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CORE
PRINCIPLES cont.
- Responsibility to Future Generations: Humankind
has a solemn obligation to future generations
to live within the ecological limits of the
earth.
- Prevention of Harm: Regulations should cautiously
and prudently err in favor of protecting human
life and health.
- Public Involvement in Decision-Making: All
citizens have a right to be actively involved
in decision-making that affects their health
or the quality of their environment.
- Citizens' Right to Know: Government and industry
have an obligation to regularly inform the public
of known and suspected dangers to their health
from industrial and governmental facilities
and from food, water, air, household supplies,
and other consumer products.
- The Common Good: Government has an obligation
both to regulate the use of private property
in the interest of the common good and to provide
transition assistance to those who lose their
livelihood due to changes in environmental policies.
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- Energy Independence: In order to protect American
economic independence, avoid military conflict,
and protect the environment and public health,
the U.S. should adopt policies which wean the
U.S. economy from its reliance on fossil fuels.
- Equitable Distribution of Responsibility:
Individuals, corporations, governments, and
nations that cause pollution or the destruction
of ecosystems must bear responsibility for remediation
and restoration.
- Governmental Compliance: Federal and state
governments must be held to the same environmental
standards as the private sector, except when
national security unambiguously requires a strictly
limited exemption.
- U.S. Leadership: The United States should
take a leadership role in protecting the global
environment.
- Moral Leadership: As environmental issues
are matters of personal and societal morality
and ethical responsibility, faith communities
have an obligation to provide leadership regarding
the necessity of protecting all creation.
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