Archive: Letters and Discussions 2002
10.12.02, From Prof. Lev Fishelson (EEIU Fellow), to Prof. Otto Kinne (EEIU President)
RE Ethics and Ecology (and Response)
26.10.02, From Ludmilla Marchukova (Sevastopol 1 Chair), to Prof. Otto Kinne (EEIU President)
RE Chapter Report
12.01.02, From Prof. Gennady Polikarpov (EEIU Vice President), to Prof. Otto Kinne (EEIU President)
RE Ambassador Contacts
10.12.02
From: Prof. Lev Fishelson, EEIU Fellow, Tel Aviv University, Department of Zoology, Tel Aviv, Israel
To: Prof. Otto Kinne, EEIU President, Headquarters, Germany
Ethics and Ecology
To combine ethics and ecology into a unified theory is to undertake an enormous task, both scientifically and sociologically, focusing on the qualities of Man, as a biological species, and on Humanism, as an result of Man's unique socio-evolution. Human cultural and social evolution is the product of a fundamental interaction, whether spiritual or economic, with the surrounding natural world. This task is difficult because at a time when ethics, in philosophical terms, is identified as a set of rules acknowledged by a community or individual, and as such is historically flexible, changing with time and place, modern ecology, as a scientific discipline, deals with energy turnover and stability in nature. Only recently has the Western world begun to recognize the strong interrelation between these two considerations as the most essential foundations upon which our lives rest, both today and in the future.
Today, parallel to immense scientific and technological achievements, the world is undergoing a time of terrible turmoil, in which the wealth of one part of the globe and poverty of the other is coupled with the huge migration of people seeking to improve their situation. This has deeply affected long-established national cultures, heritages and ways of life, introducing a certain type of instability and detachment of the human population from the surrounding natural world. Together with these changes, the artificially propagated levels of consumerism, which in most places are far above the true needs of humanity, have induced the exploitation of natural reserves to an extent that endangers future generations and indeed the very existence of our natural assets. This is clearly evidenced in the destruction of the Amazonian forest and water biosystems, the desertification of landmasses, immense decline in marine fish populations and degradation of coral systems.
Parallel to this, by dragging the technologies of the 19th century into the 21st, humanity continues to feed our atmosphere and waters with toxic gases, metal ions and organic alien polymers which deeply affect the life, physiological stability and health of both nature and mankind. This is an area that demands high ethical intervention and consideration. Willingly or not, we are living in a time of cardinal changes, both in world economics and sociology. These are the changes, small and large, that will shape the future ethical and cultural world of humankind, and the survival of the natural world in which we exist. From this point of view nothing is too small to ignore: as stated in Definibus by Cicero 'Omnium rerum principia parva sunt' (all big things start from small ones). It would seem that people are more devoted to and concerned with their past than with their future, and this also includes the quality of life, the ethics of human interactions and the necessity for sustainable development to protect the natural world as far as possible. In these situations the importance of organizations active in the fields of human ethics, ecology and nature conservation has risen immensely. Modern ecology and ethics have become an integral part of our Western culture. Consequently, we should urgently establish ways that will enable the implanting of such thinking in other cultures, without provoking the negative effects that resulted from past colonialism.
Following years of experience, it would seem that there are only two ways to effect the desired etho-ecological change: First and most urgent is to find a way to raise the socio-economic living standards of those nations that are on the margins of social collapse. I believe that the time of the 'ecological missionary' of the past is over. It makes no sense to preach ethical relationships to nature and nature protection when the local people are not only poor and undernourished, but also maintain their existence from products provided by the surrounding nature, thereby largely destroying it. This is exemplified in the degradation of firewood supplies in the vicinity of human dwellings in sub-Saharan Africa, the almost total destruction of pastureland by overgrazing in parts of Eastern Africa and India and the destructive use of agricultural land that destroys the soil. Following such practices, large landmasses become unproductive, famine occurs and a dramatic decline in biodiversity and species richness is observed.
