Environmental citizenship involves responsibilities and duties towards the
betterment of the local community as part of the ecosystems that provide it with
natural resources.
These responsibilities and duties are exercised through economic participation,
public service, volunteer work and other such behavioural efforts focused on the
integrity of nature. The behaviours involve cultivating two levels of
social input by
which we adapt to environment through our
minds, and habits.
The mind set of an environmental citizen is
'belonging to earth' where an 'inner
holism' makes us part of nature in everything we do.
The predominant habits of an environmental citizen are aimed at
'taking for a
sustainable future', where there is an
'economic balance' between human needs
and the limits of nature's productivity.
The outcome of these two levels of behaviour is to
'organise in unity' (locally and
globally) to ensure that, as just one among many beings, we only take from the
environment what is necessary for a sustainable future, and promote customs and
practices that link peoples and the environment (
global oneness).
These levels of mental and practical perception of the relations between people
and nature define ecological liberty as the subjugation of cultural separatism
and consumer wants to live in sustainable harmony with the countless creatures of
land, water and air.
To excercise environmental citizenship means being part of a system of global
management of Earth's natural resources. The objective is ecological liberty and
the main limiting factors in reaching this goal are our mental attitudes towards 'self'
and 'others', and our behaviour as consumers of natural resources. These attitudes
and behaviours have to be managed so they change from putting oneself first to
caring for Earth. The managerial pathway for change was set out in Agenda 21 of
the Rio Environment Summit in 1992. This was the global management strategy
adopted by the international community. It has to be followed through operationally
to political and domestic mangement levels in governments, communities and
homes
