The Fundamental Laws of Human Ecology
  1. We're all in it together. Everything is connected to everything else. You can't do just one thing. (Law of Interrelatedness)
  2. The Earth and its resources are finite or you can't get something for nothing. (Law of Conservation of Energy)
  3. As energy and other resources are used, there is an overall decrease in the amount of usefulness. (Second Law of Thermodynamics)
  4. Everything must go somewhere — there is now a way. (Law of Conservation of Matter)
  5. Up to a point, the bigger the better; beyond that point, the bigger the worse or to everything there is an optimum size. (Brontosaurus Principle)
  6. Everything is becoming something else. (Law of Continuous Creation)
  7. In most cases, the greater the diversity of a system, the greater its stability. (The Diversity Principle)
  8. Nature frequently but not always "knows" best. Note: People use antibiotics to counter nature. (Nature knows best)
  9. We shape our buildings (environment) and afterwords our buildings (environment) shape us. — Winston Churchill (Your Environment is You)
  10. As human beings, one of our inalienable rights is the right to live in a clean environment. (The Environmental Bill of Rights)
  11. Our environment does not belong to us alone. It was used by our forefathers, passed on to us, and we are charged with the responsibility of passing it undamaged to all future generations. (The Rights of the Unborn)
  12. All persons must be held responsible for their own pollution. (The Responsibility of the Born)
  13. All persons are created with an equal right to live in dignity and peace and to work out a meaningful existence. Everyone is entitled to a fair share of the world's resources — provided one is carrying one's own share of the responsibilities for maintaining an orderly world. (The Law of Equity)
  14. Comfortable living, in harmony with nature, should be each society's goal. (The Goal of Society)
  15. Our dependence on technology is, today, so strong and widespread, that we are compelled to use technology as a means for getting out of our environmental dilemma. (Technology: Part of the Problem, Part of the Solution)
  16. No national purpose however urgent, no political or economic necessity however pressing can possibly justify the risk of bringing all human history to an end. (Give Earth a Chance)
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