Earth Charter

Corcoran P.B. (ed.) (2005). Toward a Sustainable World The Earth Charter in Action. Royal Tropical Institute Publ., The Netherlands, 192 pp. 

It is important to note that the Earth Charter is integrated into the text of lectures given to the students of MUCTR during a special course Problems of Sustainable Development. It is being taught to all students during their second year for 108 hours, of which 36 hours are dedicated to the lectures, and 72 hours to practical and individual work (one semester). 

Students also watch four documentaries on the most complex problems of sustainable development (also completed after class). During their group exercises, and also as an individual assignment, students work on finding solutions to the problems raised in these films and present them to their professor. All students have to prepare and present three papers and one thesis on sustainable development issues. Out of the three mandatory papers, one must be written on the Earth Charter principles and their importance for sustainable development processes. 

The mission of the Earth Charter is to establish a sound ethical foundation for the emerging global society and to help build a sustainable world based on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace. 

The Earth Charter did not gain official UN acceptance at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002 but its supporters continue to press for recognition and it was endorsed by the lUCN in November 2004. The web site provides material for educational purposes. 

Earth Charter. 2004. The Earth Charter Initiative, www.earthcharter.org Edwards, L.E. and Pojeta Jr., J. 1997. Fossils, Rocks and Time. United States Geological Survey (USGS), available at www.usgs.gov El Eid, M. 2005. The process of carbon creation. Nature 433,117-118. 

Definition Dumreicher, Heidi, Richard S. Levine, and Ernest J. YanareUa. ( Oikodrom The Institute for Urban Sustainability, Vienna, Austria and Center for Sustainable Cities, Lexington, KY), 1998-2001. This definition summarizes part of the Center for Sustainable Cities contribution to the European Charter of Cities and Towns Towards Sustainability (1994). This document, more commonly known as the Aalborg Charter, has become the principle vehicle in Europe for the implementation of the Local Agenda 21 provisions of the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit of 1992 and has subsequently been ratified by over 1000 European cities. 

The United Nations has also been involved in a practical program to exploit Earth observation for the benefit of humankind, the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters. The idea was first proposed in 1999 at the UNISPACE III conference in Vienna by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the French national space agency (CNES). The Charter provides a unified system for Earth observation data acquisition and delivery to those affected by natural or man-made disasters such as a hurricane, an earthquake or a tsunami. The International Charter has two major objectives. 

Other members have now joined the Charter including Canada, India, the U.S. Geological Survey and the participants in the Disaster Management Constellation of small satellites (Algeria, Nigeria, Turkey and the UK). Each year there are approximately 20-30 activations of the Charter to acquire Earth observation data of, for example. Hurricane Katrina in the USA, the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, fires in Australia, earthquakes in Pakistan and floods and landslides in Peru. The United Nations has been important in encouraging the establishment of the Charter and... 

The Geological Society of London was founded in 1807 and is the oldest geological society in the world. It received its Royal Charter in 1825 for the purpose of investigating the mineral structure of the Earth and is now Britain s national society for geology. 

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