Congratulations! As distinguished supporters and representatives of the EEIU, you hold a key position of responsibility in the Union, from which you can exert much influence. Please let us know how we can support you in this role.

(4) EEIU Members

The Union continues to grow by leaps and bounds: 61 new Members joined our eco-ethical efforts in the past year, swelling our ranks to a grand total of 583. Although we cannot note each individual here, a list of Members is available on the EEIU web site.

Welcome one and all, and the best of luck in your coming endeavours for the EEIU! Each of you is a very important building block for the Union, and we appreciate your interest and efforts in spreading the concepts and theses of eco-ethics among your contacts.

(5) EEIU Web Pages

Inter-Research (IR) web pages (www.int-res.com) are frequently visited: during 2002 'Summary.net' recorded almost 6.5 million hits, of which an increasing percentage were for EEIU sites. According to the figures, interest has doubled since this time last year!

A web page dedicated specifically to the EEIU Brochures was created (many thanks to Nate Russell, IR, for his assistance), and can be visited for downloading all brochure versions. In addition, a brief section on correctly citing EEIU Brochures was added.

(6) EEIU Brochures

The EEIU Brochure was published in three new languages: Portuguese, Swahili and Indonesian! What an opportunity to spread the concepts and theses of eco-ethics! In addition, the English and German versions were updated, and two translations (Romanian and French) are in the works!

Many thanks to our volunteer translators: Adir Janete Godoy dos Santos (Chair: Brazil Chapter) for the Portuguese version, Pradina Purwati (Jakarta Chapter) for the Indonesian translation, Okeyo Benards (Chair: Kenya Chapter) and Charles Lugo (Kenya Chapter) for the Swahili edition, Carmen Bucovala (Chair: Constanta Chapter) and Raluca Camburu for the Romanian version, and Nathalie Tchorek for the French rendition.

Note: additional translations are both needed and welcomed. If you are interested in assisting, please contact Coordinator Mary Batson.

(7) EEIU Visitors

Headquarters (HQ) in Oldendorf was pleased to welcome EEIU guests during the past year. In August, Chair Ludmilla Marchukova of Sevastopol Chapter 1 passed through as the head and the tail of her journey to the Kenya Chapter in Mombasa. (For details see the Kenya report.) Ludmilla is very active on behalf of the EEIU and her visit was much enjoyed as an opportunity to discuss her ongoing projects.

In November we were visited by EEIU Fellow Prof. Nikolai Aladin, who updated us on his impressive restorative work on the Aral Sea. He has made significant progress in his efforts, an encouraging example for us all.

Both guests were welcomed with great pleasure. We are always happy to meet EEIU Members who are travelling in our area and wish to schedule a visit to our offices.

(8) EEIU Projects: Call for Volunteers

2002 saw the birth of many new ideas and projects for the Union. There is much to be done, and we are eager to face this challenge. BUT: WE NEED YOUR HELP! Our resources in human-power are very limited at HQ, and to implement the various project ideas that you have shared with us, we need additional hands, eyes, and brains. If you are interested in assisting on EEIU projects (planning, designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating) and have easy and frequent access to a computer and an email account, please contact HQ. As new projects are considered, the Coordinator will then contact you to see if and how you can assist.

MANY THANKS FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE IN THIS MATTER!!!

Together we can accomplish much more than any of us alone!!!

(9) EEIU Communication

One goal for 2002, which shall continue in 2003, was increased communication between all EEIU affiliates. Many thanks to those Chapters who filed reports with HQ over the past months: making your expertise and knowledge available to other Members is key to EEIU expansion!

We encourage Chapters and Members to share information amongst yourselves (and of course with us!). This is a much-needed service to newly formed Chapters and new Members, who can greatly benefit from combined expertises.

__________________________________

In an effort to update our database and contact information, we ask that you please submit your contact information to HQ via email or by post. Please provide us with a current email address at which you can be easily reached, as an increasing amount of the EEIU workload is being handled electronically.

Thank you for your support and cooperation in 2002 and please accept our best wishes for the new year. We look forward to increased communication and activity as we work together to further develop the EEIU!

Yours sincerely,

Otto Kinne,
EEIU President
Email: kinne@int-res.com

Mary Batson,
EEIU Coordinator
Email: mbatson@int-res.com

Attention, Chapter Chairs: This report is being distributed electronically. If you know of Chapter Members without email access, please pass this report on to their attention.

January 13, 2003

Ethical codes for human survival

The key for human survival in an intact nature is a new code of ethics. In 1998 the EEIU has presented such a code: eco-ethics (see Kinne 2003). In 2002 major religious authorities have articulated a code of environmental ethics (see below).

The first code is rooted in scientific insights, the second in religious beliefs.

