A Wonderful Week for the Earth Charter – Mexico reaffirms its support and commitment

Beginning with national Earth Day celebrations in Mexico that featured both a national commitment to the Earth Charter, as well as a commitment from the President of the country to planting 250 million trees (among other actions), and closing with a set of high-level meetings in Brazil that included the signing of a formal agreement between the Minister of Environment for Brazil, the Council for the Defense of Human Rights (founded by Leonardo Boff), and Earth Charter International, as well as a formal commitment from the Mayor of Sao Paulo … well, the period 22 April to 2 May 2007 must be reckoned as a major milestone in the history of the Earth Charter Initiative.

The stories posted below provide details on this extraordinary week, during which the Earth Charter International Council also met in São Pãolo, Brazil, to craft policies and strategies for “scaling up” the Earth Charter Initiative in response to the growing wave of interest in both sustainability generally, and the Earth Charter’s comprehensive ethical vision specifically. Brazilian youth as well as a diverse group of leaders in business, government, and civil society also contributed to the emerging vision for an even broader and more active Initiative worldwide. (See story below.)

The week also included …

… a national news report from India, announcing that the entire school system of Delhi, the nation’s capital, had formally adopted the Earth Charter as a guide to education for sustainable development. The Charter is partly the inspiration for a program that includes the planting of a million tree saplings.

Meanwhile, we at Earth Charter International were also celebrating the growth of this website. More and more people are discovering “Earth Charter in Action” and the family of websites and “blogs” we have been developing. In fact, the number of visitors to our website appears to be shooting up, and in April we more than doubled our previous record, up to nearly 42,000 visitors from a previous high of just under 20,000 (a record that dates back to 2002, when the Charter was under discussion at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesberg). We are aiming for the triple digits by the end of the year … so please suggest our website to your friends and colleagues.

And send us news from your part of the world! We welcome submissions to this address: [email protected]