With our knowledge we can help to educate the populations of such regions in how to best use their limited resources while also preserving nature. Initial signs of such activity are already evident in some parts of India (Raggistan) and in some West African countries. To truly contribute to welfare in underdeveloped countries is not through the supply of food, thereby keeping the recipients dependent on the provider (and his honesty), but through the introduction of agricultural and technological methods suitable for local development, which will lead to self-sufficiency. The story of the Ugly American in Vietnam should not be forgotten but should serve as an example of the destructive force of proud ignorance of local situations.
The second and no less important factor is education, and by this I mean from kindergarten through higher education. Concerned by past national extremism, we in our educational systems are now afraid to use words like 'fatherland', 'nation' and 'homeland', and have thus disconnected the younger generations from their own backyard nature, the ethics of desired social interactions and the right of our surrounding world to flourish. If we can succeed in developing a commitment to our present no weaker than to our past, then we will be on the right path to ethical thinking. If we do not succeed, then the legacy of continuation will be harmed and people will continue to be more devoted to the past than to the future. The ethics of a relation to nature is not a myth; it should be based on the nature in one's own backyard and extended to the nature of our Village Earth.
Throughout the years I have tried in my teaching and public lecturing to promote the ideas of Humankind's responsibility to preserve nature, its very cradle of evolution, propagating 'use but don't abuse'. The ancient Bible has a message: After God created the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve, He took the two of them around and told them 'See the world I created, it is all for you, don't spoil it because no one will be there to restore it'. I believe this to be the first and strongest statement, based upon which Humankind later developed ideas of nature and ecological ethics.
Keeping all these points in mind, it seems to me that when propagating ethics in our dealing with nature we should also propagate ethics in human interrelations, and provide time in our educational systems to teach this. Humanity has become so overly impressed by information technologies that little time and effort are left to introduce these issues into the teaching curricula.
We in Israel recognized the importance of these problems at the beginning of the 1960s and consequently the various educational institutions and agencies developed curricula from kindergarten to university levels that included chapters on nature (both local and global), concern for flora and fauna on land and water, and the interdependence of human development and nature protection. Parallel to this we established Israeli NGOs, the Nature Protection Association, Land and Nature, nature protected reserves, and governmental laws regulating the use of and restrictions on protected assets. After years of implementation the success is visible: people no longer collect wild flowers or blindly hunt whatever moves; marine littoral zones are protected. Israel's population as a whole reacts positively to each call for nature protection. Children and Nature are the two components of the earth's future: while technologies may change, they will not.
However this important movement can succeed only if peace prevails, and peace will only be established if humanity recognizes the unethical aspect of killing one another. The command "You shall not kill" is inherent in human belief, as illustrated in the Western world by the movement to eliminate the death penalty from the judicial code. As long as the stones of the past continue to be more important than the lives of men, as revealed by extreme nationalists and religious zealots, the ethics of nature will remain in the background.
Israel has a very high population density and without the long-term past investment in teaching the ethical rights of nature and the value of this to us as Israelis, most of our natural assets would have vanished. I thus believe that one of the primary activities of the EEIU should be the propagation of ecological-ethical education, and when possible and if necessary, also to develop programs and provide means for its implementation. In this movement educators and teachers, together with technocrats and sociologists, will form the cadres, who together with environmentalists, and under the United Nation's leadership, can shape the ethical and cultural approach of the people and decision-makers for the benefit of Humankind and nature. To achieve this, environmentalists, social scientists and economists should join together in thinking, and together with the local populations develop ideas and methods most suitable for their respective lands and cultures. The forum of the EEIU should be established as an important think-tank to disseminate such ideas to the public, becoming a catalyst of etho-ecological ideas.
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Reply 27.12.02
From: Prof. Otto Kinne, EEIU President, Headquarters, Germany
To: Prof. Lev Fishelson, EEIU Fellow, Tel Aviv University, Department of Zoology, Tel Aviv, Israel
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Dear Lev,
Thank you for your letter (10.12.02) focusing on ethics and ecology. You have expressed important thoughts and provided significant stimuli for the further development of eco-ethics and the EEIU.
