GREEN
CROSS INTERNATIONAL
and GREEN CROSS ITALY
In collaboration with
FAO, UNESCO
International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies
in the frame of the initiatives that are being
carried out in support of the
EARTH CHARTER
supported by
the EARTH COUNCIL and GREEN CROSS INTERNATIONAL
LAUNCHES
the Fourth International edition of the
Annual Contest
IMAGES FOR THE EARTH
for the school year 2000-2001
reserved to all pupils of primary, secondary
and high schools, private and public, for the
school year 2000-2001.
This initiative gives the teachers the chance
to plan educational multidisciplinary paths
so to deepen the environmental issues provided
by the ministerial programs. This edition's
theme is:
TRASH
wastes and life styles
"Nothing
is created nor destroyed in Nature, but everything
is transformed"
1. CLASSES AND SECTIONS OF THE CONTEST
Three classes have been established for the
contest:
1. primary school pupils;
2. secondary school pupils;
3. high school pupils.
2. CONTEST ADMISION
All the pupils of private or public schools,
of every order and grade, may take part in the
respective age group of the contest with an
individual or a group work.
3. PARTICIPATION MODALITIES
It is possible to participate with drawings
that can be realized with any technique and
material will be able to use up to 5 plates
of the size of maximum 50x70cm. Captions are
admitted, (anyway, we suggest the use of natural
and/or recycled materials).
IMPORTANT: All the information
necessary to identify the participants must
be enclosed to the works: name and complete
address of the school, name and surname of the
teacher that has coordinated the work, the subject
teached, the list of the students that have
taken part in the work.
4. PRESENTATION DEADLINES
The first three winners of each national category
must be sent to the following address:
Green Cross Italy
"Images for the Earth" Contest
Via Flaminia 53 - 00196 Roma
The final deadline for forwarding works is fixed
on June, 30, 2001.
Works delivered after June 30, 2001 will
not be considered.
5. EXAMINATION OF THE WORKS THAT REACHED
US
All works will be examined by a commissions
made of experts chosen by Green Cross Italy.
The examining Commissions' decisions are unquestionable.
6. NATIONAL PRIZING
The national prize ceremonies and national prizes
are organized by the national Green Crosses.
7. INTERNATIONAL PRIZING
The international prize ceremony will take place
within November 2001. All information concerning
the participation to the ceremony will be communicated
to the interested persons.
All winnings must be allocated in projects of
environmental preservation and recovery, concerning
the winners' territory and possibly linked to
the annual theme of the contest.
Presented works will not be returned.
A certificate will be assigned to each winner.
All rights on works are reserved by our organizations.
In case of use, concerned persons will be previously
informed.
8. THEME : TRASH - Wastes and Life Styles
8.1. Projecting, Producing, Using and Reusing
The knowledge and comprehension of dynamic balances
governing ecosystem in which life begins, the
same survival of humanity, have involved, and
should involve more, a thorough exam of the
causes defining critics situations.
Scientists and the most careful and sensible
part of society identified decades ago the beginning
of new environmental phenomena worldwide, able
to modify balances, which let life of human
beings, of the ecosystem "Earth".
Also they identified the need to act in time
to face in resolutive way causes breeding that
critical state.
Surely "wastes" constitute one of
environmental emergencies on which focuses -
have had to focus - social attention, both for
their close connection with different forms
of pollution, and for their modality of production
: this makes of them global and local problems.
In fact the negative effects of local production
of goods can go over a restricted territorial
sphere and have repercussions on other sides
of world.
Demographic increase , models of economic development,
and also habits and dominant life styles are
principal elements of the birth of this phenomenon.
Surely under quantitative profile the mass of
wastes is directly proportional to richness
of a population, under qualitative profile (use
of goods) the indiscriminate purchase of convenience
goods is typical of industrialized societies,
produced and exaggerated by ever more sophisticated
advertising techniques which show fictitious
needs as real to increase production.
But there is another important consideration
to do: an economic system so devised has a deep
weakness and/or myopia: producing goods without
worrying, in almost cases, about their reuse
or retrieval after the use.
A cultural different approach could define a
course of fruition of goods which push man to
a more careful drawing of resources not able
to be renewed by nature and to a designing of
products being able to become new goods with
the help of modern technologies and lawmaking
intervention.
