Launching a national citizens action
campaign for sustainability
By Rob
Wheeler, EcoEarth Alliance
During the World Summit
on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in September of 2002
each of the UN Member States agreed to develop a National Plan for
Sustainability and to begin to implement it by 2005. After the World
Summit Conference there was a good deal of interest within the US
Citizens Network for Sustainable Development (CitNet) to respond to
this commitment and to develop a National Campaign for Leadership
on Sustainability. An initial
prosposal and strategy plan was developed and a meeting was held
with congressional representatives and staff.
The
campaign will be based
on the recognition that a fully sustainable society is essential for
human security. Sustainability is the fundamental requirement for
all of life. It is dependent upon our ability to protect and maintain
the natural environment. Unfortunately, we as a species, and especially
country, are rapidly depleting and polluting our natural resource
base.
For example, the United States, with 4% of the world's population,
uses approximately 25% of the world's energy. Many creeks and rivers
are no longer clean enough for swimming, fishing, or drinking from.
Soil loss is a significant problem; and there is a huge dead zone
in the Caribbean resulting from the run off coming from the Mississippi
River.
In fact, there is probably not one community, much less society,
in the world today that is planning, or preparing, for full sustainability—that
is no depletion of our natural resource base or adverse effects on
our health or the natural environment. This is a travesty. In every
area of life we need to think about what is required to ensure not
only our continuing survival, but also our well-being, and to take
action accordingly. A first duty of government should be to plan for
a fully sustainable future in all areas of life. All stakeholders
must think about and do all they can to act more responsibly. This
is the campaign which we can and should be carrying out.
Steps to be taken
We could begin by envisioning and describing exactly how good life
could be and also give the statistics that show the improvements that
would be made in terms of human health, environmental conditions,
economic prosperity, and social well-being. Then we could ask what
the steps are that would need to be taken to get to a fully sustainable
future. And, how could we create such a national campaign without
over-burdening any of our existing efforts and organizations?
First, we could invite all interested people and organizations to
join in this national campaign to create a sustainable future. We
could begin with the leading organizations that have participated
in the past and then once we have their endorsement, do a major launch/invitation
on Earth Day 2005, with their support, to welcome all others to join
in the effort. This should be a bi-partisan effort and we should include
leading statespeople and the most respected societal leaders to participate
in the launch event next year.
Second, we could develop a promotional campaign to advance it. We
could invite major players to participate in this campaign and recruit
one or more PR firms to provide their services for the campaign. Thus
we could invite municipal governments that are pursuing sustainable
activities; media groups that have shown an interest (such as National
Geographic, the Smithsonian, PBS, Bill Moyers, newspapers, periodicals,
and radio stations); media personalities (such as Robert Redford,
Dennis Weaver, Leonardo di Caprio, Jane Goodall, Oprah Winfrey, etc);
and key businesses (Ford, Interface, Toyota, BP, Home Depot, etc)
to participate in the development of a public relations campaign.
Third, we could develop a national clearinghouse to advance the campaign,
along with a website to provide information about all of the various
components and activities which are being sponsored. This could potentially
include the activities being developed through the Earth
Charter Summits and Earth Day
activities.
Fourth, we would need to develop the means and acquire the resources
to fund the national campaign. This could begin with a major and on-going
brainstorming effort in order to ensure that adequate means are developed
to fund it. Perhaps we could build from the contributions, or lent
staff time of, existing committed organizations in order to put together
our own staff and infrastructure to launch and carry out the campaign.
Developing and advancing the
campaign
A key component of the Campaign
would be to design a plan for a transition to a fully sustainable
future in the United States, inviting the participation of all of
our cities, states, and communities. The Global
Environment and Technology Foundation and the Sustainable
USA Network, that sponsored the
National Town Meeting in 1999 with the President's
Council on Sustainable Development, might conceivably lead the
effort to continue with the planning for such a future.
However, I think it would be to our advantage to develop a National
Task Force to provide guidance, to coordinate, and to promote the
effort. The Task Force should include geographic, gender, age, and
ethnic balance as well as full representation of all stakeholders.
Regional meetings of the Task Force could be held periodically, along
with National Meetings which would be held annually.
In addition, we could include a Campaign Ideas Bank on our website
and invite everyone to contribute their ideas on how the campaign
could be developed and carried out; and then provide an opportunity
to post report backs on any progress made on each of the goals or
ideas that have been submitted. We could also develop a national indicators
project and post specific goals and indicators that we hope to achieve
on the way towards becoming fully sustainable, as well as the results
that we are making towards achieving these goals.
Some other ideas would be to develop Community Tool Kits which would
provide information about, and access to, many resources and could
be used by local communities to participate in the national campaign.
Another would be to hold local, state, and national poster and essay
competitions encouraging students and youth to envision and describe
what a Sustainable Community might look like and how they could be
created. Various awards programs and schemes could also be carried
out. But the real success of the campaign would be in inviting all
American citizens to come up with their own ideas as to how they want
to participate in the campaign and can act
responsibly to create a sustainable world..
With this in mind, and as a first step, I would like to invite CitNet
and all of the participating organizations to consider how you might
like to participate in
this campaign; what kind of leadership role your organization
or CitNet might want to take; or how you think this proposal could
be modified, added to, and carried out.
If you have any questions, wish to share your ideas, or respond to
this invitation, please contact Rob Wheeler, US Coordinator/Facilitator
of the Charter of Human Responsibilities, at: 1-717-261-1894 or robineagle@worldcitizen.org.