Environment

We live in the Philippine islands. We take pride and are always in awe and marvel at the richness of our land, the abundance of our diverse natural resources – the thick and ages-old forests of both land and sea where thrive exceptional flora and fauna, the grasslands and the marine resources which provide for our (...)

Human Responsibility in the Framework of Sustainable Development. Putting Our Heads together to React and to Act Ecological Problems and Human Responsibility; Agenda 21 for Schools and Institutions. Seminar at the Saguramo Orphanage and School, Georgia, October 4, 2009, SaqarTvelo Under the responsibility of: Marina Avaliani Seminar organized by: Group for the dissemination of the (...)

We have published a trilingual multi-annual diary (in Georgian, French, and Russian) made up of: the Charter text (in Georgian and in Russian) photos on the theme of the environment, proverbs, sayings, etc. (Georgian, Kurdish, Armenian, Russian, Azerbaijani, Ossetian, and Abkhazian) on responsibility, the environment, education, etc. The diaries have been distributed to different (...)

Watersheds and Responsible Governance: Aotearoa-New Zealand November 2009 A hillside gathering above Te Hakare Wetland The powhiri, or welcome by Maori elders from the tribes of the land and rivers of the area where our symposium was held, began the process of weaving together hosts and guests, those from the area and those from afar, and of drawing together the threads of different (...)

Bangalore Film Society in association with Alliance Francaise de Bangalore, Svaraj, Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival, Ithaca College, USA (FLEFF), Charter of Human Responsibilities, Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy, Suchitra Film Society, Federation of film societies of India (Southern Region) and YWCA presented the fourth edition of Bangalore’s biggest environmental Film Festival and (...)

kachkaniraqmi We are here, we are still Abstract The growing “environmental crisis,” which is a subset of the whole current civilization crisis and is irrevocably interacting with it, can be more descriptively called a “socioenvironmental crisis” in that it has to do essentially with the clash, tension, and inadequacy of human societies in their relations with the rest of the environment, (...)

The congregation invited Nina to return in August to present a guest sermon as part of the annual Water Service. For the Water Service congregants bring water from their travels or places that have been significant to them. During the service all the water samples are poured into a common vessel to symbolize coming together again and that many are one. The Foothills congregation wanted to (...)

The Global Citizens’ Climate Change & Water Film Festival visited ten college and university campuses in the US between March 22 and April 27, 2009. Student groups and community organizations sponsored the festival at each location. Nina Gregg, US Charter Coordinator and Anugraha John from Global Citizens for Sustainable Development in Bangalore, India led discussions and workshops and (...)

Ecuadorian citizens have overwhelmingly approved a new constitution that gives nature the right to “exist, persist, maintain, and regenerate.” Theirs is the first nation to give legally enforceable rights to the natural world (Spain recently granted rights to apes, while the United States, for its part, confers legal rights on corporations). The new Ecuadorian constitution requires the state (...)

My friend Margret Wegmann, representing a small German organization of volunteers that helps handicapped children in Georgia, and myself had the idea of helping handicapped children to be integrated into society through a responsible, fun, educational, ecological, and money-making activity. The organization was thus able to finance the renovation of the Saint Michael school (for handicapped (...)

On the 13th of June 2008 was held an international conference “Responsibility, Traditional Values, Sustainable Development” at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University .The Conference was organized by the University in collaboration with the Institute of Philosophy. It was financed by the Foundation Charles Leopold Mayer for Human Progress. _ The organizing committee of the conference were (...)

CHR in National Symposium The National Symposium on “Climate Change, Sustainability & Equity: a Civil Society approach” was collectively organized by Shanti Foundation, Passion for Global Peace S.E.E.D.S., Cerana Foundation, Engineers without Borders, India and Ecological Literacy Foundation in Hyderabad from 7th to 8th March 08. Sudha, coordinator of CHR, being one of the steering (...)

Last April 19, 2008 in Kaspi (Georgia) the team of the Georgian facilitation has completed the project "let’s make our village cleaner and more beautiful" with the NGO "Community of the Thezami women”. Tsisso Chipashvili presented the Charter and facilitated the workshop "Children and responsibility" in front of 80 schoolchildren and teachers. Then the three groups of schoolchildren planted (...)

Citizen Responsibility Campaign in the city of São Paulo With its 12 million inhabitants and enormous social problems, São Paulo is South America’s biggest city. The “R” actions in São Paulo organized by the Movimento Nossa São Paulo Outra Cidade (the Our São Paulo: A Different City movement), aim to set an example for other Brazilian cities. The actions were inspired by the citizen participation (...)

