Context

One cannot deal with a problem with the same thinking that creates it.Albert Einstein

A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of our consciousness. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in her beauty.Albert Einstein

Living Law

EJ is a living culture and puts life into otherwise dry concepts.Thiong'o Ng'ang'a, Earth Law advocate, Kenya

Earth Jurisprudence is a part of this larger indigenous knowledge system and it is probably not enough to just change the laws but to also change the way we learn laws from nature and our neighbours…It is not enough to simply create earth-centred laws and earth -centered curricula as this only 'freezes' or 'boxes' us to create knowledge systems that are frozen in libraries as opposed to living, organic and dynamic knowledge systems… Documentation of this knowledge and laws may be something we want to do but when one thinks of it, libraries have burnt down and the internet can crash but if the knowledge is lived it will never die and possibly not fall on the wrong hands…The actual behavioural change is core - how we live on a day to day basis is paramount and how one treads on the planet. Experiential Learning (EL) thus becomes a core element of how we learn and how we engage with our 'Nature Neighbours' (all life forms)…

…The Shaman from the amazonas asked us why do we need to write all the time and we said that we wrote in case we forgot what he was saying. He then said how can we forget a good story that taught so much. . . I guess there is a space for writing things but most of it is for listening and living and the more we live it the more the knowledge becomes portent to guide us along our paths and purpose as we live through our sunrises and sunsets.Wanjiku Mwangi, Porini

Lawfulness

The planet Earth in its present mode of florescence is being devastated. This devastation is being fostered and protected by legal, political and economic establishments that exalt the human community while offering no protection to the non-human modes of being. There is an urgent need for a Jurisprudence (system of governance) that recognizes that the well-being of the integral world community is primary, and that human well-being is derivative - an Earth Jurisprudence.Thomas Berry

The important thing is for humans to come up with a binding agreement to live and act responsibly towards their Planetary neighbours.Thiong'o Ng'ang'a, Earth Jurisprudence advocate, Kenya

We desperately need some new thinking today about systems of global governance. We're stuck with the same obsolete, ignore-the-earth institutions that were brough into being after the 2nd World War, and they're now failing us ever more catastropically. Wild Law shows just how radical we now need to be in creating new institutions that are genuinely 'fit for purpose' in the 21st Century.Jonathan Porrit, Director of Forum for the Future

The natural law is the creator's law, it is a gift. So, humans must make themselves available to this law in order to know who they are. Since the natural law is a law of healthy; respect of the latter will make Earth balanced, and no more will we hear about global warming, pollution, deforestation.....Appolinaire Oussou lio and Marcel Choki, Benin

Nature's laws affirm instead of prohibit. If you violate her laws you are your own prosecuting attorney, judge, jury, and hangman.Luther Burbank, botanist

True wisdom consists in not departing from Nature and in molding our conduct according to her laws and model. Seneca, ancient Roman philosopher

Duty of care

Treat the Earth well. She was not given to you by your parents. She was loaned to you by your children. A Kenyan Proverb

Mankind [Humanity] is part of nature and life depends on the uninterrupted functioning of natural systems which ensure the supply of energy and nutrients. Every form of life is unique, warranting respect regardless of its worth to [humans], and to accord other organisms such recognition's, [humans] must be guided by a moral code of action... Extract from the World Charter of Nature, adopted as a United Nations resolution, 1982

We cannot tire or give up. We owe it to the present and future generations of all species to rise up and walk!Wangari Muta Maathai, Nobel Peace Laureate and founder of Greenbelt Movement, Kenya

Mutual Enhancement

What does the Earth Desire? I will put it in just a few short sentences... To be admired in her loveliness, To be tasted in her delicious fruits, To be listened to in her teaching, To be endured in the severity of her discipline, To be cared for as a maternal source from whence we come, a destiny to which we return. It's very simple... Thomas Berry: What does the Earth Desire? - An interview with Thomas Berry at Gaia house in 2003

As humans we are born of the Earth, nourished by the Earth, healed by the Earth. Thomas Berry

Wholeness / Community

Earth Community is not a collection of objects but not a communion of subjects. Thomas Berry, The Great Work, 1999

This we know: The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. This we know: All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web he does to himself. Chief Seattle, cited in an Indian Supreme Court judgement 2002