scholarly journals Las comunidades indígenas: Una forma de vida que pone en práctica la Carta de la Tierra

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Sandra Ovares-Barquero ◽  
Isabel Torres-Salas

This paper aims to draw attention to the role that indigenous communities have historically fulfilled by practicing the values proposed in the Earth Charter upon its ancestral construction. The intention is to reflect on the fact that the principles stated in the Earth Charter have been intrinsically performed by these groups on a daily basis. That is, these groups become a role model because they respect life in all its diverse forms, promoting a democratic, participative, sustainable, and peaceful existence, which ensures, the balance of Earth to present and future generations. On the other hand, this paper analyzes the damage caused by human beings, through their unfriendly practices, to Latin American natural resources and therefore to the planet. Moreover, the human species is the only one able to reverse the damage caused. Based on this context, the hope is to place the human being as the center of the planetary system. This requires an education that raises awareness and contributes to the overall view of the problems and takes into account their short, medium, and long term consequences, not only for a community but also for the entire humankind.

Author(s):  
Adalberto Benavides-Mendoza

A speculative argument is presented which suggests the possible existence of a global metasystem that would be characterized as an emerging from the interaction of the units that make up the planetary system. The metasystem´s units would be the different physical, chemical and biological processes occurring in the subsystems that form the metasystem: magnetosphere, atmosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. The revised global metasystem is broader than that considered in the Gaia theory or in Earth System Science, where the Earth's crust and upper atmosphere, i.e., the volume where the presence of life occurs, are considered as the limits of the system. The maintenance of the dynamic state of the global metasystem it is achieved by dissipating the free energy derived from the electromagnetic radiation of the Sun, the obtained from the Earth-Moon gravitational interaction and the energy resulting from the dynamics of the Earth core and mantle, which produces the magnetic field and much of tectonic activity. For the human species, the importance of a greater understanding of global metasystem is based on the fact that natural resources and the climate system are products of the subsystems of the global metasystem. It is possible therefore that human activities that modify the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere, change the dynamics of global metasystem.


Author(s):  
J. L. Heilbron

The modern evolution of the physicists’ world picture continues the ancient programme of locating human beings in a directionless universe. Physics has given civilization a sombre, disturbing, and challenging world picture, many fertile and some terrifying inventions, and notice of responsibility for the outcome of the human story. ‘The quintessential’ explains that there is still much to learn and suggests that if humankind accepts the responsibility and the concomitant loss of providential deities and sacred dicta, the human species might beat the odds against the survival of an electromagnetic civilization; preserve the Earth; and, in the fullness of time, arrive at several satisfactory theories of everything.


2018 ◽  
Vol 75 (299) ◽  
pp. 620
Author(s):  
Maria Clara Lucchetti Bingemer

Síntese: Nossa proposta neste texto é fazer uma leitura da obra de Teilhard de Chardin a partir da América Latina e, nela, de uma situação bem concreta: o consumismo, característica da pós-modernidade, que se instalou aqui em nosso continente. Nossa premissa é que a fúria consumista em um continente marcado pela pobreza dissociou ser humano e cosmos, homem, mulher e natureza, criando uma falta de sensibilidade para os sentidos humanos, que chega a ser extremamente nociva ao próprio ser humano: torna-o sempre mais insensível àquilo que está à sua volta, seja a pobreza que padecem tantos, seja a negligência em relação ao Cosmos e à Terra, pondo em risco a vida e o futuro do planeta onde todos vivem. Em seguida, examinaremos a mística bíblica como mística de comunhão com o universo, de sintonia com o criado, incluindo e colocando em comunicação ser humano e mundo, de maneira a que juntos reflitam a face do Criador. Procuraremos, a seguir, ver como Teilhard se inscreve nessa mística de comunhão com o universo de maneira radical e profunda, fazendo com que a mesma passe a constituir o cerne de sua esplêndida espiritualidade. Finalmente, examinaremos alguns textos seletos de Teilhard, a fim de encontrarmos neles a inspiração para a teologia que hoje se faz em nosso continente. Embora Teilhard não tenha sido alguém com grande preocupação pelos pobres e embora estes não ocupem parte importante em seu pensamento e discurso, não se pode ignorar que seu pensamento sobre o cosmos e a natureza são uma contribuição preciosa para toda a reflexão teológica sobre a ecologia, que hoje se realiza no mundo inteiro, inclusive e de maneira forte e insistente, no continente latino-americano.Palavas-chave: Theilhard de Chardin. Espiritualidade. Consumismo. Ecologia. Pobres.Abstract: Our objective in this text is to do a reading of Teilhard de Chardin’s work from a Latin American perspective and, within this perspective, focus on a very concrete situation: consumerism, a characteristic of the post-modernity that settled here in our continent. Our assumption is that the consumerist fury in a continent marked by poverty dissociated the human being and the cosmos, man, woman and nature, creating a lack of sensitivity to the human senses that becomes extremely harmful for the human beings themselves. It makes them more insensitive to whatever is around them, be it the poverty that is the source of suffering for so many, be it the negligence towards the Cosmos and the Earth, a negligence that endangers the life and the future of the planet where we all live. Next, we will examine the Biblical mystique as a mystique of communion with the universe, of being in tune with the creation, including and fostering the communication between the human being and the world, in such a way that, together, they reflect the face of the Creator. We will then try to see how Teilhard inserts himself in this mystique of communion with the universe in a radical and deep way, so that this mystique becomes the core of his splendid spirituality. Finally, we will look at a few selected texts by Teilhard in order to find in them the inspiration for the theology practiced today in our continent. Although Teilhard may not have been someone particularly concerned with the poor and although they are not an important part of his thought and discourse, we cannot ignore that his ideas about the Cosmos and nature are a valuable contribution to the entire theological reflection on ecology that is being carried out worldwide, including, in a very strong and insistent way, in the Latin-American continent.Keyword: Theilhard de Chardin. Spirituality. Consumerism. Ecology. Poor.