Nina Gregg and Rachel Trajber took part in the November 2007 annual conference of the North American Association of Environmental Educators. The conference, which was attended by more than a thousand teachers, advocates and policy makers, offered workshops, presentations, demonstrations, scholarly papers, roundtables and strategy sessions. Nina and Rachel led a workshop on “Using the Charter (...)

Commentary As a Representative of the NZ Charter committee, I was invited to a gathering of 48 invited participants to ‘create together new thinking and acting for Responsibility in a Climate of Change.’ It was exciting to meet for 4 days with people who represented business interests, journalists, writers, farmers, various environmental sectors, young activists and older leaders, trade (...)

About one hundred people including enthusiasts, environment patrons, web-log writers and the representatives of bio-environmental organizations were gathered in Pardisan Park, in front of the Environment Conservation Institution, on Monday the 4th of Sharivar “26 August “. Carrying some signs, which announced their protests against the current environmental situation which caused by mortal (...)

On March 16 2007, the Georgian Charter facilitation team has organized a workshop with the children’s art studio. There were two groups of children participating the project: 1. The children from the Centre for Rehabilitation of the Homeless Children, from the Risk Group (Tsisartkela, Begurebi), from a school in Ananuri and from the former orphanage of Temka. 2. The children from the Art (...)

Five moons and a red mountain Wood, acrylics, 25Χ35 cm Artist’s statement Artist’s biography Andreas Kargsten was born in 1965, in Stockholm, Sweden. He studied sculpture in the School of Fine Arts of Stockholm (1984-89). He won the first prize for the graduates and a scholarship from the School of Fine Arts of Stockholm. His work was displayed in individual exhibitions in the gallery (...)

Saint Isidoros blessing the Schinos tree Artist’s statement Artist’s biography Konstantinos Pantelakis is an icon painter and a researcher in Orthodox iconography and popular painting. He paints icons following the Byzantine way (Cretan School). He is currently teaching the painting of icons and he participates in an art-therapy project in the public psychiatric hospital of Dromokaitio. He (...)

Artist’s statement Artist’s biography Giannis Andriomenos was born in Athens, Greece, in 1976. He studied painting at the School of Fine Arts of Athens and was trained in engraving at the Willemm De Kooning Academie in Rotterdam, Holland. He is currently working as a high-school art professor. He has presented his work in group exhibitions in Athens, Chania, and in Tsesme, Turkey. Contact (...)

Silent protest Artist statement Artist’s biography The Greek artist Sotiria Thomopoulou works as a social worker. She is a painter, a stage designer and a poet. Some of her paintings and her mosaics have been presented in group exhibitions in Egaleo, Perisso, in the edifice of Zappion in Athens and elsewhere. Since 2004, she has been collaborating with the School of Drama and the (...)

Isolation Dimensions: 50cm x 100cm Material: charcoal, acrylics Artist biography Elsa Tatsi was born in Ioannina, Greece, in 1978. She studied at the School of Fine Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in Greece, as well as at the School of icons painting of K. Georgiadis, in Thessaloniki. She has presented her work in two individual exhibitions in Ioannina, as well as in (...)

Seed of life’s tree Artist’s statement Artist biography Cristina Schleder was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1952. She has studied “Design and Visual Communication”. Since 1992, she has started to present her art work in individual shows in places like the Romero Britto Gallery – Miami - USA, as well as in various galleries in Sao Paulo – Brasil. She (...)

Magnifying lens Artist’s statement Artist’s biography Elli Xatziantoniou was born in 1986 and grew up in Thessaloniki, Greece. She is currently studying at the Department of Products and Systems Design Engineering of the Aegean University in Syros, Greece.

Imprints Artist’s statement Artist’s biography Dimitra Gousi was born in Ioannina, Greece, in 1976. Between 1994 and 1999 she studied at the School of Fine Arts, Department of Visual Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Her biography includes an individual exhibition in January 2007 in Ioannina and the participation in several collective exhibitions in Greece, in Thessaloniki, (...)

In our hand About the painting Artist biography The Brazilian artist Marcelo Bicalho, born in 1962, is a designer and illustrator. He teaches Art and Design History in the Design School of Minas Gerais State University, in Brazil. In the last 10 years he has been well known by his works in paper sculpture, creating pieces that combine figurative rendering with simulated perspective, (...)

