The mankind ManifestO
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Change is needed. Each of us can promote sustainability and justice at multiple levels: as an individual, as a teacher or parent, a community member, a national citizen, and as a global citizen. The good thing about such problem is that there are so many points of intervention. That means that there are lots and lots of places to plug in, to get involved, and to make a difference. There is no single simple thing to do, because the set of problems we’re addressing just isn’t simple. But everyone can make a difference, but the bigger your action the bigger the difference you’ll make. Here are some ideas. Sign the Mankind Manifesto
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01. SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE 02. THINK GLOBALACT LOCAL 03. USE NATURAL PRODUCTS 04. LOOK AFTERTHE WATER 05. BUY GREEN, BUY FAIR,BUY LOCAL, BUY USED, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY BUY LESS 06. CONTROL YOUR ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT 07. LEARN FROM YESTERDAY, LIVE FOR TODAY, HOPE FOR TOMORROW 08. WASTE LESS 09. BUY NOTHING DAY 10. RECYCLE YOUR TRASH & YOUR ELECTED OFFITIALS 11. EAT MORE FRESH, LOCAL & SEASONAL FOOD 12. CLEAN UP YOUR TRANSPORT 13. CHANGE YOUR LIGHTBULBS & THEN CHANGE YOUR PARADIGM 14. WE NEVER STOP LEARNING 15. TALK TO EVERYONE ABOUT THESE ISSUES 16. DEMAND PEACE & DISARMAMENT 17. THE END OF NUCLEAR AGE 18. ENCOURAGE SUSTAINABLE TRADE 19. POWER DOWN! 20. Say no to genetic engineering
01 SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE
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Whether you share a ride with your neighbour to work, share your things amongst family and friends, or share your knowledge about growing vegetables or cleaning with baking soda you are helping create a sustainable world. We don’t all need to own everything. Give what you hardly ever use to someone who will use it (and tell them you will borrow it back if you need it), instead of buying a water-blaster borrow your neighbour’s, or share your discoveries and tell everyone about Econation! Sharing feels good because it is good – for people and for the environment.
02 THINK GLOBAL ACT LOCAL
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We need a global movement that believes not just politicians, institutions and big businesses that can change the world ordinary people can do it too. There are loads of small things we can all do everyday. Little things like turning off the tap when you’re brushing your teeth, taking your own bag to the supermarket or teaching your granny to text. They might seem small and insignificant on their own, but their effect can be massive. If we all do them regularly, we can have a huge impact on many of the environmental and social problems we are facing.
03 USE NATURAL PRODUCTS
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Products such as personal care and cleaning products, fire retardants (on fabrics for example), pesticides and paints often contain hazardous, synthetic ingredients which end up in the environment and do not break down building up to toxic levels. It is more sustainable to use products that are natural and not made from petrochemicals and synthetic chemicals.
Clean water is a precious resource.
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04 LOOK AFTER THE WATER Clean water is a precious resource. Water quality is a big issue to solve, with runoff from farms, industry and urban environments impacting the quality of our waterways. Whilst New Zealand has plentiful rainfall the water that’s available may be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Summer droughts are common in places like North Canterbury, Wairarapa and Hawkes Bay. Being water conscious helps reduce strain on municipal treatment systems and ensures there’s enough to go around. You can collect rainwater to water your gardens in summer and recycle your greywater to the garden as well.
05 BUY GREEN, BUY FAIR, BUY LOCAL, BUY USED, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY BUY LESS
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Shopping is not the solution to the environmental problems we currently face because the real changes we need just aren’t for sale in even the greenest shop. But, when we do shop, we should ensure our dollars support businesses that protect the environment and worker rights. Look beyond vague claims on packages like “all natural” to find hard facts. Is it organic? Is it free of super-toxic PVC plastic? When you can, buy local products from local stores, which keeps
06 CONTROL YOUR ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT
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This means it now takes the Earth one year and four months to regenerate what we use in a year. Moderate US scenarios suggest that if current population and consumption trends continue, by the mid 2030s we will need the equivalent of two Earths to support us. And of course, we only have one.
07 LEARN FROM YESTERDAY, LIVE FOR TODAY, HOPE FOR TOMORROW
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You can only learn from a mistake after you admit you’ve made it. As soon as you start blaming other people (or the universe itself ) you distance yourself from any possible lesson. But if you courageously stand up and honestly say “This is my mistake and I am responsible” the possibilities for learning will move towards you. Admission of a mistake, even if only privately to yourself, makes learning possible by moving the focus away from blame assignment and towards understanding. Wise people admit their mistakes easily. They know progress accelerates when they do.
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08 WASTE LESS REDUCE/REUSE/RECYCLE
Use both sides of the paper, carry your own mugs and shopping bags, get printer cartridges refilled instead of replaced, compost food scraps, avoid bottled water and other over packaged products, upgrade computers rather than buying new ones, repair and mend rather than replace‌. the list is endless! The more we visibly engage in re-use over wasting, the more we cultivate a new cultural norm, or actually, reclaim an old one!
