I used this list in my last module when teaching Environmental Ethics between 2018-2022. They are not doctrines but principles that I think are worth thinking about in relation to environmental action.
- No single narrative or movement will save us; but we must each find a deep sense of meaning and purpose in this world and act from there.
- There is no time for despair, but there is plenty of room for it.
- Supremacy is not the same as primacy. We are not separate from the earth, but we do have unique capabilities and responsibilities to the rest of our earth community.
- There will always be markets in society; but we should avoid ending up with a market-society.
- Technology is not the enemy nor ours savior, therefore it must be expressed and harnessed by an ever ethically vigilant people.
- In light of new ideas and propositions, we should embody the Precautionary Principle without being reactionary.
- Wonder is a virtue that we should cultivate, just as dogmatism is a vice that we should avoid.
- Everything we do matters. But nothing we do matters a great deal more than what others propose we do.
- We need all hands on deck: Top down and bottom up; deontology and utility; religion and science; politics and personalism; technology and simplicity.
- The dragon of capitalism is at fault for the global ecological crisis; but we will have a better chance of making change if we can tame the dragon, rather than try to kill it (for now).