While the codes have different backgrounds, they have similar aims. We hope, therefore, they will support, rather than diminish, each other. Together they may be able to create the enormous forces that are needed to bring about essential changes in human behaviour — changes which are the prerequisite for approaching the aims.

Otto Kinne, President EEIU

January 10, 2003

Historic declaration between His All Holiness Pope John Paul II and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on the environment

See also Letters and Discussions, Letter from EEIU Fellow Prof. John Gray to EEIU President Kinne, January 8, 2003.

On June 10th, 2002, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide, and His All Holiness Pope John Paul II signed a declaration by, stating that protecting the environment is a "moral and spiritual" duty.

Both the Pope and Ecumenical Patriarch, who was in Venice, have described the declaration as another step in helping bridge the nearly 1,000-year-old rift between the two ancient branches of Christianity. The 82-year-old Pope remained at the Vatican and signed the document during a video link-up with the Ecumenical Patriarch at the Palazzo Ducale in Venice.

Joint Declaration on Articulating a Code of Environmental Ethics by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope John Paul II

"It is on the basis of our recognition that the world is created by God that we can discern an objective moral order within which to articulate a code of environmental ethics," Pope John Paul II and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople said in a joint declaration on the environment signed June 10. The Greek Orthodox patriarch is spiritual leader of 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide. "We are witnessing a growth of an ecological awareness which needs to be encouraged," the two leaders said. "Ecological awareness" means "responsibility toward self, toward others, toward creation," they explained. With a live television hook-up linking them, the Patriarch signed the statement in Venice, Italy, while the Pope signed it at the Vatican. The signing marked the end of a five-day floating symposium aboard a ship called the Festos Palace, a symposium on "Religion, Science and the Environment" sponsored by the Patriarch and others. The Patriarch and 200 guests sailed from Corfu, Greece, to Venice, with stops in Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia to dialogue with local church and government leaders and to examine threatened areas of the Adriatic Sea. A code of environmental ethics should foster interdependence and stress "the principles of universal solidarity, social justice and responsibility in order to promote a true culture of life," said the joint declaration. It outlined six ethical goals related to the environment, cautioning, for example, that human mortality and weakness of judgment warn against taking "irreversible actions with what we choose to regard as our property during our brief stay on this earth" and calling for the promotion of "a peaceful approach to disagreement about how to live on this earth." The joint declaration's original language is English. The text is:

"We are gathered here today in the spirit of peace for the good of all human beings and for the care of creation. At this moment in history, at the beginning of the third millennium, we are saddened to see the daily suffering of a great number of people from violence, starvation, poverty and disease. We are also concerned about the negative consequences for humanity and for all creation resulting from the degradation of some basic natural resources such as water, air and land, brought about by an economic and technological progress which does not recognize and take into account its limits.

Almighty God envisioned a world of beauty and harmony, and he created it, making every part an expression of his freedom, wisdom and love (cf. Gn. 1:1-25). At the center of the whole of creation, he placed us, human beings, with our inalienable human dignity. Although we share many features with the rest of the living beings, Almighty God went further with us and gave us an immortal soul, the source of self-awareness and freedom, endowments that make us in his image and likeness (cf. Gn. 1:26-31; 2:7). Marked with that resemblance, we have been placed by God in the world in order to cooperate with him in realizing more and more fully the divine purpose for creation. At the beginning of history, man and woman sinned by disobeying God and rejecting his design for creation. Among the results of this first sin was the destruction of the original harmony of creation. If we examine carefully the social and environmental crisis which the world community is facing, we must conclude that we are still betraying the mandate God has given us: to be stewards called to collaborate with God in watching over creation in holiness and wisdom.

God has not abandoned the world. It is his will that his design and our hope for it will be realized through our cooperation in restoring its original harmony. In our own time we are witnessing a growth of an ecological awareness which needs to be encouraged, so that it will lead to practical programs and initiatives. An awareness of the relationship between God and humankind brings a fuller sense of the importance of the relationship between human beings and the natural environment, which is God's creation and which God entrusted to us to guard with wisdom and love (cf. Gn. 1:28).

Respect for creation stems from respect for human life and dignity. It is on the basis of our recognition that the world is created by God that we can discern an objective moral order within which to articulate a code of environmental ethics. In this perspective, Christians and all other believers have a specific role to play in proclaiming moral values and in educating people in ecological awareness, which is none other than responsibility toward self, toward others, toward creation.

What is required is an act of repentance on our part and a renewed attempt to view ourselves, one another and the world around us within the perspective of the divine design for creation. The problem is not simply economic and technological; it is moral and spiritual. A solution at the economic and technological level can be found only if we undergo in the most radical way an inner change of heart, which can lead to a change in lifestyle and of unsustainable patterns of consumption and production. A genuine conversion in Christ will enable us to change the way we think and act.

