Friday, June 2, 2017

Allegiance to the Earth: The Environmentalism Pledge


For her final project in Anthropology/Biology 282G Sapiens: The Changing Nature of Human Evolution, recent University of Rhode Island graduate Marisa DeCollibus created something wonderful.

During her studies at URI, she gained expertise in psychology, learning, and education. From that vantage, she wrote a pledge of allegiance to the earth to be recited daily by K-12 students.

In the companion paper she writes, "Today's Kindergarteners are tomorrow's impactful Sapiens ..." and "I tried to create imagery that invoked being a part of a collective landscape instead of being the rulers of the landscape..."

Here's the pledge.

The Environmentalism Pledge
by Marisa DeCollibus

I pledge to care for the natural world
Of all living and nonliving formations
And to the resources
Of which we share
One planet
Amongst stars
Irreplaceable
With intention
And effort
For all

**
Please share widely and please let us know if you think it's just as wonderful as we do and, especially, if you begin reciting this with your children. If you'd like to get in touch with Marisa, please let us know.

1 comment:

Ken Weiss said...

Sharing or taking less for broader reasons than our self interest is very difficult, probably because the evolutionary drive for resources and safety and so on. Damaging our planet's long-term health for our own immediate health is very human, but one thing humans are able to do is to understand things we cannot directly see, like the future.

Your thoughtful student sees, and perhaps her appeal to our deeper nature will have impact.