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Nothing is ever really thrown “away” – it all goes somewhere.
By consuming less and by recycling and reusing, we reduce the amount of waste that sits in landfills (where even biodegradable products often can’t break down due to lack or oxygen and sunlight). As well as saving raw materials themselves recycling also saves energy when they are used to create new products. Some materials, like aluminum and glass, can even be recycled without being “downcycled,” or turned into a product of lesser quality.
09 BUY NOTHING DAY
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Suddenly, we ran out of money and, to avoid collapse, we quickly pumped liquidity back into the system. But behind our financial crisis a much more ominous crisis looms: we are running out of nature‌ fish, forests, fresh water, minerals, soil. What are we going to do when supplies of these vital resources run low? There’s only one way to avoid the collapse of this human experiment of ours on Planet Earth: we have to consume less. It will take a massive mindshift. You can start the ball rolling by buying
10 RECYCLE YOUR TRASH & YOUR ELECTED OFFITIALS Recycling saves energy and reduces both waste and the pressure to harvest and mine new stuff. Unfortunately, many cities still don’t have adequate recycling systems in place. In that case you can usually find some recycling options in the phone book to start recycling while you’re pressuring your local government to support recycling city-wide. Also, many products – for example, most electronics - are designed not to be recycled or contain toxics so recycling is hazardous. In these cases, we need to lobby government to prohibit toxics in consumer products and to enact Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws, as is happening in Europe. EPR is a policy which holds producers responsible for the entire lifecycle of their products, so that electronics company who use toxics in their products, have to take them back. That is a great incentive for them to get the toxics out!
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12 CLEAN UP YOUR TRANSPORT
Park your car and walk…and when necessary MARCH!
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Any time you choose to walk, ride a bike, or take public transport, you reduce (or totally eliminate) the greenhouse gas and particulate emissions created by combustion engines.
By getting a lift to work with a neighbour you will both halve your emissions. You’ll help slow climate change and help stave off our date with peak oil. Car-centric land use policies and life styles lead to more greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel extraction, conversion of agricultural and wildlands to roads and parking lots. Driving less and walking more is good for the climate, the planet, your health, and your wallet. But sometimes we don’t have an option to leave the car home because of inadequate bike lanes or public transportation options. Then, we may need to march, to join with others to demand sustainable transportation options. Throughout U.S. history, peaceful non-violent marches have played a powerful role in raising
13 CHANGE YOUR LIGHTBULBS & THEN CHANGE YOUR PARADIGM
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Changing lightbulbs is quick and easy. Energy efficient lightbulbs use 75% less energy and last 10 times longer than conventional ones. That’s a no-brainer. But changing lightbulbs is just tinkering at the margins of a fundamentally flawed system unless we also change our paradigm. A paradigm is a collection of assumptions, concepts, beliefs, and values that together make up a community’s way of viewing reality. Our current paradigm dictates that more stuff is better, that infinite economic growth is desirable and possible, and that pollution is the price of progress. To really turn things around, we need to nurture a different paradigm based on the values of sustainability, justice, health, and community.
14 WE NEVER STOP LEARNING
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Ten years on from the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, thousands of international policy makers gathered in Johannesburg between August 26 and September 4 at the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development. Politicians, scientists and pressure groups attempted to set out plans to counter the current global trend: that environmental degradation is the price to be paid for prosperity. Issues high on the agenda included depletion of fresh-water reserves, population growth, the use of unsustainable energy sources, food security, habitat loss and global health - all addressed in the context of social justice in balance with environmental sustainability. Science is no longer on the fringes in attempting to solve these problems. Unlike Rio in 1992, consultation with researchers from a host of relevant disciplines was widely sought during the summit’s preparatory meetings, and organisations such as the Parisbased International Council for Science have been asked to submit formal contributions to the summit. Over the past few years, Nature has presented articles on many aspects of
15 TALK TO EVERYONE ABOUT THESE ISSUES
At school, your neighbors, in line at the supermarket, on the bus‌
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Anything an individual does to reduce their impact is good but you can insulate your house, recycle your rubbish, grow your own vegies, use public transport and then undo all that good many times over by voting for the wrong political party. It is almost impossible for an individual to be truly sustainable because the problems are systemic. In the words of William McDonough all we can do at the moment is be “less bad�. So a very important role for individuals is to influence politicians and other decision-makers who can actually change the system. You can do this directly by writing to your local MP or to a Minister. You could also write or call your mayor or local body councilor. You could join a lobby group or another of the numerous organisations who
16 DEMAND PEACE & DISARMAMENT
Make no mistake; nuclear weapons are a problem today.
