Green News and Opinion

The 'New Ethic' - 1972
Words of wisdom

One abiding legacy of the United Tasmania Group is its founding charter, The New Ethic.

Green philosophy has been refined and polished since then. But after twenty five years, political scientists still refer to The New Ethic as a global watershed - an eloquent statement giving expression to a new world-wide political philosophy.



We citizens of Tasmania and members of the United Tasmania Group,

United in a global movement for survival;

Concerned for the dignity of humanity and the value of cultural heritage while rejecting any view of humans which gives them the right to exploit all of nature;

Moved by the need for a new ethic which unites humans with nature to prevent the collapse of life support systems of the earth;

Rejecting all exclusive ideological and pragmatic views of society as partial and divisive;

Condemning the misuse of power for individual or group prominence based on aggression against humanity or nature;

Shunning the acquisition and display of individual wealth as an expression of greed for status or power;

While acknowledging that Tasmania is uniquely favoured with natural resources, climate form and beauty;

Undertake to live our private and communal lives in such a way that we maintain Tasmania's form and beauty for our own enjoyment and for the enjoyment of our children through unlimited future generations;

Undertake to create aesthetic harmony between our human structures and the natural landscape Where our individual and communal needs demand modification to the natural environment;

Undertake to regulate our individual and communal needs for resources, both living and non-living, while preventing the wholesale extraction of our non-replenishable resources for the satisfaction of the desire for profit;

Undertake to husband and cherish Tasmania's living resources so that we do minimum damage to the web of life of which we.are part while preventing the extinction or serious depletion of any form of life by our individual, group or communal actions;

And we shall:

Create new institutions so that all who wish may participate in making laws and decisions at all levels concerning the social, cultural, political, and economic life of the community;

Provide institutions for the peaceful and unimpeded evolution of the community and for the maintenance of justice and equal opportunity for all people;

Change our society and our culture to prevent a tyranny of rationality, at the expense of values, by which we may lose the unique adaptability of our species for meeting cultural and environmental change;

Prevent alienation of people in their social and work roles and functions while, making scientific, technical and vocational knowledge and practice free and open to all;

Create a new community in which men and women shall be valued for their Personal skills, for the material and ton-material worth of these skills to groups and the whole community, for their service to the community, and for their noncompetitive achievement in. all aspects of life;

Live as equal members of our society to maintain a community governed by rational non-sectional law;

Preserve specific areas of private and group life where private thought, speech and action is of group importance and does not interfere unreasonably, with others;

And vest our individual and communal rights in a parliament of representatives chosen by all to enforce our law for as long as that power is not used unfairly to advantage or disadvantage any individual or group in the community.

(Wording very slightly altered, in the interests of gender neutrality).