Indeed, the aims of the Union include the need to assist 'Third World' countries in overcoming their often grave ecological and economical problems.
In my opinion, the foremost prerequisite for successfully implementing such assistance is to acknowledge, and to compensate for, our own faults. Western insistence on religious and philosophical superiority and ruthless economic exploitation have disrupted and destroyed intact ethical, ecological, economical and social conceptions that had succeeded for centuries - long before our ancestors began to build t h e i r worlds.
The main reason for the grave situation in many 'Third World' countries is the misconduct of 'First World' countries (see also ESEP 2001: Ethics in the relation between First- and Third World countries).
In view of such historical developments, it is truly astonishing, yes even admirable: more understanding and engagement for eco-ethics and the EEIU comes from poor than from rich countries!
I agree with you that the EEIU should act as an important 'think tank', evaluator, disseminator and catalyst of eco-ethics ('etho-ecological' ideas).
I would be very pleased for you to found and direct an EEIU Chapter in Israel.
Warm regards and best wishes for 2003.
Otto
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26.10.02
From: Ludmilla Marchukova, Chair, Sevastopol Chapter 1, Sevastopol, Ukraine
To: Prof. Otto Kinne, EEIU President, Headquarters, Germany
EEIU Sevastopol Chapter 1 Activity Report
Dear Otto,
At the conference in Chernigov, October 18 to 20, I informed the audience about my travels to Germany and Kenya. Chernigov is a big town in the northern Ukraine.
My Green Drawing Room and eco-ethic congress was very successful. I plan to send a report soon. Tomorrow I shall oversee the eco-ethic Olympiad for schoolchildren in Laspy. Laspy is a very beautiful
place on the Crimea.
On Tuesday I and my eco-scouts will work in the reserve "Bay of Kasachya".
I am very glad that you and EEIU Kenya Chair Okeyo will have a meeting. He wrote me from
Germany.
My best greetings also to Helga.
With my love,
Yours, Ludmilla
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12.01.02
From: Prof. Gennady Polikarpov, EEIU Vice President, General Office, Ukraine
To: Prof. Otto Kinne, EEIU President, Headquarters, Germany
Dear Otto,
I am inspired with both yesterday's and today's creative contacts
with His Excellency The Ambassador of Germany in Ukraine Herr Ditmar Stuedemann and The Reviewer
on Science Problems, The Embassy of Germany in Ukraine Dr. Mykhaylo
Leshchenko during their visit to the Sevastopol Port in the German RV
'Meteor', and
during the visit our IBSS by the High Official Representatives both from the
German Embassy and the Sevastopol Administration.
As far as I understand it, the reaction to EEIU Brochure (in English) was
positive.
The Head of External Communications' Management of Sevastopol
State Administration, Academician of International Academy of World Peoples
'Elita' Valery B. Ivanov requested me to present him with a Russian copy of
the EEIU Brochure to use in his book on ethical problems. I have
already given him a photocopy of the latest Russian translation.
May I propose if you kindly arrange sending few copies of EEIU Brochures in
German language to Dr. Mykhaylo Leshchenko.
A nice photo of the group at the main entrance of IBSS was taken by a
German photographer and reporter of: The Ambassador Herr D.
Stuedemann, Dr. M. Leshcheko, two Deputy Directors Dr. Y. Tokarev & Dr. A. Boltachev, Head of Management
Ac. of 'Elita' V. Ivanov, myself and EEIU Fellow E.Yurzditskaya a.o.
It would be perfect if you might try to obtain such a historic photo for
EEIU Internet publication.
Personally, I will try to ask Dr. Leshchenko to kindly give copies of
the photos to Mrs. Yurzditskaya and myself, if possible.
Friendly warm regards to you and Helga in your scientific activity in Tenerife.
Gennady Polikarpov
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