Gaia Preservation Coalition


Purpose

A gathering place for people who consciously acknowledge the human predicament and who seek with others its resolution through the creation and exploration of ideas and actions that move Humanity toward a more harmonious relationship within Gaia.


History

The organization started in Toronto Ontario in 1991 as a monthly discussion group with an occasional guest speaker. The Purpose, Goals, Principles were developed at that time. The 12 Personal Gaia Principles were recited at the beginning of each meeting.

The group later became an email discussion group and established this webpage. No significant projects were initiated by the group because none seemed adequate to deal with the growing human-predicament.

The Paradigm Junction Project is our first initiative.









Goals

1. Communicate the principles, goals, and hopes of the Coalition to members of society through regular meetings in every community, focusing on discussion, learning, and mutual support.

2. Support each other in ways which enable us to risk examining the basis of our non-viable ways of thinking, assessing such thinking patterns, and evaluating their adequacy (appropriateness) in the context of long-term viability.

3. Promulgate the concept that every individual's human activity contributes to the deterioration of Earth's burdened life-sustaining systems; and that 'you' and 'I' have inherited a personal moral imperative to acknowledge and to assist in correction of the anomaly of human overpopulation - here, in our industrial homeland and elsewhere.

4. Thwart the man-made forces of pronatalism and patriarchy which stem from tradition within cultures, religions, families, or from the state; thereby to fertilize the concept and the right of 'freedom of conscience to not procreate'.

5(a). Facilitate the emergence of a shared paradigm through a cross-disciplinary forum with diverse specialists, cognizant of and sensitive to traditional wisdom, who can contribute to a plan of action which can/must adequately guide the earth-human community toward a viable, creative, and continuous future. The icon of this paradigm will be Gaia.

5(b). Articulate that plan of action into terms which, if adopted by a social movement or by a political party, would represent the basis for constitutional changes which could lead toward a sustainable civilization.

5(c). Provide a heading for social change though a sketch - vision - outline - of what conditions might be like within that sustainable civilization in that distant desirable future. And it will contain specific constitutional changes which need to be applied today to alter today's course of self-destruction. And it will provide the physical framework for the social movement - something that people can belong to, to be a part of, to find comfort in a shared paradigm of realistic hope where TEAM Spirit can grow.




Principles


Principle 1: Acknowledge that uncontrolled human population growth in conjunction with the unrestrained consumption of earth resources have brought about a crisis that threatens all life on earth. To work toward establishing an equilibrium of nature in which all life and future generations can enjoy and share the fruits of this unique planet.

Principle 2: Recognize that humans suffer individually and collectively from foibles which may blind our objectivity regarding an unpleasant reality (Sacred Cow Syndrome). By interacting with fellow humans we can help each other recognize, acknowledge, and understand these weaknesses, enabling us to deal with unpleasant reality.

Principle 3: Modify our personal expectations in life from expectations based on the past, to expectations consistent with a sustainable future.

Principle 4: Assume responsibility for personal change because in a free society no government or world-wide organization can force upon us the required behavioral and attitudinal changes. Personal long-lasting freedom requires personal responsibility and compromise.

Principle 5: Be undaunted by the enormity of the task at hand and to work around problems that cannot be dealt with effectively and immediately.

Principle 6: Establish the common good as the highest priority, while preserving individual human freedom and rights where possible. The long-term well-being of Gaia will be the primary consideration.

Principle 7: Work toward living within our global means with regard to energy usage and to recycle consumer goods rather than extract non-renewable resources from Earth.

Principle 8: Work toward the elimination of man-made classification barriers that have historically caused conflict between groups of humans.

Principle 9: Work for the maintenance of the democratic process in countries where the democratic process is functional, and to bring about change within the rule of law.

Principle 10: Recognize that humans must become stewards of the planet, but that stewardship does not make humans superior to other life forms.

Principle 11: Lobby governments to assess all legislation considering the full dimension of time, including life on Earth in the distant future.

Principle 12: Accept personal responsibility, and to help in one's own way toward communication of the GAIA PRINCIPLES, either individually or collectively to others both at home and abroad.



Glossary

GAIA: The Myth
As personal/subjective MYTH, "Gaia" denotes the archetypal awareness of all indigenous cultures, including those of all our ancestors, that they belong to the land, rather than vice versa; that, as Shakespeare says, "the Earth that's Nature's mother is her tomb; What is her burying grave, that is her womb..." It also can refer, therefore, to the intuitive sense of communion, of the sacred, that most people who are honest with themselves will admit that they feel in the midst of beautiful natural settings - something celebrated by poets the world over, from time immemorial.


GAIA: The Model
As objective MODEL, Gaia refers to the Lovelock/Margulis theory of life on Earth as a self-organizing, sun energized system. In the few eons since life began, Gaia has reached a state of relative stability with an average atmospheric temperature of 20C and an oxygen level of 21%. This atmospheric cocktail is the result of, and wholly dependent on, a vast network of living biodiversity.

Gaia is a model which already has proven its worth in generating important new questions for research into the codetermination of life and its environment--and of course, a model with far-reaching policy, ethics and values implications arising from its core conception of nature as an integrated system rather than a random "resource" available for plunder.


GAIA: The Metaphor
Metaphorically, "Gaia" represents the notion of inherent web-like interconnectedness - everything effects everything else. It relates to the emerging episteme wherein Humanity is viewed as inherently part of the Ecosphere - a self-regulating, living system, not a "resource" that we can be exploited with impunity. This awareness of Humanity's embeddedness within Gaia increasingly goes under the name of "Gaian consciousness."


GAIA: The Movement
Growing numbers of us, locally and globally, as environmentalists, policy analysts, teachers, and concerned citizens of the planet, are trying to awaken humanity from the delusions that human sustainability could emerging from continued industrial growth - from TV consumerism and addiction to money and power. The Gaia Movement includes the many organizations concerned with human population such as: Optimum Population Trust (Europe), Negative Population Growth Inc. (USA) or Global Population Concerns (Canada).

The Gaia movement seeks, quite simply, to save us from ourselves by expanding our identification -- our sense of "self" -- beyond community and nation-state, beyond even humanity -- to the whole biosphere -- to Gaia. This movement can/must lead to a new relationship between politics and governance, Humanity and the environment.



Contact Us

Don Chisholm
2070 County Rd. 8
RR # 4 Picton, Ontario
CANADA
K0K 2T0
phone: 1 613 476 1700
email: donchism@kos.net







Paradigm Junction Project