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By Simmons Buntin, October 16, 2011 11:01 am

Oregon's Blue River. Photo by W.F. Gates.

The Blue River Declaration: An Ethic of the Earth is a statement of environmental ethics put forward by the Blue River Quorum, which met in October in the ancient forests of the Blue River watershed in Oregon. Participants include Alison Hawthorne Deming, Jennifer Michael Hecht, Kathleen Dean Moore, Michel P. Nelson, Fred Swanson, and many others. The Quorum was convened by the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word, with funding from the Shotpouch Foundation, the Oregon Council for the Humanities, and the U.S. Forest Service.

The Blue River Declaration begins:

A truly adaptive civilization will align its ethics with the ways of the Earth. A civilization that ignores the deep constraints of its world will find itself in exactly the situation we face now, on the threshold of making the planet inhospitable to humankind and other species. The questions of our time are thus: What is our best current understanding of the nature of the world? What does that understanding tell us about how we might create a concordance between ecological and moral principles, and thus imagine an ethic that is of, rather than against, the Earth?

What is the world?

In our time, science, religious traditions, Earth’s many cultures, and artistic insights are all converging on a shared understanding of the nature of the world: The Earth is our home. It will always be our only source of shelter, sustenance, and inspiration. There is no other place for us to go.
The Earth is part of the creative unfolding of the universe. From the raw materials of the stars, life sprang forth and radiated into species after species, including human beings. The human species is richly varied, with a multitude of persons, cultures, and histories. We humans are kin to one another and to all the other beings on the planet; we share common ancestors and common substance, and we will share a common fate. Like humans, other beings are not merely commodities or service-providers, but have their own intelligence, agency, and urging toward life.

Read the full Blue River Declaration at www.alisonhawthornedeming.com/docs/events/TheBlueRiverEthic_Nov2011.pdf.

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By Simmons Buntin, June 22, 2011 9:32 am

Terrain.org is pleased to announce — and invites you to read and follow — the new blog of editor-in-chief Simmons Buntin: One-Car Town: Logging the one-car lifestyle in new suburbia:

http://onecar.terrain.org

One-Car Town tracks Simmons’s experience living without a car in suburban Tucson, Arizona. He and his family live in the community of Civano; he works full-time about 16 miles away, at the University of Arizona, though also edits Terrain.org. Recently he and his wife sold their two cars, dumping their monthly payments in favor of a trusty used Honda Accord. That’s the family ride.

Simmons now carpools and takes the bus to work, a big switch after driving solo for the last eleven years. Why the change? That’s
what this blog is about: to explore the social, economic, and environmental factors of pursuing simplicity in a one-car-per-family lifestyle.

Won’t you come along for the ride?

http://onecar.terrain.org

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By Simmons Buntin, June 11, 2009 2:52 pm

As many of you know, we at Terrain.org are trying to help preserve Utah State University’s important literary journal Isotope: A Journal of Literary Nature and Science Writing, which faces elimination by the university.

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By Simmons Buntin, April 6, 2007 4:29 pm

Next Tuesday–April 10th–at 7:15pm Eastern, MoveOn is using the Internet to connect presidential candidates directly to the people. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, DennisKucinich, and Joe Biden will answer questions from MoveOn.org’s 3.2 million members in the first of three unprecedented virtual town hall meetings. The topic: Iraq.

Attend a local house party and experience the virtual town hall with others by going here:

http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/index.html?action_id=80&id=10158-2464566-wedTlM&t=3

MoveOn members are asking candidates tough questions about their Iraq plans, and they are gathering in living rooms from coast to coast to hear the answers directly. The mass media won’t be filtering the questions or filtering the answers—MoveOn will be connecting candidates directly to the people.

Right after the virtual town hall meeting, MoveOn will survey memberst o see which candidate they believe will do the best job of leading us out of the war in Iraq.

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By Simmons Buntin, February 20, 2007 5:29 pm

It’s time to step it up, don’t you think? Participate in the National Day of Climate Action on April 14.

Learn more at http://www.stepitup2007.org/.

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By Simmons Buntin, January 4, 2007 7:53 pm

From an email received today:

We are addressing you this letter with the intention of report you about the fate of a historical park in the city of Veracruz, Mexico. Created in 1793, this historical park named Parque Gutiérrez Zamora was part of a tropical forest that marked the entrance and the exit toward the south from the ancient city of Veracruz. This park represents the last piece of green area in our community. Unfortunately, the City Hall represented by the mayor of the city, Julen Rementeria del Puerto, is planning to build a parking in this area and to relocate, according to him, 170 trees in ridges. In this zone of centennial trees, the plants, flowers, insects, squirrels and birds will lose a part of their habitat. In fact, Parque Zamora is located in the historical town centre and it is part of the national heritage since March 1st, 2004, date of a presidential decree. The National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico has not emitted the authorization to build the parking in this protected area. We would like to know whether this information deserves a reflection in your magazine and will help to inform the readers.

Thank you for the assistance you can provide us.

Some additional or related information is available here (in Spanish), though we’re afraid we don’t otherwise have additional resources.