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-67
Author(s):  
Alexandra Cheira

Abstract A.S. Byatt has expressed deep misgivings regarding the role which the human species has played in mis/shaping the natural world due to the wilful blindness which guides human behaviour in this respect. In fact, Byatt has focussed on the destruction of the planet caused by greedy and environmentally-unaware human beings in fictional texts such as Ragnarök: The End of the Gods (2011) or “Sea Story” (2013), as well as in critical pieces such as “Thoughts on Myth” (2011). Hence, I am particularly interested in investigating how Byatt’s texts have been shaped by environmental concerns, as expressed in both her fiction and her critical work. My reading of Byatt’s ecopoetics will therefore be set within the theoretical framework of ecocriticism. Finally, I will also examine Byatt’s argument that in a way her early fictional work was “a questioning quarrel” with her former Cambridge teacher F.R. Leavis’s, whose “vision and values” she nevertheless “inherit[s] and share[s]” (Passions of the Mind, 2) in light of Leavis’s discussion of “the organic community” as proto-ecocritical writing.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura A. Ogden

In Loss and Wonder at the World's End, Laura A. Ogden brings together animals, people, and things—from beavers, stolen photographs, lichen, American explorers, and birdsong—to catalog the ways environmental change and colonial history are entangled in the Fuegian Archipelago of southernmost Chile and Argentina. Repeated algal blooms have closed fisheries in the archipelago. Glaciers are in retreat. Extractive industries such as commercial forestry, natural gas production, and salmon farming along with the introduction of nonnative species are rapidly transforming assemblages of life. Ogden archives forms of loss—including territory, language, sovereignty, and life itself—as well as forms of wonder, or moments when life continues to flourish even in the ruins of these devastations. Her account draws on long-term ethnographic research with settler and Indigenous communities; archival photographs; explorer journals; and experiments in natural history and performance studies. Loss and Wonder at the World's End frames environmental change as imperialism's shadow, a darkness cast over the earth in the wake of other losses.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-86
Author(s):  
Nuria Belloso Martín

