CLIMATE OATH
The original Hippocratic Oath starts with swearing to the healing gods; we instead choose elements of life on Earth we hold particularly dear. Substitute in those that reverberate deeply with you, those you would be mortified to let down and elated to make proud. We o"er this model for you to make your own, and pass along:
On the majesty of turquoise seas, and fireflies, and aspen trees,
On the honor of our parents, our ancestors, and humans- to- come,
On the wonders of laughter and sunshine,
I make these devotions to climate solutions for my community and for our magnificent planet:
First, move from “I” to “we.”
We will expand our sense of interdependence.
We will rein in our sense of individualism.
We will ask, “What should we do, together?”
Survival is collective, our fates are intertwined.
Second, do no harm.
We will restore and heal, not pollute and deplete.
We will regenerate ecosystems and our own resolve.
We will live lightly, as part of the Earth.
Accountability, generosity, and sweetness.
Third, less is more.
We will expand our creativity and contract our consumerism.
We will conserve, and distinguish between needing and wanting.
We will be gentle with our own imperfections and others’.
There is such a thing as enough.
Possibility exists.
This is a world of our making.
We can remake it, remix it, restore it, rebalance it.
The path of least resistance is only one of many paths.
I will be part of getting it right.
We will be part of getting it right.