Reflecting on Ethics for a Better World

As our year comes to a close in a season normally filled with joy and celebration, many hearts are heavy because of the toll both of natural disasters and human tragedies. Is it possible for humans to live in harmony with the Earth and with each other?

Care of People

Care of the Earth

Having a Surplus to Share

Who in today's world follows these three principles? Actually there are so very many that we can list.

Some of the organizations and businesses:
New York Cares  http://www.newyorkcares.org/
Occupy Sandy  http://interoccupy.net/occupysandy/
Khan Academy https://www.khanacademy.org/
Acumen Fund   http://www.acumenfund.org/ten/
The Working World  http://www.theworkingworld.org/us/what-we-do/
Habitat for Humanity  http://www.habitatnyc.org/
NY Restoration Project  http://www.nyrp.org/
Just Food  http://justfood.org/
Green Thumb http://greenthumbnyc.org/
City Harvest  http://www.cityharvest.org/
Polyface Farms  http://www.polyfacefarms.com/
Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage  http://www.dancingrabbit.org/

Some of the individuals:
Joe Leuken  (http://now.msn.com/joe-lueken-supermarket-boss-transfers-ownership-of-business-to-employees)
Salman Khan  http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelnoer/2012/11/02/one-man-one-computer-10-million-students-how-khan-academy-is-reinventing-education/
Jacqueline Novogratz   http://www.forbes.com/sites/helencoster/2011/11/30/novogratz/
Brendan Martin https://www.ashoka.org/fellow/brendan-martin
Vicki Robin (and deceased partner Joe Dominguez) http://ymoyl.wordpress.com/
Bette Midler http://www.nyrp.org/
Dr. John Todd http://toddecological.com/
Colin Beavan  http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/about-colin-beavan.html
Cecil Scheib  http://roadtripnation.com/CecilScheib
Will Allen  http://www.growingpower.org/
Joel Salatin http://www.polyfacefarms.com/story/
Henry Gifford  http://www.energysavingscience.com/
Chris Benedict  http://www.businessinnovationfactory.com/iss/innovators/chris-benedict
Gennaro Brooks-Church http://www.examiner.com/article/interview-with-gennaro-brooks-church-founder-of-eco-brooklyn
Bill Mollison  http://www.scottlondon.com/interviews/mollison.html
David Holmgren  http://www.holmgren.com.au/
Sepp Holzer  http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/011217.html
Rob Hopkins  http://www.ted.com/speakers/rob_hopkins.html
 
There are so many many more (including my wonderful colleagues at Green New Yorkers Meetup!) Which organizations and individuals would you like to add?

Coincidentally ;-), the three ethics: earth care, people care and fair share  form the foundation for Permaculture Design.  http://permacultureprinciples.com/ethics.php

Can we ever have a modern global society based on these principles rather than the currently popular but highly destructive Social Darwinism? Let's start with Permaculture education and practice. From there we can build a community of social and business networks with likeminded people.

Local Permaculture Teachers:
Claudia Joseph http://permaculture-exchange.org/
Andrew Faust http://www.homebiome.com/
Julie Welch http://www.linkedin.com/pub/julie-welch/5/231/584

Revolutions have started this way. 

On with the Permaculture Revolution!

http://www.permacultureprinciples.com/ethics.php