Vandana Shiva's talk at The Mind, The Human-Earth Connection and the Climate Crisis Live Event June 2021

Earth Democracy: Connecting the Rights of Mother Earth and the Well-being of All

We are facing an existential crisis with multiple emergencies.

The multiple crises and pandemics we face today—the health pandemic; the hunger pandemic; the poverty pandemic; the climate emergency; the extinction emergency; the emergency of injustice, exclusion, and inequality; dispossession and the disposability of large numbers of humanity—are all rooted in a worldview based on the illusions of separation and superiority which deny interconnectedness and oneness.

One million species are threatened with extinction, with 200 going extinct every day. Humanity’s present path is clearly non-sustainable because it is destroying life on Earth. Humans, too, are a threatened species. Non-sustainability and the multiple emergencies that are destroying the very infrastructure of life threaten the survival of the human species. Earth Democracy is a worldview, paradigm, and practice based on the recognition that everything is interconnected. The Earth is living. The Earth has rights. And we as humans have duties to care for the Earth and regenerate her soil, seeds, biodiversity, water, and food systems. Our rights flow like a spring from our duties.

Vandana Shiva

Dr. Vandana Shiva is trained as a Physicist and later shifted to interdisciplinary research in science, technology and environmental policy, which she carried out at the Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore. In 1991, she founded Navdanya, a national movement to protect the diversity and integrity of living resources, especially native seed, the promotion of organic farming and fair trade.

See Vandana Shiva's Talk below