The project:

The Joy of Living in a Nature-friendly Way

Currently, the incidence of environmental crises is on the rise, and we will undoubtedly face major challenges in the future. Central to this project is the belief that it is possible to change the ways in which we think and act, in particular by focusing on deep joy as an impetus for inspiration and change.

The cultural sphere of collaborators on this project (Europe, USA, Canada, and Japan) makes up only one sixth of the population on earth, yet our countries are largely responsible for having already exploited earth’s ecological capacity. In this way we are implicated in depriving the majority of earth’s human and more-than-human communities the right to a prosperous, healthy, and sustainable life.

At the moment, a great deal of international dialogue and debate focuses on climate change. We believe that, in order to stabilize the climate, the human population on earth must significantly change our habit of excessive consumption and adopt a more nature-friendly way of living.  The global increase of temperature is only a symptom. The deep reason for climate change is humans’ cravings for increased purchasing power and material consumption, particularly of non-renewable energy “resources”.

It is essential for humanity to overcome the climate crisis. Furthermore, the vast differences between various groups of people in the consumption of energy and other “resources” can no longer be justified. Our cultural sphere must reduce its consumption of non-renewable energy resources in order to allow for an increased standard of living for other groups of people and other beings.

The seriousness of the situation requires that every human being challenge her- or himself to think critically and deeply reconsider personal values in relation to nature. Each responsible person must commit to trying to understand the long-term consequences of the current, dominant way of living and the problems it poses, in particular for future generations, the poorest parts of the populations, and Indigenous peoples.

In addition to deep reconsideration of values at the individual level, there is a great need for international binding commitments to reduce the emission of climate-altering gasses. To succeed in this work, a broad international opinion needs to be established which supports and challenges all political leadership at local, national, and international levels to make the difficult political decisions that will effectively address climate change.

With this project we strive to foster a broadly united public opinion that shows its support for the nature-friendly development of our society.  The Council of Eco-philosophy has thus formulated a declaration – The Stetind Declaration – to unify international efforts promoting nature-friendly endeavors and to call attention to the need for joyful and hopeful responses to the environmental crisis. We believe that the impending challenges we face need to be addressed individually and collectively. We believe that the challenges are not merely economic and technological, but rather, that they implicate our values and our fundamental self-understanding as human beings. Our aim with this declaration is for each person who signs it to visualize his or her own values orientation.

The Council of Eco-philosophy will encourage all political leadership at the local, national, and international levels, to acknowledge and assume responsibility for our consumptive way of living that has fatal consequences for humans and all life on earth.

We wish to realize opportunities for people to discover the joy of nature and the joy of living in a nature- friendly way.

There is no other way to nature friendliness – nature friendliness is the way!