Seeking an Earth Restored

is a bedrock of our shared values in climate ethics. Empathy leads us to appreciate how we’re embedded in life, our human community, and our greater biological community. Our empathy is strong—and leads us to commitment. Explore the Empathy value.

is the active practice of bearing witness. It is our continuing awareness of the impact of what we do, and what we refrain from doing, across systems, across time, across communities, and throughout the web of life. It includes a willingness to simplify our lives, with attention to details, follow-through, and support for each other’s efforts. Explore the Mindfulness value.

is our connection, our sense of community and oneness, with all beings and all systems we affect and in which we exist and live and move. It is our recognition that we are one with our ecosphere, not separate. We are responsible for acting in a way that respects natural evolutionary processes and promotes the health of Earth and its magnificent, intricate systems. Moreover the value of integrity speaks to the importance of attention to doing what we say and to acting on what we understand. And to the importance of bringing our values into the world. Explore the Ecological Integrity value.

follows from courageous discernment of how best to act in accordance with climate ethics, including refraining from action. It embraces the urgency of now, and manifests in principled leadership. We understand that our environment is shared by all; so are the impacts of our actions. The fruits of our world grow for all. It is important to affirmatively include future generations of all living beings in right action. It is also important to affirmatively include historically exploited, financially and socially isolated, and otherwise vulnerable human communities. These groups are currently bearing and will continue to bear the harshest impacts of climate breakdown. They will be first to lose their homes and their dreams to the chaos driven by the profit-chasing and the complacency in wealthier regions. Explore the Right Action value.

pertains to our spiritual evolution. It includes a willingness to engage in deep listening, to learn from errors, and to strive for, and act upon, new understandings and continuing revelation. Potential for growth relies on a willingness to challenge hierarchies within humanity (examples: male supremacy, white supremacy, war, or the colonizer’s mindset), and beyond (for example: human supremacy); and the humility to recognize our own limitations. We can’t fix the evolution that we’ve broken, or bring back decimated cultures. But we can interrupt the continued pattern of dominion, hierarchy, inequality, land-grabbing, and exploitation. We can grow, and we can act.

Growth appears in our willingness to share the fruits of our planet with all inhabitants while sacrificing personal wealth and comfort for the sustainability of our world (“living simply, so others may simply live”). Explore the Growth value.

is the courage to passionately persist in the face of apparently impossible odds and devastating consequences. To be led by the wisdom of Spirit. We might not witness the fruits of our work, but we know those fruits will grow from the seeds we plant at this moment. Explore the Endurance value.