Day the world's nations agreed to protect the oceans and their creatures from pollution and over-harvest (1994);

Day to mourn continuing pollution and over-harvest. U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea: signed/adopted 12/10/1982; entered into force 11/16/1994.] [Text of Convention] For more information on the Convention, see U.N. Division for Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea website. See also Wikipedia article on U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea Citizens for Global Solutions website. For information on ocean pollution and fisheries conservation, see Greenpeace website; EarthJustice website; Natural Resources Defense Counsel (N.R.D.C.) website. Fish stocks have collapsed in almost one-third of all ocean fisheries. The rate of decline is accelerating and total loss of fisheries could occur by mid-century. Fishery decline is caused by over-fishing the stock, the loss of marine biodiversity associated with the stock, pollution, and climate change. Establishing core protected areas for each surviving stock and preventing the stock from being fished above the maximum sustainable yield are crucial for its survival. For information about the collapse of fishery stocks, see U.N. Environment Program report "In Dead Water" National Center for Policy Analysis article Wikipedia article on Over-fishing.]

America Recycles Day--

Day to begin systematically recycling all your paper, glass, plastics, and metal that can be recycled. Ask your work, school, and house of worship to recycle, too! It is a great day to start a compost pile & keep all of that waste out of landfills. See America Recycles Day website. And see Natural Resources Defense Counsel (N.R.D.C.) website.

Birthday of Fr. Thomas Berry (1914),

Catholic priest, eco-theologian, and cosmologist, who advocated for deep ecology and eco-spirituality. He believed the Universe, our Solar System, and planet Earth, in themselves, and in their evolutionary emergence, constitute the primary revelation of the ultimate Mystery from which all things emerge into being. Twelve Principles for Understanding the Universe and the Role of the Human in the Universe Process by Thomas Berry 1. The Universe, the Solar System, and the planet Earth, in themselves and in their evolutionary emergence, constitute for the human community the primary revelation of that ultimate Mystery whence all things emerge into being. 2. The Universe is a unity, an interacting and genetically-related community of beings bound together in an inseparable relationship in space and time. The unity of planet Earth is especially clear: each being of the planet is profoundly implicated in the existence and functioning of every other being. 3. The capacity for ordered self-development, for self-expression, and for intimate presence to other modes of being must be considered as a pervasive psychic dimension of the Universe from the beginning. 4. The three basic laws of the Universe at all levels of reality are differentiation, subjectivity, and communion. These laws identify the reality, the values, and the directions in which the Universe is proceeding. 5. The Universe has a violent as well as a harmonious aspect, but it is consistently creative in the larger are of its development. 6. The Earth, within the Solar System, is a self-emergent, self-propagating, self-nourishing, self-educating, self-governing, self-healing, self-fulfilling community. All particular life-systems must integrate their being and their functioning within this larger complex of mutually dependent Earth systems. 7. The human emerges within the life systems of Earth as that being in whom the Universe reflects on and celebrates itself in a special mode of conscious self-awareness. The human is genetically coded toward further cultural coding, by which specifically human qualities find expression in a remarkable diversity in the various regions of the Earth. 8. Domestication: transition to village life and greater control over the forces of nature took place in the Neolithic period, 12,000 years ago; beginnings of agriculture, domestication of animals, weaving, pottery and new stone implements. 9. The classical civilizations: progressive alienation of the human from the natural world; the rise of cities, elaborate religious expression in ritual and architecture, development of specialized social functions, increase in centralized government, the invention of writing and related technologies. 10. The scientific- technological- industrial phase: the violent plundering of the Earth takes place, beginning in Europe and North America. The functioning of Earth is profoundly altered in its chemical balance, its biological systems, and its geological structures. The atmosphere and water are extensively polluted, the soil eroded, and toxic waste accumulates. The mystique of the Earth vanishes from human consciousness. 11. The ecological age: a new intimacy is sought with the integral functioning of the natural world; destructive anthropocentrism is replaced with eco-centrism; transition to the primacy of the integral Earth community. 12. The newly developing ecological community needs a mystique of exaltation and finds it in the renewal of the great cosmic liturgy, which celebrates the new story of the Universe and its emergence through evolutionary processes. See also Thomas Berry's website. And see Thomas Berry's Earth Spirituality and the "Great Work" and Thomas Berry and a New Creation Story. [Death day 6/1/2009]