Earth Charter International is joining Earth Day 2020 to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The theme for Earth Day this year is climate action given that climate change represents the biggest challenge to the future of humanity and the life-support systems that make our world habitable. Humanity is now facing the global crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic which requires new ways of seeing, thinking and connecting the dots, as well as urgent decisions. Therefore, what is the role of our worldviews, values and education processes in this?
On Wednesday, 22 April, Earth Charter International will bring together renowned thinkers and activists to reflect and dialogue on pressing issues of our time, Earth Day theme and key ideas embedded in the Earth Charter. The following three webinars in English, Spanish and Portuguese will take place on Wednesday, 22 April.
Earth Day Online Dialogue in English
Time: 10:00am Costa Rica (GMT-6) = 12:00pm EST = 9:00am PST
Theme: Worldviews, Systems Thinking and Values in the Planetary Phase of Human Civilization: during and beyond the pandemic
With:
Fritjof Capra, Ph.D., physicist and systems theorist, is a founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California
Sam Crowell, Ph.D., professor emeritus of education at California State University San Bernardino and former director at the Center for Research in Integrative Learning and Teaching
Questions:
- What are the linkages between a healthy planet, healthy people, climate change and the current pandemic?
- What is embedded in an Earth Community worldview and what is the role of education in cultivating that?
- What is the role of education in this planetary phase of human civilization and in stimulating climate action?
- What are the major roadblocks to move humanity towards an era of collaboration and human-nature harmony? And how to overcome them?
Earth Day Online Dialogue in Spanish
Time: 12:00pm Costa Rica (GMT-6)
Theme: Towards a New Paradigm of Earth Community: Collaboration in Times of and Beyond the Pandemic
With:
Leonardo Boff, theologian, philosopher and writer. Member, Earth Charter Commission
Mateo Castillo, Earth Charter Focal Point in Mexico. Member, Earth Charter International Council
Questions:
- A new paradigm of Earth Community? Why, what and how?
- Which kind of planetary consciousness we ought to have? What are the options? How to cultivate the common good of all and how can the Earth Charter be used in this?
- What are the challenges we have to harmonize diversity with unity, the exercise of freedom with the common good, short-term objectives with long-term goals? And how can we overcome them?
Earth Day Online Dialogue in Portuguese
Time: 3:00pm Costa Rica (GMT-6) = 5:00pm EST = 6:00pm Brazil
Theme: Towards a New Sense of Global Interdependence and Universal Responsibility in Times of Crisis
With:
Ricardo Young, President, Ethos Institute for Business and Social Responsibility and Institute Democracies and Sustainability
Rose Marie Inojosa, Former Director of the Open University of the Environment and Culture of Peace (UMAPAZ) São Paulo
Marina Silva, Historian, and former Senator and Minister of Environment
Questions:
- What is the relevance of a sense of interdependence and universal responsibility to current times? What does that mean?
- How can we cultivate a planetary worldview and spark a new awareness that goes beyond self-interest and seeks the common good?
- What are the main roadblocks to move humanity towards an era of collaboration and human-nature harmony as well as social well-being? And how to overcome them?