Poesie & Politik