Eco - development message from the Warsaw Meeting
To all the communities, governments and elites of the world!
We, who are gathered in Warsaw, at the World Congress of Universalism, both theoreticians and practicians: men and women of science, technology and faith as well as from other areas of activities - we all turn to you with an appeal to cooperate in the ECODEVELOPMENTAL TRANSFORMATION OF OUR CIVILISATION.
We appeal to you, in the spirit of cherishing human life and nature, to stop in a steady and gradual way the current ethically immature and pathological forms of GROWTH AT THE COST OF THE ENVIRONMENT. We appeal to you to replace them with qualitatively new forms of socio-economic life, which will achieve DEVELOPMENT TOGETHER WITH A SOCIAL AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENT.
New ECOHUMANISTIC forms of synergistic - mutually supportive, fruitful - coexistence are becoming possible as an indispensable condition for the SURVIVAL OF ALL, both rich and poor societies.
We are seriously concerned about the lack of a practical and positive response by world power elites, in spite of warnings from such respected sources as the Club of Rome, the Holy See (encyclical Sollicitudo rei socialis) as well as the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
A very high level of development in science and technology has been accomplished in the 20th century. It has rendered inefficient and wasteful the obsolete forms of economy. Because of these we have crossed the limits of nature's ability of self-reproduction to provide the needs for human life. Instead of integration we have fallen into a fundamental CONFLICT: HUMANKlND VERSUS NATURE. We face therefore a global socio-economic and ecological crisis. This crisis has already begun with PERIPHERAL and economically weaker or younger societies and their economies.
We must move to create harmony between both developed and underdeveloped communities; between the wealthy and the poor, as well us between Humankind and Nature - and simultaneously adjust the forms of life and economy to the requirements of a qualitatively new, present-day, SITUATION OF CHANGES in the interrelations of human life and nature. If we do not respond to this, we will not survive the current crisis or its results. Deep economic recession may lead to social disturbances, which destroy the wealth achieved by previous generations - the wealth so needed to sustain life and further development in the situation of change. This recession may lead to ECOFASCISM - an attempt to achieve a particular solution by minimizing the activity of the weaker parts of World Society. The danger will arise if the powerful and wealthy - while eliminating the weaker and depriving them of their life possessions - will try to overcome a mounting deficit of resources, while "carefully" protecting nature.
Meanwhile there is in fact no absolute deficit of material life resources. Sustainable and sufficient livelihood for all is possible through the properly stimulated development of science and technology; through the increase of human creativity, through socio-institutionai transformation in the forms of human existence, and through a change in procreation and consumption patterns. New ample sources will be found before the old ones are depleted. We can look forward to a good life not only for ourselves but also for FUTURE GENERATIONS.
To attain these ends it is necessary to direct our activities toward the INCREASE OF QUALITY - including the length of biological and creative LIFE OF ALL members of a human family. The basic problem is to change the mechanisms of institutions and economies - while taking into account all social and natural costs of human actions. It is crucial to create the social and scientific-technical basis for long-range development and to share the results of common work in proportion to the ECOSOCIAL USEFULNESS of its subjects.
In order to survive we must form a UNIVERSAL CIVILIZATION OF PARTNERSHIP based on the principle "to possess in order to be" to be a co-creator of life and future, both our own and that of the social and natural environment.
It is indispensable that we understand new limitations and the interdependence of human beings in the contemporary situation of change in order to overcome the deepening global crisis.
We promise to dedicate ourselves to act on behalf of the ecodevelopmental civilizational transformation. JOIN US! TRANSFORMATION OF OUR CIVILIZATION INTO AN ECODEVELOPMENTAL ONE IS ESSENTIAL!
The participants of the I-st World Congress of Universalism
Warsaw, August 1993