8.2. "Nothing is created
nor destroyed in Nature, but everything is transformed"
Wastes aren't produced in nature: the remainder
of every animal activity is transformed and
reused for something.
An example: animals, hunting food, produce organic
rests, which, on field, are subjected to steeping
and go to enrich the organic substance necessary
to the growth of new plants.
At the opposite, every human activity produces
wastes, that is "things" we refuse
because we can't recognize their utility's value
or their possibility of reuse.
The same word "waste" has been invented
- with this mean - when the indispensability
to remove (refuse) something obstructing, useless
has been noticed.
This is a statement which bears and develop
mainly inside industrial societies, in which
increase habits directed to a hypertrophic consumption
based on philosophy "use & throw it
away".
Here wastes become a really worrying problem.
Some examples can help to understand the reasons:
wastes are produced unpacking a sweet, cleaning
salad, drinking a bottle of wine, frying a cutlet,
eating snacks, draining tins, constructing a
car or a building, digging a gallery, stitching
a dress, changing a computer, smoking a cigarette,
buying a CD, a washing machine, a pendant lamp.
In every activity we are in contact with objects.
During manufactures of objects are used determined
raw materials, and part of them is destined
to become waste.
With regard on activities we have just enumerated,
they are "guilty" of producing wastes
of paper, organic material, glass, vegetable
oil, paperboard, alluminium, plastic and ferrous
materials, paints and more, debris, pipelines,
earth, cables and more, inert materials, tissues,
precious metal and more, wood, polystyrene.
If these materials come back from industries,
can replace raw materials and, for example,
require low quantities of energy in being made.
And wastes couldn't pile up and take up the
territory.
8.3. Wastes: from environmental emergency till
resources for a suitanable development.
How can we intervene to try solving these problems
?
Surely we can spread knowledge on negative effects
of waste on environment, but also we can look
after the treatment of wastes.
Citizens can create a new and sound culture
of wastes with two types of activity: incentive
towards our administrators and adoption of some
daily behaviours such as assent to programs
of differentiated raising, purchase of manufactured
products with reduced packages and realised
with recyclable materials, choices of goods,
which offer guarantee of a long duration and
could be repairable in case of faults, and reduction
of purchase of dangerous wastes.
Also trough these actions, which are affirming
slowly in Italy, it is possible to offer an
alternative to the actual management of wastes
and transform them from environmental emergency
till resources for a clean future for who will
live in our planet, future generations.
In art. 7 of "Earth Charter" we can
find some information and reasons to modify
actual attitudes and behaviours.
"7. Adopt patterns of production, consumption,
and reproduction that safeguard Earth's regenerative
capacities, human rights, and community well-being.
a. Reduce, reuse, and recycle the materials
used in production and consumption systems,
and ensure that residual waste can be assimilated
by ecological systems.
b. Act with restraint and efficiency when using
energy, and rely increasingly on renewable energy
sources such as solar and wind.
c. Promote the development, adoption, and equitable
transfer of environmentally sound technologies.
d. Internalize the full environmental and social
costs of goods and services in the selling price,
and enable consumers to identify products that
meet the highest social and environmental standards.
e. Ensure universal access to health care that
fosters reproductive health and responsible
reproduction.
f. Adopt lifestyles that emphasize the quality
of life and material sufficiency in a finite
world."
9.1 EARTH CHARTER
This contest is in the frame
of the initiatives that are being supported
by Green Cross for the wide spreading of the
Earth Charter. At present Green Cross is working
on a big international campaign for the promotion
of the Earth Charter, addressed to collect consensus
in various circles and in different cultures.
This text, that is supposed to absorb all new
knowledge on the interactions between environment
and development, will be submitted to the general
Assembly of the United Nations for approval.
It is supposed to become one of the fundamental
documents, together with the Declaration of
Human Rights and the United Nations Company
Chart, containing the principles regulating
the relationships between countries, communities,
religious, economic and cultural groups, single
individuals and Nature.
9.2 THE EARTH CHARTER
PREAMBLE
We stand at a critical moment in Earth's history,
a time when humanity must choose its future.
