Seventh Principle: Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

1. This is the most recently added principle. It reflects a growing environmental consciousness and concern in the world and among our members.

2. As largely white, middle class Americans, a passion for saving the environment comes naturally to UUs. We have the education and access to information that alerts us to the serious, long term consequences of our current levels of resource consumption. The ignorant disregard of these issues by our leaders fills us with justifiable outrage.

3. Respect for the environment has taken on a deeper spiritual dimension for many UUs . We think of it in terms of our fundamental relationship to the cosmos, not just as a set of policy issues. Many UU s are attracted to the idea of an immanent God who resides within the very fabric of creation rather than in some distant Heaven.

4. However, the way in which environmental issues are sometimes formulated can easily deflect us from the actions that we need to take to seriously address these problems.

· Individual lifestyle choices frequently become to predominant or exclusive strategies for solving environmental problems.

(1) These choices are genuinely important, and they are something that we as individuals have control over.
(2) Reflection on our choices creates a very important dialog on needs vs. wants that is crucial to developing a sustainable society.
(3) However, unless these choices are linked to political organization and action little real progress on the environment is going to be made. The economic and political structures that perpetuate environmental degradation and limit our individual choices must be challenged.
(4) We also need to avoid a “purity” contest, in which individuals compete to be more virtuous in their relationship to the environment than others and claim superiority to those who don’t follow x, y or z environmental practice.

· Environmental action is often pursued independently of, or as a substitute for, action on other social justice issues. We compartmentalize them into middle class issues that are detached from issues of racial and class inequality.

(1) This discourages us from addressing issues of environmental justice, in which disadvantaged groups are disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards.
(2) It also prevents us from forming coalitions across race and class lines to simultaneously address economic inequality and environmental damage. This compartmentalization occurs within the U.S. and across national boundaries as well.
(3) It also can make us insensitive to the differential impact of various environmental measures on different groups. For example, imposing a $2 a gallon tax on gasoline to encourage conservation may entail relatively minor sacrifices for the affluent, but may impose major hardship on people with limited incomes.

3. Ignoring justice issues related to the environment is contrary to the full meaning of the seventh principle. Respecting the “interdependent web” includes creating just relationships with other human beings, not just altering our relationships with the natural world.