A new book titled A Voice for Earth by Peter Blaze Corcoran and A. James Wohlpart tells the story of how the Earth Charter, one of the most ambitious civil society projects ever undertaken, embeds in itself the keys to sustainable living in the twenty-first century. Under the guidance of Maurice F. Strong and Mikhail Gorbachev, it took over six years from 1994 to agree on the ethical principles contained in the Earth Charter in the year 2000. Next year marks the 10th anniversary of the Earth Charter. A Voice for Earth is a collection of poems, essays, and stories that seek to bring to life and give a voice to the Earth Charter principles.
The book is a follow-up of the idea that the Earth Charter has two critical needs. First, the need to demonstrate and document the efficacy of the Earth Charter across many fields and types of problems and second, to express the meaning of the Earth Charter Principles in order to help people understand their significance and lead them to act. The first need was met with the book Earth Charter in Action: Toward a Sustainable World, which describes how the Earth Charter has been utilized in a variety of ways including revising educational systems, negotiating social constructs and mitigating environmental damage. A Voice for Earth aims at meeting the second need of the Earth Charter, by bringing the concepts contained in the Earth Charter to life.The book is divided into three parts with the first part, “Imagination into Principle,” providing a behind-the-scenes summary of how the language for the Earth Charter was drafted. In the second part, “Principle into Imagination,” ten writers utilize their original works to illustrate the Earth Charter principles. Contributors include Rick Bass, Alison Hawthorne Deming, John Lane, Robert Michael Pyle, Janisse Ray, Scott Russell Sanders, Lauret Savoy, and Mary Evelyn Tucker. In the last part, “Imagination and Principle into a New Ethic,” the concept of care in the Earth Charter is explored.
For more information on the book including purchasing details, visit the publishers website.
The book is also available on Amazon.