As the world becomes increasingly interdependent
and fragile, the future at once holds great
peril and great promise. To move forward we
must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent
diversity of cultures and life forms we are
one human family and one Earth community with
a common destiny. We must join together to bring
forth a sustainable global society founded on
respect for nature, universal human rights,
economic justice, and a culture of peace. Towards
this end, it is imperative that we, the peoples
of Earth, declare our responsibility to one
another, to the greater community of life, and
to future generations.
Earth, Our Home
Humanity is part of a vast evolving universe.
Earth, our home, is alive with a unique community
of life. The forces of nature make existence
a demanding and uncertain adventure, but Earth
has provided the conditions essential to life's
evolution. The resilience of the community of
life and the well-being of humanity depend upon
preserving a healthy biosphere with all its
ecological systems, a rich variety of plants
and animals, fertile soils, pure waters, and
clean air. The global environment with its finite
resources is a common concern of all peoples.
The protection of Earth's vitality, diversity,
and beauty is a sacred trust.
The Global Situation
The dominant patterns of production and consumption
are causing environmental devastation, the depletion
of resources, and a massive extinction of species.
Communities are being undermined. The benefits
of development are not shared equitably and
the gap between rich and poor is widening. Injustice,
poverty, ignorance, and violent conflict are
widespread and the cause of great suffering.
An unprecedented rise in human population has
overburdened ecological and social systems.
The foundations of global security are threatened.
These trends are perilous-but not inevitable.
The Challenges Ahead
The choice is ours: form a global partnership
to care for Earth and one another or risk the
destruction of ourselves and the diversity of
life. Fundamental changes are needed in our
values, institutions, and ways of living. We
must realize that when basic needs have been
met, human development is primarily about being
more, not having more. We have the knowledge
and technology to provide for all and to reduce
our impacts on the environment. The emergence
of a global civil society is creating new opportunities
to build a democratic and humane world. Our
environmental, economic, political, social,
and spiritual challenges are interconnected,
and together we can forge inclusive solutions.
Universal Responsibility
To realize these aspirations, we must decide
to live with a sense of universal responsibility,
identifying ourselves with the whole Earth community
as well as our local communities. We are at
once citizens of different nations and of one
world in which the local and global are linked.
Everyone shares responsibility for the present
and future well-being of the human family and
the larger living world. The spirit of human
solidarity and kinship with all life is strengthened
when we live with reverence for the mystery
of being, gratitude for the gift of life, and
humility regarding the human place in nature.
We urgently need a shared
vision of basic values to provide an ethical
foundation for the emerging world community.
Therefore, together in hope we affirm the following
interdependent principles for a sustainable
way of life as a common standard by which the
conduct of all individuals, organizations, businesses,
governments, and transnational institutions
is to be guided and assessed.
PRINCIPLES
I. RESPECT
AND CARE FOR THE COMMUNITY OF LIFE
1. Respect Earth and
life in all its diversity.
a. Recognize that all beings are interdependent
and every form of life has value regardless
of its worth to human beings.
b. Affirm faith in the inherent dignity of all
human beings and in the intellectual, artistic,
ethical, and spiritual potential of humanity.
2. Care for the community
of life with understanding, compassion, and
love.
a. Accept that with the right to own, manage,
and use natural resources comes the duty to
prevent environmental harm and to protect the
rights of people.
b. Affirm that with increased freedom, knowledge,
and power comes increased responsibility to
promote the common good.
3. Build democratic societies
that are just, participatory, sustainable, and
peaceful.
a. Ensure that communities at all levels guarantee
human rights and fundamental freedoms and provide
everyone an opportunity to realize his or her
full potential.
b. Promote social and economic justice, enabling
all to achieve a secure and meaningful livelihood
that is ecologically responsible.
4. Secure Earth's bounty
and beauty for present and future generations.
a. Recognize that the freedom of action of each
generation is qualified by the needs of future
generations.
b. Transmit to future generations values, traditions,
and institutions that support the long-term
flourishing of Earth's human and ecological
communities.
