From a Grain of Sand: Goodwill, Humanity and Mother Earth

Maria Teresa Gonzalez Esquivel

In 2009, the United Nations General Assembly designated 22 April as International Mother Earth Day.[i] For almost forty years this date had been widely observed throughout the world as Earth Day, and the UN Declaration confirmed that global awareness about the need for a new relationship between humanity and the Earth was becoming a core issue in international affairs.  

The earliest major sign of global pressure to transform the human impact on the natural world was the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm. Twenty years later, momentum for a re-think of how we organize our affairs in response to the damage being done to the environment culminated in  the ‘Earth Summit' in Rio de Janeiro, with participation of representatives and stakeholders from 179 countries. At the same time, a record number of civil society organizations gathered at a ‘Global Forum’ in Rio de Janeiro to discuss and present their worldview of the nexus between socioeconomic development and the environment.[ii] The 1992 Conference led to a multitude of significant outcomes, including: Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Declaration on the principles of forest management, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the creation of the Commission on Sustainable Development. Since then, a series of UN led global efforts continue to pave the way for sustainable development and living in harmony with nature.

At the center of all the efforts related to environmental protection we find the notion of the unity of all life,[iii] described by the United Nations as “…the interdependence between people, other living species and our planet…”.[iv] Likewise, the concept of sustainability is itself the recognition that the coalescence and equilibrium of all the dimensions of human life requires “new perceptions of the way we produce and consume, the way we live and work, and the way we make decisions”.[v] By acknowledging the unity or interdependence of the human reality, is it clear that sustainability entails change across the different spheres of human existence. This is evidenced in the Sustainable Development Goals.[vi] From this perspective, the conversations around climate change,[vii] which are in fact about sustainability and thriveability,[viii] could be alternatively approached by moving beyond the debates[ix] about global warming, fossil fuels, and greenhouse gas emissions.[x]

In 2020, the amount of human-made mass – known as anthropogenic mass – exceeded for the first time the overall living biomass. The study published in the journal Nature explains that “on average, for each person on the globe, anthropogenic mass equal to more than his or her bodyweight is produced every week”.[xi] Continuing with such trend has two main critical issues: (1) living in a world of finite resources under a system built upon ideas of infinite production and gains; and (2) discarding all the human-made mass that will eventually become waste.

Sustainability entails both awareness of all the elements present in our environment, and a recognition of the unity of these elements. Nearly 100% of the elements found in the human body “were forged in the fiery hearts and death throes of stars”.[xii] For instance, oxygen is produced in the core of stars, and is present in the Earth’s crust, the human body, water, and most living organisms.[xiii] Unborn babies receive oxygen and nutrition from their mothers,[xiv] just as all humans, plants and animals receive oxygen and sustenance from Mother Earth.[xv] As our understanding of the unity of all beings as well as the symbiotic relation between humans and the environment is growing, so are the pressures compelling us to protect Mother Earth growing.

Science recognizes the human body as being comprised of 10 different systems, including skeletal, muscular, nervous, respiratory, and cardiovascular, among others.[xvi] Similarly, it recognizes that Mother Earth is comprised of five systems - geosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere -, all of which have a fundamental role in the functioning and sustainability of our planet.[xvii] The modern scientific understanding  teaches us the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle (e.g., healthy diet, regular exercise, good sleep, and avoiding harmful practices such as smoking). Equally, it has provided tools to protect the health of Mother Earth – many of which are directly related to protecting our own health.[xviii] Some of these actions can be as simple as reducing processed meat consumption or avoiding the use of Styrofoam and single-use plastic containers.[xix] Other actions require cooperation - the active expression of unity[xx] - from different actors and stakeholders globally.

For instance, going back to the issue of anthropogenic mass, everything that humans produce comes from Mother Earth. At the top of the anthropogenic mass[xxi] we find concrete, which is a mixture of cement, aggregates, and water.[xxii] Cement is not found in nature, but it’s made through the chemical combination of 8 elements; and the ‘aggregates’ are usually sand and gravel or crushed stone[xxiii] (all of which are found in and extracted from Mother Earth). Considering concrete, which accounts for roughly 48% of the anthropogenic mass, the remaining 52% still involves the use of sand at different degrees.[xxiv] In other words, most productive sectors across the world need sand. Given our dependency on sand, and knowing that sand resources are the second most exploited natural resource after water, sand should be recognized as a strategic resource – something we don’t really hear or read about in the media.

Fortunately, there are several groups and individuals in the world who are actively working on the protection of Earth’s resources. For example, in 2022, UNEP launched a report[xxv] outlining the facts around sand mining. The report advocates for a better governance of sand extraction in order to prevent negative impacts such as “erosion, salination of aquifers, loss of protection against storm surges, impacts on biodiversity [and] threats to livelihoods [including] water supply, food production, fisheries and tourism industry”.[xxvi] This year UNEP GRID in collaboration with the Global Fishing Watch, the University of California Santa Barbara and Google, will launch the Global Marine Sand Watch Platform to help countries monitor sand dredging activities and contribute to capacity building and best practices for sand extraction. Northwestern University and World Wildlife Fund held a series of interdisciplinary seminars with 600+ participants from all over the world, resulting in a call for action.[xxvii] In Vietnam, there is a multistakeholder initiative to promote sustainable management of sand to increase the resilience of the Mekong Delta. This initiative will benefit the livelihoods of 20 million people and one of the world's top rice producers. In addition, the initiative aims to be replicated in other deltas in Asia and beyond; however, its effectiveness relies on the joint efforts of neighboring countries.[xxviii] This demonstrates how crucial cooperation is for protecting and benefiting the local communities facing these issues, and the international community.

Another good example of goodwill and cooperation to protect Mother Earth and the livelihoods of local and global communities is the Trinational Atlantic Forest Pact.[xxix] The initiative brings together 360 institutions across Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, and has been recognized as a UN World Restoration Flagship.[xxx]

Beyond the confines of contemporary scientific thought, wisdom traditions down the ages affirm that unity isn’t an aspiration, it is our existential reality.[xxxi] Drawing on ancient Buddhist insights, Human Rights expert,  Dr. Charika Marasinghe, states that “if we are to experience outer peace with the human, animal and plant world, we need to transcend our ego-centric ways of thinking in terms of ‘me’, ‘I’, ‘mine’, ‘my family’, ‘my religion’, ‘my race’, ‘my village’ and ‘my country’ to an all-embracing universal consciousness that honours and respects the wellbeing of all sentient beings”.[xxxii] We can all contribute to protect Mother Earth with a ‘small grain of sand’ – which in most cases involves goodwill – love in action –,[xxxiii] and simple actions such as educating ourselves, supporting awareness initiatives, and countering misinformation and disinformation.[xxxiv]