We live on a beautiful, resilient, and complex Earth. Despite this resiliency, humans have the capacity to vastly impact each other, as well as animals, plants, soil, air, water, and civilization. Human existence is momentary compared to the age of Earth. In that brief span, we have gained the power to wage nuclear war, unleash biological agents of global destruction, create technology that could harm billions or the planet, and initiate climate change that will change the entire biosphere of Earth. At the same time, we are also capable of learning and doing enormous good, with the capacity to implement just and equitable systems, restore endangered species and ecosystems, cure diseases, invent life affirming technologies, transform conflicts, cultivate empathy, and explore beauty in our art, music, writings, and stories. We are living at a crossroads in planetary history. We can choose to continue with conflict, destruction, and violence, or we can choose peace. Thus, we hereby sign this pledge to declare our intention to choose peace.
Peace is more than the absence of physical violence. To be lasting and sustainable, peace must entail the physical, material, psychological, cultural (including religious), and ecological well-being of all peoples. This is not simple to achieve. Yet action follows intention, thus, in whatever spheres of influence that we can, including in our personal lives, we hereby sign this pledge to declare our intention to wage peace.
Since humans live within different cultures, religions, educational systems, and worldviews, we recognize that people will disagree on how to secure a resilient, sustainable future. We know that arriving at a collective peaceful future will take much continued research, deliberation, discussion, and action. However, global pandemic and climate change have taught us the profound lesson that the welfare of any community cannot be sustained without the cooperation of all. With eyes wide open to how much there is to learn and do to achieve a sustainable, just, equitable, and peaceful future for the planet, we build on the foundation of this common understanding: As we are interdependent as a species, what happens to any of us matters and eventually affects us all. Thus, we hereby sign this pledge to declare our intention to pursue peace.
