8) Letter to Prime Minister Chrétien: World Summit on Sustainable Development

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

We are writing to you on the topic of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. In 1992 and in 1997 we called on the Canadian government to support measures that meet the criteria of providing for flourishing, sustainable communities for all who live in this earth. Today, we repeat both our call for sustainability and sufficiency for all, and our witness to increasing ecological destruction, ever-greater inequality and indebtedness, and a world at war whose end is not in sight. We confess that the earth’s resources are not owned by us to do with as we will, but are ours to hold in trust for future generations.

The values that inform our own perspective on these proposals for flourishing sustainable communities include:

• Fairness (rather than the gross inequities we see today) – sharing benefits and responsibility for the global common good for now and future generations; justice for all, not just us.
• Peace (rather than militarism and intimidation) – nuclear disarmament and diminished reliance on conventional weapons for building a world at peace, where human security is supported by respect for human rights.
• Sufficiency (rather than greed and faith in consumerism) – meeting needs before wants and allowing neither greed and abuse to outstrip available non-renewable resources nor an inevitable faith in technology to provide solutions for our own excesses.
• Solidarity (rather than the North-South rich-poor gap or civilizational fault lines) – rebuilding relationships and standing especially with those people who have been disempowered, marginalized and made voiceless.
• Diversity (rather than conformity and homogeneity) – respecting and embracing the complementarity and abundance of creation… there are many alternatives.