First, we must regain humility and recognize the limits of our powers, and most important, the limits of our knowledge and judgment. We have been making decisions, taking actions and assigning values that are leading us away from the world as it should be, away from the design of God for creation, away from all that is essential for a healthy planet and a healthy commonwealth of people. A new approach and a new culture are needed, based on the centrality of the human person within creation and inspired by environmentally ethical behavior stemming from our triple relationship to God, to self and to creation. Such an ethics fosters interdependence and stresses the principles of universal solidarity, social justice and responsibility in order to promote a true culture of life.

Second, we must frankly admit that humankind is entitled to something better than what we see around us. We and, much more, our children and future generations are entitled to a better world, a world free from degradation, violence and bloodshed, a world of generosity and love.

Third, aware of the value of prayer, we must implore God the Creator to enlighten people everywhere regarding the duty to respect and carefully guard creation.

We therefore invite all men and women of good will to ponder the importance of the following ethical goals:

1. To think of the world's children when we reflect on and evaluate our options for action.

2. To be open to study the true values based on the natural law that sustain every human culture.

3. To use science and technology in a full and constructive way, while recognizing that the findings of science have always to be evaluated in the light of the centrality of the human person, of the common good and of the inner purpose of creation. Science may help us to correct the mistakes of the past in order to enhance the spiritual and material well-being of the present and future generations. It is love for our children that will show us the path that we must follow into the future.

4. To be humble regarding the idea of ownership and to be open to the demands of solidarity. Our mortality and our weakness of judgment together warn us not to take irreversible actions with what we choose to regard as our property during our brief stay on this earth. We have not been entrusted with unlimited power over creation, we are only stewards of the common heritage.

5. To acknowledge the diversity of situations and responsibilities in the work for a better world environment. We do not expect every person and every institution to assume the same burden. Everyone has a part to play, but for the demands of justice and charity to be respected the most affluent societies must carry the greater burden, and from them is demanded a sacrifice greater than can be offered by the poor. Religions, governments and institutions are faced by many different situations; but on the basis of the principle of subsidiarity, all of them can take on some tasks, some part of the shared effort.

6. To promote a peaceful approach to disagreement about how to live on this earth, about how to share it and use it, about what to change and what to leave unchanged. It is not our desire to evade controversy about the environment, for we trust in the capacity of human reason and the path of dialogue to reach agreement. We commit ourselves to respect the views of all who disagree with us, seeking solutions through open exchange, without resorting to oppression and domination.

It is not too late. God's world has incredible healing powers. Within a single generation, we could steer the earth toward our children's future. Let that generation start now, with God's help and blessing."

Newly Established EEIU Chapters:

• Iran / Tehran Chapter Chair: Ms. Haleh Khodadadi (August 27, 2003)
• India / Uttaranchal SAVE Chair: Mr. Fredrick Smetacek, Jr. (July 15, 2003)
• Kenya / Nairobi Chapter Chair: Mr. Douglas Arege (July 08, 2003)
• South Africa / Thuthukani Chapter Chair: Mr. Lerato Mollo (June 17, 2003)
• Ghana / Cape Coast Chapter Chair: Mr. Peter Adortse (June 11, 2003)
• Cameroon / Bamenda Chapter Chair: Mr. Numfor Godwin (July 1, 2003)
• Kenya / Bondo Chapter Chair: James Odipo Onyango (June 11, 2003)
• Italy / Ancona Chapter II Chair: Dr. Antonello Sala (June 19, 2003)
• Indonesia / North Sumatra Chair: Mr. Firman Sinaga (June 17, 2003)
• Russia / Moscow Task Force Chair: Prof. Vladimir A. Shevchenko (May 20, 2003)
• South Africa / Kwa-Dlangezwa Chapter Chair: Simphiwe Morajane (April 10, 2003)
• Beijing Chapter Chair: Dr. Yongguan Zhu (April 02, 2003)
• EEIU Chile Chair: Dr. Sandor Mulsow (March 24, 2003)
• Shimoga, India Chair: Neerchal Balakrishnaraj (March 19, 2003)
• Kherson, Ukraine Chair: Olga Ponomar (March 19, 2003)
• Cairo, Egypt Chair: Dr. Essam Metwally (March 19, 2003)
• Northeast England, UK Chair: Dr. Allan Britton (March 19, 2003)
• Ternopil, Ukraine Chair: Dr. Lyudmyla Hrytsak (January 28, 2003)
• Hamburg, Germany Chair: Dr. Kim Phat Nophea (February 11, 2003)
• Layyah, Pakistan Chair: Prof. Akram Mirani (January 28, 2003)
• Nsawam, Ghana Chair: Denis Aheto (January 28, 2003)
• Yaounde, Cameroon Chair: Mbarga Damien (January 21, 2003)
• Galindez Island, Antarctica Chair: Dr. Sergei Gulin (January 13, 2003)

This page was last updated on 2 September 2003.