In order to fulfill these four broad commitments,
it is necessary to:
II. ECOLOGICAL INTEGRITY
5. Protect and restore
the integrity of Earth's ecological systems,
with special concern for biological diversity
and the natural processes that sustain life.
a. Adopt at all levels sustainable development
plans and regulations that make environmental
conservation and rehabilitation integral to
all development initiatives.
b. Establish and safeguard viable nature and
biosphere reserves, including wild lands and
marine areas, to protect Earth's life support
systems, maintain biodiversity, and preserve
our natural heritage.
c. Promote the recovery of endangered species
and ecosystems.
d. Control and eradicate non-native or genetically
modified organisms harmful to native species
and the environment, and prevent introduction
of such harmful organisms.
e. Manage the use of renewable resources such
as water, soil, forest products, and marine
life in ways that do not exceed rates of regeneration
and that protect the health of ecosystems.
f. Manage the extraction and use of non-renewable
resources such as minerals and fossil fuels
in ways that minimize depletion and cause no
serious environmental damage.
6. Prevent harm as the
best method of environmental protection and,
when knowledge is limited, apply a precautionary
approach.
a. Take action to avoid the possibility of serious
or irreversible environmental harm even when
scientific knowledge is incomplete or inconclusive.
b. Place the burden of proof on those who argue
that a proposed activity will not cause significant
harm, and make the responsible parties liable
for environmental harm.
c. Ensure that decision making addresses the
cumulative, long-term, indirect, long distance,
and global consequences of human activities.
d. Prevent pollution of any part of the environment
and allow no build-up of radioactive, toxic,
or other hazardous substances.
e. Avoid military activities damaging to the
environment.
7. Adopt patterns of
production, consumption, and reproduction that
safeguard Earth's regenerative capacities, human
rights, and community well-being.
a. Reduce, reuse, and recycle the materials
used in production and consumption systems,
and ensure that residual waste can be assimilated
by ecological systems.
b. Act with restraint and efficiency when using
energy, and rely increasingly on renewable energy
sources such as solar and wind.
c. Promote the development, adoption, and equitable
transfer of environmentally sound technologies.
d. Internalize the full environmental and social
costs of goods and services in the selling price,
and enable consumers to identify products that
meet the highest social and environmental standards.
e. Ensure universal access to health care that
fosters reproductive health and responsible
reproduction.
f. Adopt lifestyles that emphasize the quality
of life and material sufficiency in a finite
world.
8. Advance the study
of ecological sustainability and promote the
open exchange and wide application of the knowledge
acquired.
a. Support international scientific and technical
cooperation on sustainability, with special
attention to the needs of developing nations.
b. Recognize and preserve the traditional knowledge
and spiritual wisdom in all cultures that contribute
to environmental protection and human well-being.
c. Ensure that information of vital importance
to human health and environmental protection,
including genetic information, remains available
in the public domain.
III. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE
9. Eradicate poverty
as an ethical, social, and environmental imperative.
a. Guarantee the right to potable water, clean
air, food security, uncontaminated soil, shelter,
and safe sanitation, allocating the national
and international resources required.
b. Empower every human being with the education
and resources to secure a sustainable livelihood,
and provide social security and safety nets
for those who are unable to support themselves.
c. Recognize the ignored, protect the vulnerable,
serve those who suffer, and enable them to develop
their capacities and to pursue their aspirations.
10. Ensure that economic
activities and institutions at all levels promote
human development in an equitable and sustainable
manner.
a. Promote the equitable distribution of wealth
within nations and among nations.
b. Enhance the intellectual, financial, technical,
and social resources of developing nations,
and relieve them of onerous international debt.
c. Ensure that all trade supports sustainable
resource use, environmental protection, and
progressive labor standards.
d. Require multinational corporations and international
financial organizations to act transparently
in the public good, and hold them accountable
for the consequences of their activities.
11. Affirm gender equality
and equity as prerequisites to sustainable development
and ensure universal access to education, health
care, and economic opportunity.
a. Secure the human rights of women and girls
and end all violence against them.
b. Promote the active participation of women
in all aspects of economic, political, civil,
social, and cultural life as full and equal
partners, decision makers, leaders, and beneficiaries.
c. Strengthen families and ensure the safety
and loving nurture of all family members.
