“I support and endorse the mission of We, The World to make sure that individuals and organizations who share a commitment to sustainability can network effectively to achieve their goals. We, The World is an intriguing idea that merits strong and serious consideration and we look forward to further exploration and development of its approach.” —Dr. Jane Goodall
We, The World
Internationally coordinated efforts to expand global markets and military operations have little regard for the resulting catastrophic increase in poverty, violence, species destruction, and damage to our environment. This constitutes an ethical and spiritual crisis transcending national boundaries. We, The World is committed to a global strategy that can galvanize people around the world to awareness and action.
We, The World seeks to build an unprecedented critical mass of individuals, organizations and coalitions whose efforts to create a caring world will be highly visible and accessible, especially in the societies that control the most resources. We will begin by globally linking and fostering collaboration between groups and individuals involved with human rights, ecology and animal concerns, peace and nonviolence, creating ethical economic systems, creating cultures of caring, self-sustaining green communities, personal and societal transformation, and many others whose work concerns the interests of literally billions of people and other life on our planet.
We, The World intends to create something the world has not seen before – a large scale, ethics-driven movement that broadcasts the following message: A significant portion of humanity is becoming actively engaged in building a world in which every life matters.
This message is designed to halt and reverse the “common sense” that increasingly dominates our planet: look out for yourself no matter what the consequences for other people, animals or our environment.
We need a broad-based movement to cultivate a new sense of concern about each individual’s importance and connection to the world’s social, economic and environmental systems – and therefore to the major problems humanity is facing.
Many people in the wealthiest countries are unaware of the suffering that is caused by common, everyday activities. In the United States, few people realize that buying a single hamburger pays for the clearing of up to an estimated 55 square feet of rainforest to raise cattle – thereby killing the plants, animals, and sometimes the humans that lived there.
Real change requires sustained, massive support that increasingly resonates with the public and which politicians and corporate CEOs can no longer ignore. We have seen only mixed results with movements working solely on issues such as the environment, human rights and disarmament. To succeed we must integrate our efforts.
Strategy
Until now, important social change efforts have only sporadically been covered by the mainstream media. We, The World is designed to maintain a significant and continuing presence in the major media (as well as independent media), especially in countries with the most economic influence.
Through a continuing series of well-publicized international gatherings and other inspiring programs, we seek to engage the public in many existing visionary initiatives. We, The World will provide a means for their efforts to be mutually supportive and emerge as a recognizable global movement to create a caring world!
Values & Guiding Principles
The Personal And Global Spheres Of Life Are Completely Interdependent. Each individual’s actions impact the world’s social, economic and environmental systems, which in turn affect each of us. The quality of life (or well-being of each person and each form of life is essential to the well-being of all of us.
The Means Are The Ends We seek to reflect our goals and vision in all our actions. Ethics is our bottom line.
Nonviolence from personal to international relations, consistent nonviolence will establish and maintain the trust necessary for a peaceful world.
In Working To Heal The Planet, We Heal Ourselves. When we heal ourselves, society benefits. Other core principles:
Concern For the Entire Web of Life
Holistic Approaches to Problem Solving and Prevention
Idealism
Compassion
Collaboration Not Competition
Going Beyond Blame to Recognize Our Collective Responsibility
No Effort Is Too Small To Be Recognized For Its Importance
We strive to integrate these into our lives as much as possible.