Pledge to Avert the Sixth Mass Extinction and Climate Catastrophe through Poison Free, Fossil Fuel Free, Organic Communities
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The signs are loud and clear. From the Earth. From diverse species. From insects. From science. From women. From children. From indigenous communities. From the increase of disease in our daily lives. Life on this planet, our own future, is under severe threat of the sixth mass extinction and climate catastrophe. The extinction of species, disappearing biodiversity and the destruction of the planet’s climate systems are interconnected through fossil fuels and chemical poisons based on rampant acquisitive competition and profit-based agricultural industrialization. It is clear that the sixth mass extinction has now begun, driven by the limitless greed of the 1% and their total disregard of the ecological limits set by the Earth, and the inherent limits for social justice and human rights. We are forgetting that we are one humanity on one planet. There is no planet B. It is here where either we will continue to live, or go extinct as a species, together with the millions of species that that have been driven to extinction by the violence and carelessness of an agriculture based on poisons.
Bees, butterflies, beetles and other insects are disappearing in what has been called an “insectageddon”. Pesticides and chemical poisons, first used to kill humans in concentration camps have subsequently been used in industrial agriculture for “war on bugs”. Killing insects, is their purpose. Protecting life on earth is critical.
Scientists have warned that “Unless we change our ways of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades”
The epidemic of chronic diseases is also the result of the spread of toxics in our food systems.
Unfair “free trade” agreements are spreading poisons in food and farming worldwide destroying local, ecological food systems, which protect the earth and our future.
Small farmers who care for the Earth and our health through growing real food that nourishes us are going extinct with 200 species that disappear daily with the spread of capital intensive chemical intensive industrial agriculture.
The Inter Governmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has warned in its assessment that “Rapid expansion and unsustainable management of croplands and grazing lands is the most extensive global direct driver of land degradation, causing significant loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services – food security, water purification, the provision of energy and other contributions of nature essential to people.
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This has reached ‘critical’ levels in many parts of the world […] With negative impacts on the well-being of at least 3.2 billion people, the degradation of the Earth’s land surface through human activities is pushing the planet towards a sixth mass species extinction”
The poison-based industrial and monoculture paradigm of growing food is responsible for the destruction of biodiversity, extinction of species and is driving climate change.
50% of the Greenhouse gas emissions come from an industrial food system which is also uprooting the small peasants who provide 80% of the food.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC has warned that we have twelve years to limit climate change catastrophe.
Life, society and democracy are under threat. The planet and our lives are being destroyed by the brute force misleadingly called the economy. The Economy like Ecology, is derived from “oikos”, our home, the earth. An economy that destroys our home is no longer economy. It is a war against the planet, the people , and our future.
The Hopi describe the phenomena of destroying everything that sustains a society as Powaqqatsi – “an entity, a way of life, that consumes the life forces of beings in order to further its own life”. This is clearly in evidence today – we are dealing with a destructive extractive system/force that enriches the rich and those who control, and robs people of their rights, health and wellbeing. If we continue along this path, allowing corporations to keep extracting and degrading the planet and impoverishing its soils and citizens, our fragile web of life will be poisoned and broken, the diversity of species will be driven to extinction, people will lose all freedoms to their seed, to their food sovereignty, to their knowledge and decisions, all social relations will be ruptured and broken.
Protecting life on earth makes ecological, local agriculture and organic farming an imperative. This transition is at the heart of the movement of Poison Free Food and Farming
Our love for the earth will not allow this future to unfold. We embrace humanity and celebrate our biological and cultural diversity. We will defend the rights of the Earth and the rights of all her citizens as well as every child.
By first making peace with the Earth, we can create peace among peoples. By recognizing the rights of Mother Earth we are better able to defend the rights of people. Together with our creativity and Earth’s generosity we will reduce our ecological footprint and expand our planetary consciousness of being one Earth Family, with one common home.
The Earth is for all beings today and tomorrow.
Together as diverse species and diverse cultures and through poison free organic food and farming, which offer climate solutions and rejuvenate biodiversity, we have the creative power to stop the sixth mass extinction and climate catastrophe. By joining hands, whoever we are, wherever we are, we must create “ever expanding, never ascending oceanic circles”of poison free, fossil fuel free earth communities, celebrating our interconnected life and freedom.
This is the call of Earth Democracy, our highest duty as Earth Citizens.
Download:
Poison Free Pledge and Action 2030 PDF (4 pages)
Poison Free Food and Farming Pledge LEAFLET (2 pages)
Learn more about Navdaya’s Food for Health Campaign
Join the movement for Poison Free, Fossil Fuel Free, Organic Communities. Write to us at info@navdanyainternational.org to let us know about your ideas and work, as well as issues, projects and actions in your community, and learn more on how to get involved.
www.navdanyainternational.org – www.seedfreedom.info – www.navdanya.org