Earthcharter

The Centre for Environmental and Sustainability Education at Florida Gulf Coast University

A major component of the Centre’s work is to bring current scholars in environmental literature, religious studies, and political science to campus to meet with students and to deliver public lectures. Key areas of emphasis include ethics, activism, and the literary arts. The Centre promotes the Earth Charter in its signature events, in institutionally-oriented research, and in what we call Earth Charter scholarship.

Centre staff and students have developed is a ‘Guide to Eating Humanely and Sustainably with the Earth Charter at Florida Gulf Coast University.’ The Earth Charter provides an alternative to industrial agriculture and the economic exploitation of labour and environment, challenging us to “Adopt patterns of production, consumption, and reproduction that safeguard Earth’s regenerative capacities, human rights, and community wellbeing” (Principle 7). The Guide aims to link Earth Charter ethics to sustainable ways of life and to assist in the development of a culture of sustainability at our university and in the region.

Our most significant area of Earth Charter related research, along with essays and talks, is the publication of two books. The firs tis The Earth Charter in Action: Toward a Sustainable World (KIT Publishers, Amsterdam 2005) , The second book, A Voice for Earth: American Writers Respond to the Earth Charter (University of Georgia Press, Athens, Georgia 2008), was co-edited by the Centre"s Director and Associate Director as part of our work at the Centre in order to provide a literary voice to the ethical principles outlined in the Earth Charter.

Along with advancing Earth Charter scholarship, the Centre has sought to infuse the Earth Charter into the curriculum at Florida Gulf Coast University. Our efforts to bring a discussion of ethics through the Earth Charter has occurred at different levels – as a component in a course, as an organizational framework for a course, and as a unifying principle in a curriculum. As already noted, the “University Colloquium: A Sustainable Future,” FGCU's mandatory course in environmental education and sustainable development, includes the Earth Charter as a component to introduce students to a broad understanding of sustainability. Students read and discuss the Earth Charter in class and are then required to write about the document in one of the five short academic essays assigned in the course. It is often the subject of a lively discussion as students and faculty members read the principles and sub-principles together and consider their value and its efficacy. This open-ended discussion is founded on strong critical and creative thinking skills.