Conceptualising sustainability through environmental stewardship and virtuous cycles—a new empirically-grounded model

Humans depend on earth’s ecosystems and in the Anthropocene, ecosystems are increasingly impacted by human activities. Sustainability—the long-term integrity of social–ecological systems—depends on effective environmental stewardship, yet current conceptual frameworks often lack empirical validation and are limited in their ability to show progress towards sustainability goals. In this study we examine institutional and local stewardship actions and their ecological and social outcomes along 7000 km of Australia’s coastline. We use empirical mixed methods and grounded theory to show that the combination of local and institutional stewardship leads to improved ecological outcomes, which in turn enhance social values and motivate further stewardship to form a virtuous cycle. Virtuous cycles may proceed over multiple iterations, which we represent in a new spiral model enabling visualisation of progress towards sustainability goals over time. Our study has important implications for collaborative earth stewardship and the role of policy in enabling virtuous cycles to ultimately realise sustainable futures.

Halal Products: Not Restricted to Food and its Marketing Opportunity in the Muslim World

Halal refers to methods of producing goods & services in the manner allowed by Shariah or Islamic law, which invest besides food preparation and food products but also encompasses the production of pharmaceutical, Cosmetics, Garments & fashion, Tourism Practices and also services like tourism, finance & banking and many more. Halal not only a religious observance and obligation for Muslims but also has emerged as a powerful market force alike both for Muslims and non-Muslims, so gained an increasing acceptance among Muslims along with non-Muslim consumers. Halal is becoming a global symbol of a lifestyle choice and quality assurance choice has promoted values as economic and social justice, earth stewardship, social responsibility, and animal welfare have gained interest which is beyond religious compliance. The global halal market is 1.7 billion consumers and worth almost US$ 2.3 trillion. This paper has focused on items Muslims are using other than food.

Earth Stewardship

This chapter addresses the interactions of individuals with government, business, and other institutions to build upon and support individual efforts. It emphasizes sustainable outcomes at regionally and globally significant scales. Global changes that threaten Earth’s ecosystems and society could be reversed through progress toward four key stewardship goals: reducing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, increasing the extent of forests and wetlands, sustaining ecosystem services, and reducing human population growth and unnecessary consumption. The US Declaration of Independence radically included “pursuit of happiness” as an inalienable right of all people. Since happiness is generally unrelated to consumption or wealth, society’s happiness and well-being can often be enhanced without increasing consumption. The chapter outlines five potential strategies by which government can complement the efforts of individuals to foster happiness. If people decide, individually and collectively, that the planet’s future habitability is important, they will know how to ensure a better life for their grandchildren.

Earth Stewardship Science—Transdisciplinary Contributions to Quantifying Natural and Cultural Heritage of Southernmost Africa

Evaluating anthropogenic changes to natural systems demand greater quantification through innovative transdisciplinary research focused on adaptation and mitigation across a wide range of thematic sciences. Southernmost Africa is a unique field laboratory to conduct such research linked to earth stewardship, with ‘earth’ as in our Commons. One main focus of the AEON’s Earth Stewardship Science Research Institute (ESSRI) is to quantify the region’s natural and cultural heritage at various scales across land and its flanking oceans, as well as its time-scales ranging from the early Phanerozoic (some 540 million years) to the evolution of the Anthropocene (changes) following the emergence of the first human-culture on the planet some 200 thousand years ago. Here we illustrate the value of this linked research through a number of examples, including: (i) geological field mapping with the aid of drone, satellite and geophysical methods, and geochemical fingerprinting; (ii) regional ground and surface water interaction studies; (iii) monitoring soil erosion, mine tailing dam stability and farming practices linked to food security and development; (iv) ecosystem services through specific biodiversity changes based on spatial logging of marine (oysters and whales) and terrestrial (termites, frogs and monkeys) animals. We find that the history of this margin is highly episodic and complex by, for example, the successful application of ambient noise and groundwater monitoring to assess human-impacted ecosystems. This is also being explored with local Khoisan representatives and rural communities through Citizen Science. Our goal is to publicly share and disseminate the scientific and cultural data, through initiatives like the Africa Alive Corridor 10: ‘Homo Sapiens’ that embraces storytelling along the entire southern coast. It is envisioned that this approach will begin to develop the requisite integrated technological and societal practices that can contribute toward the needs of an ever-evolving and changing global ‘village’.

Earth stewardship, economic justice, and world mission: The teachings of Laudato Si’

The article provides a synopsis of the encyclical Laudato Si’, written for everyone living in this degraded planet by Pope Francis. Our common home, Planet Earth, calls us to intimacy and communion with everything that is. Rediscovering this call and mission is the key to the flourishing of the community of diverse life-forms in the biosphere. We are all called to heal, protect and care of the planet to save the ecological systems on which life depends and assure future generations of a sustainable future. The article also details the concrete programs being done, in the light of ecological conversion called for in Laudato Si’, through a covenant of a sustainable development community of people and organizations which connect, converge, share, learn and collaborate in projects to the planting of a billion bamboo by 2030 to combat the dire effects of the climate crisis and build up the bamboo industry to provide jobs for the poor; networking a million organic farmers through an e-commerce platform to make production and marketing of organic products more efficient and sustainable;, and, provide online education to a million school dropouts to enable them to obtain a high school diploma so that they can proceed to college, obtain jobs, or put up their own businesses - all these by 2030. Inspired by Laudato Si’, the members of the covenant also share resources, strategies and innovative approaches to meet the challenges of sustainable development in the Philippines and in the entire planet by the year 2030.

The Logic of Geopower

Neyrat moves on to reflect on what the attempt at managing the climate, or the popular environmental term of Earth Stewardship, entails and how viewing the Anthropocene through the term of Earth Stewardship can help us to understand what exactly humankind’s position as a major geological force truly implies and how within this logic of geopower we can begin to uncover contradictions that leave us questioning any sort of concept of mankind as distinct from nature. Neyrat shows how seemingly positive connotations of managing or caring for the human within conceptions of Earth Stewardship can become mired within much larger conceptions of what nature is considered to be in distinction from humankind and that the history of the word steward denotes an agent with royal power—showing that within the complicated attempt at Earth Stewardship and climate management, there will no doubt be those who benefit and those who won’t.

Public Political Ecology: a community of praxis for earth stewardship

Political ecology is a powerful framework for analyzing the underlying causes of environmental change, yet underutilized for guiding an ethical response to the Anthropocene. In this article, I introduce Public Political Ecology as an approach for practicing engaged scholarship in this moment of ecological crisis. A political, ethical and educational project, public political ecology is influenced by Antonio Gramsci's work on the philosophy of praxis. It therefore operates from the understanding that ideas are a material force capable of transforming society in revolutionary ways, and through a community of praxis within which academics can play important roles by engaging more actively with broader publics. Innovations from public geographies such as participatory action research and mapping, service learning, and social media offer important methodologies and tools for this approach. Public political ecology, then, is a means by which political ecologists can serve as earth stewards and thus finally make good on the field's emancipatory claims. Keywords: Political ecology, engaged scholarship, earth stewardship, public geography, praxis

Faith in Place’s Religious Message

Chapter 6 examines the liberal Protestant theological underpinnings of Faith in Place’s work and the limitations to its universalistic discourse. While presenting earth stewardship as an ethic within all religions, Faith in Place leaders actually placed stewardship above all religions, demanding that religions bend and adapt to the earth’s needs. After examining Faith in Place’s theology, the chapter discusses conflicts that emerged through encounters with people who were not liberal Protestants in order to demonstrate the limitations of the interfaith organization’s claims to universality.