Resumen: El cortoplacismo político y políticas públicas diseñadas para el corto plazo, ponen de manifiesto la escasa atención a conceptos tales como prospección, futuro y prevención. Tiempo y riesgo apenas se toman en consideración. Ha sido a partir de los años sesenta cuando en las incipientes sociedades de riesgo occidentales empezaron a aparecer manifestaciones y publicaciones con alusiones y teorizaciones referidas a nuestra responsabilidad en el deterioro de la biodiversidad de la tierra y de la biosfera, en el marco del problema del depósito final de los residuos radiactivos, el peligro de las guerras –con la consiguiente desertización nuclear- y de las manipulaciones genéticas. Todas ellas eran acciones que perjudicaban tanto a los seres humanos vivientes como a las generaciones futuras. El cuándo hay que tutelar los intereses de las generaciones futuras, si debe hacerse en el presente para prevenir la formación de daños futuros, o si no tenemos deberes más que con el presente, es una problemática que también se proyecta sobre las generaciones que, por ser futuras, no tienen representantes en los foros políticos y jurídicos. El presente trabajo analiza las propuestas formuladas por diversos especialistas en orden a mitigar el problema del cortoplacismo político y la inconsistencia temporal, de manera que los intereses de las generaciones futuras formen parte de las políticas públicas. Elaborar políticas para el largo plazo y tomar en consideración que las decisiones de las generaciones actuales afectarán a las generaciones futuras son condiciones imprescindibles para garantizar el progreso de la humanidad en el marco del principio de sostenibilidad.Palabras llave: Riesgo. Incertidumbre. Generaciones futuras. Cortoplacismo político. Presentismo. Abstract: Political short-termism and public policies designed for the short term show little attention to concepts such as prospecting, future and prevention. Time and risk are hardly taken into account. It was from the 1960s onwards that in the nascent Western societies of risk began to appear manifestations and publications with allusions and theorizations regarding our responsibility in the deterioration of the biodiversity of the earth and the biosphere, within the framework of the problem of final disposal of radioactive waste, the danger of wars - with the consequent nuclear desertification - and of genetic manipulations. All of these were actions that were detrimental to both living human beings and future generations. When it is necessary to protect the interests of future generations, if it is to be done in the present to prevent the formation of future damages, or if we have no duties other than the present, is a problem that is also projected on the generations that, for being future, do not have representatives in political and legal forums. The present paper analyzes the proposals formulated by different specialists in order to mitigate the problem of political short-termism and temporary inconsistency, so that the interests of future generations are part of public policies. Developing policies for the long term and taking into account that the decisions of present generations will affect future generations are essential conditions for ensuring the progress of humanity within the framework of principle of sustainability.Keywords: Risk. Uncertainty. Future generations. Political short-termism. Presentism.


Diabetes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 94-LB
Author(s):  
SERGIO VENCIO ◽  
JUAN MANOSALVA ◽  
CHANTAL MATHIEU ◽  
PIETER PROOT ◽  
PAIVI M. PALDANIUS

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 262-265
Author(s):  
Dr.Navdeep Kaur

Since its evolution environment has remained both a matter of awe and concern to man. The frontier attitude of the industrialized society towards nature has not only endangered the survival of all other life forms but also threatened the very existence of human life. The realization of such potential danger has necessitated the dissemination of knowledge and skill vis-a-vis environment protection at all stages of learning. Therefore, learners of all stages of learning need to be sensitized with a missionary zeal. This may ensure transformation of students into committed citizens for averting global environment crisis. The advancement of science and technology made the life more and more relaxed and man also became more and more ambitious. With such development, human dependence on environment increased. He consumed more resources and the effect of his activities on the environment became more and more detectable. Environment covers all the things present around the living beings and above the land, on the surface of the earth and under the earth. Environment indicates, in total, all of peripheral forces, pressures and circumstances, which affect the life, nature, behaviour, growth, development and maturation of living beings. Irrational exploitation (not utilization) of natural resources for our greed (not need) has endangered our survival, and incurred incalculable harm. Environmental Education is a science, a well-thought, permanent, lasting and integrated process of equipping learning experiences for getting awareness, knowledge, understanding, skills, values, technical expertise and involvement of learners with desirable attitudinal changes about their relationship with their natural and biophysical environment. Environmental Education is an organized effort to educate the masses about environment, its functions, need, importance, and especially how human beings can manage their behaviour in order to live in a sustainable manner.  The term 'environmental awareness' refers to creating general awareness of environmental issues, their causes by bringing about changes in perception, attitude, values and necessary skills to solve environment related problems. Moreover, it is the first step leading to the formation of responsible environmental behaviour (Stern, 2000). With the ever increasing development by modern man, large scale degradation of natural resources have been occurred, the public has to be educated about the fact that if we are degrading our environment we are actually harming ourselves. To encourage meaningful public participation and environment, it is necessary to create awareness about environment pollution and related adverse effects. This is the crucial time that environmental awareness and environmental sensitivity should be cultivated among the masses particularly among youths. For the awareness of society it is essential to work at a gross root level. So the whole society can work to save the environment.


1969 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-169
Author(s):  
Andrés Dapuez

Latin American cash transfer programs have been implemented aiming at particular anticipatory scenarios. Given that the fulfillment of cash transfer objectives can be calculated neither empirically nor rationally a priori, I analyse these programs in this article using the concept of an “imaginary future.” I posit that cash transfer implementers in Latin America have entertained three main fictional expectations: social pacification in the short term, market inclusion in the long term, and the construction of a more distributive society in the very long term. I classify and date these developing expectations into three waves of conditional cash transfers implementation.


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