Subject: "Caring for the Earth"
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Comments:
Last November Jeff Sirmon admonished us to get "Caring for the Earth
- A Strategy for Sustainable Living." Tim Foss, on the Leavenworth
District of the Wenatchee NF, bought a copy and loved it. His
one-page review is enclosed. I picked up a copy too. It seemed like
the right thing to do as we prepare for the upcoming Earth Summit set
for Rio de Janeiro in June. The Earth Summit is sponsored by the U.N.
Conference on Environment and Development. Another book "Beyond
Interdependence" is a good companion to "Caring for the Earth."
We will get you a review of that one soon. Both books help us better
understand why we as citizens of planet Earth need to know how
present problems (and solutions) are linked to past trends and future
hopes. Caring for the Earth gets specific and explains how each of
us can help (by ourselves and as we align ourselves with others) to
cure present ills..     Dve.

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         "Caring for the Earth - A Strategy for Sustainable Living"

                       From: The United Nations Environment Programme
                             The World Conservation Union
                                The World Wide Fund for Nature

       Caring for the Earth describes nine principles for sustainable living,
and outlines a series of actions that governments, organizations and individuals
need to take under each one.  The book attempts to pull together as much of our
present knowledge as possible, and develop a definite series of actions we need
to take starting NOW to help humankind live sustainably.  An underlying premise
is that we are presently living unsustainably--that is, we cannot continue to
grow and consume at our present rate indefinitely.  

       A sobering observation from the introduction is that there are presently
5.3 billion people in the world and "the resources of the earth are overtaxed
now, but without calamitous loss of life the global human population CANNOT
stabilize at less than 10 billion.  It may reach 12 billion.  How can this vast
increase in human numbers be supported without doing irreversible damage to the
earth?  Clearly not by going on living as we are now.... The Earth has its
limits.  To live within these limits ... two things will need to be done:
population growth must stop everywhere, and the rich must stabilize, and in some
cases reduce, their consumption of resources."

Caring for the Earth describes nine principles for sustainable living:

       Respect and care for the community of life.
       Improve the quality of human life.
       Conserve the Earth's vitality and diversity.
       Minimize the depletion of non-renewable resources.
       Keep within the Earth's carrying capacity.
       Change personal attitudes and practices.
       Enable communities to care for their own environments.
       Provide a national framework for integrating development and
conservation.
       Create a global alliance. 

       The book spends a good deal of space elaborating on specific actions that
need to be taken to implement these principles.  At the end, there is even a
checklist and a timeline for who must do what by when.  The authors do a good
job of being specific.  This is not a head-in-the-clouds book, but a concrete
blueprint for actions we must take.  

       The partners and collaborators who produced this book represent some very
prestigious environmental organizations.  It is their hope that the principles
can be adopted as sort of the central rallying point to which all sustainable
resource movements can be tied.  I personally thought it was an excellent book,
and I hope that governments, organizations, and individuals will adopt this as
our common vision about where we as a society need to head if we're going to
survive.  I'd like to see serious discussions in the Forest Service about what
our role ought to be in implementing this vision.  Maybe this ought to be a
major theme of New Perspectives: "How can we best contribute to this strategy
for sustainable living?"  I encourage everyone to get hold of a copy of this,
read it, and consider the message!
  
                                                      Caring for the Earth
                                 /s/ Tim Foss           Island Press
                                     Wenatchee NF       (800) 828-1302