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There are approximately 30,000 nuclear weapons in the world, belonging to nine countries: US, Russian Federation, UK, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea. More than one thousand five hundred of them ready to launch at a moment’s notice, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Although some may consider them an unfortunate relic from the Cold War, the truth is that the nuclear weapons states are clinging to them as hard as they can, reinventing new roles and designs for them, and recently even proposals for “smaller useable� weapons. And all this despite plenty of speeches, promises and legally binding treaties to get rid of them! As well as the devestating impacts of the nuclear bombs on the cities and peoples of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, over 2,000 nuclear weapons tests have left a legacy of global and regional contamination.
17 THE END OF NUCLEAR AGE
nuclear power is an unacceptable risk to the environment and to humanity
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We need an energy system that can fight climate change, based on renewable energy and energy efficiency. Nuclear power already delivers less energy globally than renewable energy, and the share will continue to decrease in the coming years. Despite what the nuclear industry tells us, building enough nuclear power stations to make a meaningful reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would cost trillions of dollars, create tens of thousands of tons of lethal highlevel radioactive waste, contribute to further proliferation of nuclear weapons materials, and result in a Chernobylscale accident once every decade. Perhaps most significantly, it willsquander the resources necessary to implement meaningful climate change solutions. lants s p r e ead po w lear ear warh ous c u “N o nucl anger er t d next the most an has ev ion are that m nstruct e co es devic d. Their tion is th ver e a e creat prolifer sible act et.� and respon is plan ir th most place on Moore n Patrick take
18 ENCOURAGE SUSTAINABLE TRADE
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The World Trade Organisation (WTO) promotes free trade for the gain of private interests, over and above our health and the environment. It is fatally flawed and is moving the world in the wrong direction - away from peace, security and sustainability. By stalling on issues that are crucial to poorer countries, the WTO faces a crisis of legitimacy.
19 POWER DOWN! A great deal of the resources we use and the waste we create is in the energy we consume. Look for opportunities in your life to significantly reduce energy use: drive less, fly less, turn off lights, buy local seasonal food (food takes energy to grow, package, store and transport), wear a sweater instead of turning up the heat, use a clothesline instead of a dryer, vacation closer to home, buy used or borrow things before buying new, recycle. All these things save energy and save you money. And, if you can switch to alternative energy by supporting a company that sells green energy to the grid or by
Sustainable solutions for home and office including space heating, water heating, appliances and lighting 1. Lose that heat loss Minimise heat loss by insulating your house properly. Make sure that all gaps around windows and doors are filled or eliminated using weather-seal. Also seal infiltrations around pipes and wires ducts. Seal unused chimneys. Insulation Double-glazing 2. Use free heat from the sun Sunlight is the cleanest, most renewable source of energy on earth – and you don’t have to pay for it! When planning a new house make sure that the design takes advantage of passive solar heat gain by including some or all of the following: optimal orientation, window design and placement, building materials such as concrete that have thermal mass, and air flow. If you are renovating an existing house, this is a good time to consider upgrading your home’s passive solar design features. Passive solar design 3. Clean up your heat There are many options for heating your home and there are a number of factors – like the size, layout and construction of your house – that will affect the type of heating you will use. The most sustainable options are the clean, energy efficient ones. Heat pumps and modern wood burners and wood pellet stoves are good options. Avoid gas, oil and coal-burning heaters. Heat pumps Wood pellet stoves Wood burners 4. Choose energy efficient appliances Products such as personal care and cleaning products, fire retardants (on fabrics for example), pesticides and paints often contain
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hazardous, synthetic ingredients which end up in the environment and do not break down building up to toxic levels. It is more sustainable to use products that are natural and not made from petrochemicals and synthetic chemicals. Efficient appliances
5. Make your own energy Over 30% of New Zealand’s electricity is generated from natural gas and coal and is therefore a large contributor to our greenhouse gas emissions. There are many ways you can reduce electricity use – some of the most effective include having good insulation, buying a new, highly efficient fridge, installing solar or heat pump water heating and using compact flourescent bulbs. You can also generate your own electricity. Energy Generation 6. See the light Lighting accounts for 8% of home energy use. Incandescent lightbulbs are extremely inefficient so switching to CFLs is the best solution because they are five times more efficient. Also, turning off lights when they are not in use will help save energy. Lighting
20 Say no to genetic engineering
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While scientific progress on molecular biology has a great potential to increase our understanding of nature and provide new medical tools, it should not be used as justification to turn the environment into a giant genetic experiment by commercial interests. The biodiversity and environmental integrity of the world’s food supply is too important to our survival to be put at risk.
Because what we really need to chuck is this old-school throw-away mindset. There’s a new school of thinking on this stuff and it’s based on sustainability and equity: Green Chemistry, Zero Waste, Closed Loop Production, Renewable Energy, Local living Economies. It’s already happening. Some people say it’s unrealistic, idealistic, that it can’t happen. But I say the ones who are unrealistic are those that want to continue on the old path. That’s dreaming. Remember that old way didn’t just happen by itself. It’s not like gravity that we just gotta live with. People created it. And we’re people too. So let’s create something new.
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let’s create something new.