“Biodiversity is the totality of all inherited variation in the life forms of Earth, of which we are one species. We study and save it to our great benefit. We ignore and degrade it to our great peril.”
Wilson, Edward O.

A Constitution For The Earth

We Humans, an exceptionally successful biological species of the planet Earth that has managed to establish a global culture, an all-embracing civilization, being aware of the danger threatening not only us but also other life systems as a result of the unrestrained re-transformation of Nature by Culture, hereby adopt this Constitution for the Earth, which confirms the identified values, claims and rights of our Mother Planet.

Recognizing our responsibility towards future generations, we hereby also declare the Earth to be the source of creative activity, a free agent enjoying natural rights. We hold the natural creativity of the Earth that gave life to human beings and makes the culture, rights and freedoms of human beings possible, to be superior to any merely human creativity, rights and freedoms. We declare the necessity of preserving a habitable Earth for future human generations and for all other living creatures to be the central legal principle of humanity for the 21st century, binding on the constitutions of all countries and on the declarations of human rights and freedoms. Neither human beings nor Culture are independent self-sufficient existences – they are dependent on the Earth. Only the Earth can be thought of as a relatively independent existence within the Universe. The terrestrial biosphere in its entirety is the smallest relatively autonomous system capable of long-term evolution in time. All of its natural sub-systems, including the artificial human Culture, are temporary and non-independent; they depend on the health and prosperity of the biotic assembly that constitutes our Planet.

We commit ourselves to protecting the Earth from the selfish expansion of the predation-oriented Culture. We shall enforce by any means its values, claims and rights, which are superior to both human beings and to Culture.

In agreement with this obligation we hereby declare:

Article I

The Earth

  1. The Earth is the natural home to all of its interdependent live beings. It cannot belong to any biological species, not even to the human species. Humans, the founders of Culture, must not ravage the Earth to the detriment of themselves or of any other living beings.
  2. The Earth represents the highest value for both our species and for human Culture. It constitutes the oldest, broadest and most powerful creative activity, the unique planetary subjectivity. We have to defend its right to evolution, and its right to maintain a planet-wide balance between animate and inanimate systems.
  3. Our Culture must not expand further, neither at the expense of the natural diversity of the planet nor at the expense of human health.
  4. As a system superordinate both to humans and to their artificial Culture, the Earth is sovereign and our elected and controlled institutions must become its defenders and advocates.
  5. We commit ourselves to halting the decline, destruction and pollution of Earth’s natural existence and, to that effect, also to advancing the recognition of a system of human responsibility, including effective and deterrent sanctions against those who fail to respect this Constitution.

Article II

Humans

  1. Human beings are not the immediate cause of the current environmental crisis. The root cause of the crisis is the systemic conflict between the artificial cultural orderliness and the natural orderliness of the Earth.
  2. Humanity is not responsible for the Earth. It is responsible for Culture, its product, which has divided the Earth into two mutually opposing systems: the Cultural and the Natural. It is the paramount task of law, politics and science in the coming period of life-reverencing – biophile – Culture to reconcile Culture with Nature.
  3. The human species subjectivity is restricted by the superior subjectivity of the Earth. All persons and government authorities are obliged to respect this wider subjectivity, protect the diversity and unity of the biosphere and sparingly use the inanimate products of the Earth.
  4. We hereby declare that the human species can only be biologically congruent with natural existence – not with artificial cultural existence. We acknowledge that anything that is good for the Earth is good for human beings as well.
  5. All legal systems must protect and enforce the natural orderliness of the Earth.

Article III

Culture

  1. Culture is an artificial system with its own internal, intrinsic information, and that is intellectual culture. A change in the orientation and contents of the intellectual culture, including values, knowledge and precepts, is a prerequisite of the biophile transformation of Culture.
  2. Culture, which is a human creation, is neither a continuation of the evolution of Nature nor a process in its improvement. It is an artificial and temporary construct, which is dependent on mass, energy and information coming from Nature. It is a structure incongruent with the biological structure of human beings and it will cease to exist after the demise of humankind.
  3. The Culture system’s growth marginalizes and exterminates live systems and breaks up the natural structures of the Earth. Should the evolution of the Culture system’s continue, it must abandon the predatory orientation and adopt a position of a humble integration into the superior evolution of our planet.
  4. It has been political entities – States – that have made the ravaging of Nature possible, since these States have, directly or indirectly, supported the development of the predatory entrepreneurship and unrestricted extension of both material- and energy-intensive consumer techniques. These States therefore bear the main responsibility for the current crisis of civilization.
  5. All States must be obliged to take steps towards a state of sustainable co-operation between Culture and the Earth. They are charged with the task of changing the predatory spiritual paradigm of Culture, starting the process of adopting biophile laws and spreading knowledge about the need for reconciliation between Culture and Nature.