The colors of life 2006, Painting oil, 80 x 65 cm About the painting Artist biography Caterina Canellis was born in 1945 in Athens. She grew up and was educated in Greece but before she was 20, she left and got married in Paris. There she started a late career in painting. She has followed courses in the “Ecole des Beaux-Arts” but she is mainly self-taught. During the last 20 years, the (...)

Fragments of nature Description of work Artist biography Caterina Aslanidou was born in 1978 in Athens, Greece. She has studied painting in the School of Arts of Athens. She followed the workshop of engraving in the Faculty of Arts in Sevilla, Spain. Since 2005, she works in the island of Chios, in Greece, as a professor of Art at the high school. She has participated in six collective (...)

Reflected Caraiva Acrylic and others on synthetic sail-cloth 60 cm x 50 cm, 2007 Description of work ; This painting shows images reflected in the water, one of the most familiar subjects of the art of painting. The canvas shows the houses of the people of Caraiva, a small village in the south of Bahia State, Brazil. "Caraíva" in tupi-guarani language means : One that eats men. These (...)

Contemporary Pursuit Description of Work Artist Biography The work of Melody Reeves investigates the complex of worlds framed by our intertwining economic, social, natural and cultural spheres. She uses a wide range of materials and systems of thought, examining pivotal points of spiritual navigation through a trans-disciplinary vocabulary of assimilation, improvisation, and (...)

The pictures give a local scene, prior to a meeting in Auckland with Maria and Te Kawehau for our Charter plans. Here re a couple of recent photos at the Lake, and one of Maria and Qiujing, a film maker, with whom we are discussing making a film of the Pacific ‘Across Oceania’ project. In New Zealand, we are continuing to liaise with groups in New Zealand, Australia and Pacific countries, (...)

The Charter of Human Responsibilities has been used effectively in several countries (among them Brazil, India, Greece and New Zealand) to promote reflection and action on environmental protection, conservation and sustainability. We are preparing to work with several schools and environmental education centers to introduce the Charter and the concept of responsibility as tools for (...)

Resume At a public Forum co-hosted last 12th December by the Regional Committee of the Charter of Human Responsibilities and the Human Rights commission, the speakers highlighted sustainability as a framework for economic and social re-organization, and an Ocean scientist gave a presentation of growing knowledge of ocean habitats to support decisions about sustainable fisheries. The (...)

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The Center for Positive Futures culminated its program towards promoting environmental responsibility among schoolchildren by conducting the 2nd Painting Messages for the Earth program. From rurban San Mateo and Montalban in the province of Rizal, this year’s environmental responsibility program was brought to the rural municipalities of Puerto Princesa in the island-province of Palawan and (...)

Humphries, M.T. and Martin, B. (2005). Diversity Ethics: a compass pointing to relationality and reciprocity for navigating turbulent seas. The International Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Change Management - In Print Martin, B. (2005) ‘Responsibility. Guardians of Life’ - Submitted for Yfeng Zhao’s edited publication on Responsibility. China. Martin, B; Humphries, M.; with Te Rangiita, (...)

This contribution on Philosophy on Responsibility comes from discussions with Charter committee members. **Relevance to Charter principles** Every person’s dignity demands that he or she contribute to the freedom and dignity of others. In the flowering of the human personality, its non-material aspirations as well as its material needs must be addressed. The Charter principles may need to (...)

The issue of global warming, a major challenge of our time, is a quintessential "entrance" to the initiation of an awareness-raising and education campaign on the question of everyone’s individual responsibility. Following is a brief overview of the issue as it stands today (September 2005) and a few ideas on the educational potential of this issue for an initiation to the concept of human (...)

What is the ecological footprint? It is a tool for determining if our lifestyles are sustainable. Categories of human consumption are translated into areas of productive land which is required to provide resources and assimilate waste products. The “footprint” is the total amount of land required to sustain one human or group of humans, say in a family or city, based on their use of energy, (...)

Over the past year the ‘ownership’ of the Foreshore and Seabed has taken the dimensions of a tidal wave crashing on the shores of Aotearoa-New Zealand, and put relations between Maori and government under more pressure than they have been for a century. Under the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi indigenous titles to land were to be upheld. By 2003 the Foreshore is the last remaining area still in (...)

In 2003, through the Alliance21 project, an environmental initiative was held in Samoa as part of the opening of the Nofoalii Centre for Cultural Research. Leaders of this Centre are on the committee for the Charter for Responsibility, with the Samoan members maintaining project work in the Pacific and in New Zealand. A symposium was held in New Zealand in November 2004, supported by the (...)