Learn about Organization Earth

Organization Earth is a newly-established Greek not-for-profit NGO set up to provide answers to modern social concerns about society and the environment. The organization’s first seed was ‘planted’ at the end of 2008 and members retained an undiminished level of interest until the organization was officially established in January 2010 with its headquarters at 67 Dimokratias Ave. in the Municipality of Ilion, on the Pirgos Vasilissis Estate. Its 40 members come from a wide spectrum of backgrounds covering almost all fields needed to implement this specific action.

In trying to implement the organization’s vision, one immediate strategic aim was to develop new environmental infrastructure in Attica, which has been in use since the Autumn of 2011. The aim is to disseminate Environmental Social Intelligence (ESI), in other words to inform, educate and raise awareness in society about modern problems facing the environment and the ways that people can contribute to safeguarding the environment through their day-to-day activities and practices, and thereby ensure better living standards and social development. The infrastructure required for this goes by the name of the Earth Center, and it is the starting point for all Organization Earth’s activities.

Organization Earth differs from other organizations in that a fundamental principle is that environmental initiatives and actions do not start from the environment but end up there.  Organization Earth believes that it has primarily been social factors that have led us to environmental degradation and that we ought to intervene in those matters. It is our view that ecosystems cannot reduce or neutralize the stress being imposed by the modern, diverse range of pressures human culture and society are exerting on nature. In the past nature could reproduce satisfactorily, balancing out the pressures exerted on it by human activity. However, modern culture and society is so intense that many scientists now argue that if we continue to utilize the environment’s natural resources to the same degree and extent as now, then we will unavoidably contribute to a serious threat of destruction for society as we know it.

The reasoning here is straightforward.

Suppose that under normal conditions a specific piece of land can easily support a 4-member family for up to the next two generations, when it will eventually reach its productive limits. Suppose too that those limits are sufficient to support the 12 or so members of that family.

If that family continues to multiply in the next generations and has, for example, around 20 members, the first solution that will enable that family to continue to be viable is to start to exploit the land that belongs to it to the full.

However, if the family continues to increase in size, then the only solution (where of course that is possible) is to purchase another plot and for certain members of the family to move to that other plot. If those members who move to the new plot have not learned how to cultivate the land, but behave in a wasteful manner, then soon too they will need two or more plots to relocate to, provided of course that that is possible. The same can also happen with the Earth.

Although our needs -which are defined modern society factors- are almost at our productive limits, we do not wish to behave more frugally, yet at the same time we cannot purchase new land, because there is not more available space on the planet.  Consequently, the only choice is to alter the factors which shape our culture and society, by transforming our culture and society.

Organization Earth seeks to alter those aspects and factors shaping our culture and society and by providing information and training (or more correctly re-training) to thereby change the culture of as many residents of the planet as possible.

In effect it proposes a more viable version of development, and a more sustainable lifestyle for man and his culture.  We want to achieve this not under the threat of destruction of our culture and society, but by presenting an optimistic outlook which includes a change in how citizens of this planet behave, and by adopting a simpler lifestyle that is more participative and therefore more ‘spiritual’.

It is clear that human culture and society has not yet managed to develop on a collective level. If we manage to achieve that (which would appear to be the only feasible, sustainable solution left) then we will also unavoidably contribute at the same time to a better environment and the continuation of our culture and society.

Organization Earth wants to join forces with other NGOs that work for sustainability, in order to develop joint actions and to set targets for a contemporary way of dealing with environmental and social issues through a not-for-profit, NGO with a wide-ranging participative base.

We believe that climate change, which is already happening, is simply a warning from the planet about the current model of modern human society and consequently a warning about the Western way of thinking and acting that has caused it.  Moreover, the emergence of global problems has given rise to a new human condition in terms of both material possessions and the level of awareness.  From that viewpoint, we do not consider the ongoing global economic crisis to be a brake on us achieving our objectives, but instead it is an additional incentive and a major opportunity for further mobilization and cooperation. In particular, we believe that this economic crisis is not simply another passing crisis but a shift, which will allow our culture and society to move to its next phase.

It is now time to realize that the prosperity of human society depends on the services the ecosystem offers, such as water, air, vegetation, soil, fisheries, timber, and so on. These public goods are not subject to the laws of the market nor can they be priced, but are offered to us by nature free of charge. Due to this, loss of these assets is frequently not measured under the ordinary rules by which our modern-day economic system operates, and thus their loss can continue undiminished. The increase in population, the change in eating habits (particularly the shift towards foods that require large quantities of natural resources to produce, such as meat produced by mass livestock farming methods), urbanization and the ongoing expansion of cities (today 50% of the world’s population lives in urban areas), climate change and many other factors are causing rapid depletion of the earth’s natural resources, a reduction in biodiversity and the continuing degradation of its ecosystems. These changes then affect a series of social factors and indicators such as lifestyle models and consumer values, meaning that our current culture and society is based on utterly unstable ground. This threatens not only social cohesion but also the mental health of individuals and society as a whole, as well as our sense of security. In other words it threatens everything that man is seeking in order to live in harmony with himself, with others and nature, which surrounds him and has opened its embrace to him.

It is therefore necessary to change our outlook and our culture.  A vision for the future that is sustainable and effective, which can perpetually create a modern ethics that will benefit the healthy development of our societies needs to emerge. That is why we argue that environmental issues are primarily social issues.

 

 

“That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest”

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American writer, author of the classic work “Walden” (1854) about the return to nature.

“If you wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, you shall never begin”

Plato (427-347 BC), Ancient Greek philosopher – the best known student of Socrates, and the teacher of Aristotle His works exerted immense influence on Ancient Greek philosophy and Western philosophical tradition right up to the modern day