“Earth First Statement of Principles and Membership Brochure” (memo)

Foreman, Dave | from Multimedia Library Collection:
Earth First! Movement Writings

Earth First! fist

Foreman, Dave, “Earth First Statement of Principles and Membership Brochure” (September 1980). Environment & Society Portal, Multimedia Library. http://www.environmentandsociety.org/node/6810.


In this memo to “the leading intellectual and literary lights of EARTH FIRST,” Dave Foreman drafts the principles of the new Earth First organization, along with a draft membership brochure. 

EARTH FIRST STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES

* Wilderness has a right to exist for its own sake

*All life forms, from virus to the great whales, have an inherent and equal right to existence

*[Hu (corrected in pen)]mankind is no greater than any other form of life and has no legitimate claim to dominate Earth

*Humankind, through overpopulation, anthropocentrism, industrialization, excessive energy consumption/resource extraction, state capitalism, father-figure hierarchies, imperialism, pollution, and natural area destruction, threatens the basic life processes of EARTH

*All human decisions should consider Earth first, humankind second

*The only true test of morality is whether an action, indivudal, social, or political, benefits Earth

*Humankind will be happier, healthier, more secure, and more comfortable in a society that recognizes humankind’s true biological nature and which is in dynamic harmony with the total biosphere

*Political compromise has no place in the defense of Earth

*Earth is Goddess and the proper object of human worship

—Dave Foreman


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