12. Uphold the right
of all, without discrimination, to a natural
and social environment supportive of human dignity,
bodily health, and spiritual well-being, with
special attention to the rights of indigenous
peoples and minorities.
a. Eliminate discrimination in all its forms,
such as that based on race, color, sex, sexual
orientation, religion, language, and national,
ethnic or social origin.
b. Affirm the right of indigenous peoples to
their spirituality, knowledge, lands and resources
and to their related practice of sustainable
livelihoods.
c. Honor and support the young people of our
communities, enabling them to fulfill their
essential role in creating sustainable societies.
d. Protect and restore outstanding places of
cultural and spiritual significance.
IV. DEMOCRACY, NONVIOLENCE, AND PEACE
13. Strengthen democratic
institutions at all levels, and provide transparency
and accountability in governance, inclusive
participation in decision making, and access
to justice.
a. Uphold the right of everyone to receive clear
and timely information on environmental matters
and all development plans and activities which
are likely to affect them or in which they have
an interest.
b. Support local, regional and global civil
society, and promote the meaningful participation
of all interested individuals and organizations
in decision making.
c. Protect the rights to freedom of opinion,
expression, peaceful assembly, association,
and dissent.
d. Institute effective and efficient access
to administrative and independent judicial procedures,
including remedies and redress for environmental
harm and the threat of such harm.
e. Eliminate corruption in all public and private
institutions.
f. Strengthen local communities, enabling them
to care for their environments, and assign environmental
responsibilities to the levels of government
where they can be carried out most effectively.
14. Integrate into formal
education and life-long learning the knowledge,
values, and skills needed for a sustainable
way of life.
a. Provide all, especially children and youth,
with educational opportunities that empower
them to contribute actively to sustainable development.
b. Promote the contribution of the arts and
humanities as well as the sciences in sustainability
education.
c. Enhance the role of the mass media in raising
awareness of ecological and social challenges.
d. Recognize the importance of moral and spiritual
education for sustainable living.
15. Treat all living
beings with respect and consideration.
a. Prevent cruelty to animals kept in human
societies and protect them from suffering.
b. Protect wild animals from methods of hunting,
trapping, and fishing that cause extreme, prolonged,
or avoidable suffering.
c. Avoid or eliminate to the full extent possible
the taking or destruction of non-targeted species.
16. Promote a culture
of tolerance, nonviolence, and peace.
a. Encourage and support mutual understanding,
solidarity, and cooperation among all peoples
and within and among nations.
b. Implement comprehensive strategies to prevent
violent conflict and use collaborative problem
solving to manage and resolve environmental
conflicts and other disputes.
c. Demilitarize national security systems to
the level of a non-provocative defense posture,
and convert military resources to peaceful purposes,
including ecological restoration.
d. Eliminate nuclear, biological, and toxic
weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.
e. Ensure that the use of orbital and outer
space supports environmental protection and
peace.
f. Recognize that peace is the wholeness created
by right relationships with oneself, other persons,
other cultures, other life, Earth, and the larger
whole of which all are a part.
THE WAY FORWARD
As never before in history, common destiny beckons
us to seek a new beginning. Such renewal is
the promise of these Earth Charter principles.
To fulfill this promise, we must commit ourselves
to adopt and promote the values and objectives
of the Charter.
This requires a change of
mind and heart. It requires a new sense of global
interdependence and universal responsibility.
We must imaginatively develop and apply the
vision of a sustainable way of life locally,
nationally, regionally, and globally. Our cultural
diversity is a precious heritage and different
cultures will find their own distinctive ways
to realize the vision. We must deepen and expand
the global dialogue that generated the Earth
Charter, for we have much to learn from the
ongoing collaborative search for truth and wisdom.
Life often involves tensions
between important values. This can mean difficult
choices. However, we must find ways to harmonize
diversity with unity, the exercise of freedom
with the common good, short-term objectives
with long-term goals. Every individual, family,
organization, and community has a vital role
to play. The arts, sciences, religions, educational
institutions, media, businesses, nongovernmental
organizations, and governments are all called
to offer creative leadership. The partnership
of government, civil society, and business is
essential for effective governance.
In order to build a sustainable
global community, the nations of the world must
renew their commitment to the United Nations,
fulfill their obligations under existing international
agreements, and support the implementation of
Earth Charter principles with an international
legally binding instrument on environment and
development.
Let ours be a time remembered
for the awakening of a new reverence for life,
the firm resolve to achieve sustainability,
the quickening of the struggle for justice and
peace, and the joyful celebration of life.
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