Mission Statement  

 

The Earth Restoration Network is an open, global platform for thought and action to ensure the fullest possible restoration of our planet's life support systems, at every scale and in every time frame, from weeks to centuries.

Within this broad statement of purpose we are dedicated to multiple complementary missions, tiered hierarchically as follows:

1.)  Development and continuous refinement of a  global masterplan not simply for the preservation of existing isolated and diminished fragments of wild nature, but for maximum restoration of our planet's life support systems, ecosystem integrity and biodiversity, to their full potential.

2.)  Full constructive and proactive engagement with the underlying human technological, cultural, spiritual and socioeconomic systems which must be radically restructured as a prerequisite to meaningful restoration.

3.)  Creation of a state of the art Web platform for the sharing of  information about restoration problems and solutions and for the facilitation and coordination of small to large scale citizen initaitives to restore the life support systems, ecosystem integrity and biodiversity of our planet.

4.)   Design, operation, and continuous improvement of a web-based multimedia news service which provides the entire global restoration community with high-quality news reporting, analysis and opinion  about all aspects of environmental problems and restoration solutions both global, regional and local.

5.)  Empirical field testing of theory in pilot restoration projects at a variety of scales from back yard, to community, to local, regional, national, continental, and global.

More about mission components:

1.) Knowledge collection. Collecting and organizing information about environmental problems and potential solutions, with an emphasis on quality and depth as well as scope, such that the Earth Restoration Website becomes the world’s foremost repository of knowledge relating to environmental degradation and restoration.

The primary knowledge collection and organization vehicle will be an internet-based “website” (the “Earth Restoration Website”) which will serve as a data collection node for information pertaining to environmental problems and solutions.

2.) Knowledge organization. Providing state-of-the art tools for organizing and locating information both within the aforementioned knowledge repository, and externally throughout the universe of human knowledge.

A primary organizational tool will be the creation, “on the fly”, of website-user-designed, user-extensible, (but project-moderated) interactive, linkable web-based databases with sophisticated search, linking and query tools.

3.) News reporting and knowledge dissemination

The Project will build, over time, a sophisticated and comprehensive, full-service, multi-media, alternative news service to report, weekly or monthly if not daily or hourly, on the issues of immediate and long-term importance to global environmental (social, and cultural) restoration. A key aspect of this service will be to provide high-quality, state-of-the-art, in-depth analysis and interpretation of the news. While all such analysis will be subjective and much of it opinionated, it should also be “balanced” in that the system for analysis and interpretation is open to differing perspectives and opinions, within a reasonable system of rules of conduct and some powerful mechanisms (such as well-designed consumer rating services) to cultivate and incentivize quality.

4.) Tool-making. An intrinsic part of our mission is to provide state-of-the art tools for the continuous evolution of the working environment of the Earth Restoration Website itself, with maximum emphasis on usability, flexibility, creativity and joy in the user experience.

5.) Integration. The Earth Restoration Project and Website will be a primary platform both for analysis and synthesis; a global information and idea-nexus, and a state-of-the art laboratory for the design-development and testing of systems theory relating to every aspect of global environmental restoration, and ancillary human social and cultural restoration..

6.) Metaphysics. An essential mission of the Earth Restoration Project is to critically examine all aspects of human behavior, society, culture, and commerce; to provide primary intellectual leadership in reinventing all aspects of the human experience and belief, to guide them in directions compatible with Earth restoration. This field of endeavor necessarily extends deeply into philosophy and metaphysics. Its essential endeavor is to create—and continuously recreate—a new metaphysic that is fully compatible with the restoration of the planet’s ecosystems and of the proper human place within the great web of life.

6.) Empowerment. Inspiration and empowerment of individual environmental activists throughout the world to participate independently and/or collaboratively in the design-development of environmental (and related social, political, economic and cultural) restoration master-plans at every conceivable location, scale and scope. Empowerment implies a maximum respect for individual autonomy and maximum immunity from peer pressure, herd mentality and group-think.

7.) Community: Creation of a full-service community of individuals and groups dedicated to the long-term restoration of Planet Earth, and deeply motivated and sustained by the mutual support and joy in human companionship to be found in a true community of like minds with common values and goals. Community implies the development over time of mythology, culture, ritual, spirituality, and above all, joy in human companionship, unconstrained by traditional behaviors of shaming and authoritarian control. Successful modern communities fully respect individual autonomy.

The Earth Restoration Institute will be a membership organization that vigorously pursues the recruitment of like-minded organizations and individuals to participate as contributing members of an earth restoration community, and wherever possible, through a consensus process, leverages the combined political, financial, and intellectual capital of the entire community, to serve the values and mission enumerated here.

Note:  The question of how any sort of coordinated action by a “project” so diverse in its membership and so broad in its scope, would be initiated and governed is a complex one warranting a good deal of further discussion within the emerging community of the Earth Restoration Website.  Part of the work of restoration is to develop a restoration infrastructure, culture and ecosystem that is itself diverse and therefore sustainable.

8.) Dialogue. Provision to the proposed Earth Restoration Community of an open and democratic platform for the exchange of ideas as well as information; a forum for dialogue, disagreement, argument and debate, through which analysis, proposals and theories as to best practice for global restoration can continuously be shared, evaluated, discussed and debated.

9.) Synthesis. Creation and cultivation of a seamlessly interdisciplinary approach to the evaluation of global environmental problems and solutions.

10.) Innovation. Creation and cultivation of a collaborative design environment in which human creativity can readily transcend the rigid limitations imposed upon it in traditional, corporate, academic, or institutional settings.

11.) Action: The Earth Restoration Project will serve as a logistical as well as a theoretical platform for direct action in the spheres of politics, economics, business, religion, science, technology, culture, and all other realms of human endeavor where action may be warranted in order to fulfill the mission described above.

12.  Sponsorship:  On a selective, competitive, open basis, the ERP may provide either funding, logistical support, and/or publicity to empower individuals and organizations to translate their ideas and plans for restoration into direct action.