Sustainable development
Resources are limited and must not be wasted; there is not always more (principle of limits). Most wastes and pollution are either resources we are too dumb to use or are so dangerous they shouldn't have been produced (no-waste-in-nature principle). To reduce pollution and resource use and waste, recycle or reuse mineral resources (principle of recycling and reuse). Recycling mineral resources takes energy, which in being produced and used causes pollution and environmental degradation (recyclingis-not-the ultimate-answer principle). To reduce resource waste and resource supply interruptions, get as much as possible of what we need locally, and dispose of or recycle wastes locally (principle of localism). To reduce pollution and resource use and waste, use resources primarily to meet vital needs and use these resources as efficiently as possible (principle of moderation). Stress the use of perpetual and renewable resources, and use renewable resources no faster than they're replenished by natural processes (principle of sustainable yield). Try to get resources from many sources; don't put all your eggs in one basket (principle of resource diversity) . Everyone is downwind or downstream from everybody (principle of the global commons).
Matter and Energy
We cannot create or destroy matter; we can only change it from one form to another. Everything we think we have thrown away is still here with us in one form or another; there is no away (law of conservation of matter).
Organised and concentrated matter is high-quality matter that can usually be extracted, processed, and converted into useful resources at an affordable cost; disorganised and dispersed matter is low-quality matter that often costs too much to convert to a useful resource (principle of matter quality).
Don't dilute, disperse, or mix matter products or wastes that can be recycled (principle of affordable recycling).
We cannot create or destroy energy; we can only change it from one form to another. We can't get energy for nothing; it takes energy to get energy (first law of energy, or law of conservation of energy).
Organised or concentrated energy is high-quality energy that can be used to do things; disorganised or dilute energy is low-quality energy that is not very useful (principle of energy quality).
In any conversion of energy from one form to another, high-quality, useful energy is always degraded to lower-quality, less useful energy that can't be recycled to give high-quality energy; we can't break even in terms of energy quality (second law of energy, or law of energy-quality degradation).
Everything runs on moderate- to high-quality energy that can't be recycled, so choose and use energy resources wisely (principle of energy use and flow). Don't use high-quality energy to do something that can be done with lower-quality energy; don't use a chain saw to cut butter or electricity to heat a house or household water (principle of matching energy quality to energy tasks).
Ecology
In nature we can never do just one thing; everything we do creates effects that are often unpredictable (first law of ecology, or principle of ecological backlash.)
Everything is connected to and intermingled with everything else; we are all in it together (second law of ecology, or principle of inter relatedness).
Any chemical that we produce should not interfere with any of the earth's natural biogeochemical cycles in ways that degrade the earth's life support systems (third law of ecology, or principle of chemical non-interference).
The earth's life-support systems can take a lot of stress and abuse, but there are limits (law of limits).
Each species and each individual organism can tolerate only a certain range of environmental conditions (range-of-tolerance principle).
No population can keep growing indefinitely (principle of carrying capacity).
Nature is not only more complex than we think but more complex than we can ever think (principle of complexity).
Economics
The market price of anything should include all present and future costs of any pollution, environmental degradation, or other harmful effects passed on to society and the environment (principle of internalising all external costs).
Try to get more output of goods and services from less resource input; do more with less (principle of increasing efficiency and productivity).
Some forms of economic growth are harmful; don't produce harmful goods (principle of economic cancer).
Don't waste resources trying to produce harmful goods more efficiently (principle of wasteful efficiency).
Short-term greed leads to long-term economic and environmental grief; don't deplete capital and mortgage the future (no-free-lunch principle).
The more things you own, the more you are owned by things (principle of over consumption and 'thing' tyranny).
Don't give people subsidies and tax breaks to produce harmful goods and unnecessarily waste resources; either eliminate all resource subsidies or reward only producers who reduce resource waste, pollution, and environmental degradation (principle of economic and ecological wisdom).
We cannot have a healthy economy in a sick environment (economics-as-if-the-earthmattered principle).
Politics
Human population growth ultimately makes democracy and individualism impossible (principle of freedom erosion).
Anticipating and preventing problems is cheaper and more effective than reacting to and trying to cure them; an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure (prevention, or input control principle).
Every crisis is an opportunity for change (bad-news can-be-good-news principle).
Think globally, act locally (principle of change).
Don't ever call yourself a conservative unless what you want to conserve is the earth (principle of true conservatism).
World view and Ethics
We are part of nature (principle of oneness).
We are a valuable species, but we are not superior to other species; all living beings, human and non human, have the same inherent worth (principle of humility).
Every living thing has a right to live, or at least struggle to live, simply because it exists; this right is not dependent on its actual or potential use to us (respect-fornature principle).
Our role is to understand and work with the rest of nature, not conquer it (principle of co-operation).
The best things in life aren't things (principle of love, caring, and joy).
Something is right when it tends to maintain the earth's life-support systems for us and other species and wrong when it tends otherwise; the bottom line is that the earth is the bottom line (principle of sustainability and ecocentrism).
It is wrong for humans to cause the premature extinction of any wild species and the elimination and degradation of their habitats (preservation of wildlife and biodiversity principle).
We have a right to protect ourselves against harmful and dangerous organisms, but only when we cannot avoid being exposed to such organisms or safely escape from the situation; in protecting ourselves we should do the least possible harm to such organisms (principle of self-defence).
We have a right to kill other organisms to provide enough food for our survival and good health and to meet other basic survival and health needs, but we do not have such rights to meet non basic or frivolous wants (principle of survival).
When we alter nature to meet what we consider to be basic or non basic needs, we should choose the method that does the least possible harm to other living things; in minimising harm it is in general worse to harm a species than an individual organism, and still worse to harm a biotic community (principle of minimum wrong).
It is wrong to treat people and other living things primarily as factors of production, whose value is expressed only in economic terms (economics-is-not everything principle).
We must leave the earth in as good a shape as we found it, if not better (rights-ofthe-unborn principle).
All people must be held responsible for their own pollution and environmental degradation (responsibility-of-the-born principle).
No individual, corporation, or nation has a right to an ever-increasing share of the earth's finite resources; don't let need slide into greed (principle of enoughness).
We must protect the earth's remaining wild ecosystems from our activities,
rehabilitate or restore ecosystems we have degraded, use ecosystems only on a
sustainable basis, and allow many of the ecosystems we have occupied and abused
to return to a wild state (principle of ecosystem protection and healing).
In protecting and sustaining nature, go further than the law requires (ethics-often-exceeds-legality principle).
To prevent excessive deaths of people and other species, people must prevent
excessive births (birth control-is-better-than-death-control principle).
Everything we are and have or will have ultimately comes from the sun and the earth; the earth can get along without us, but we can't get along without the earth; an exhausted earth is an exhausted economy (respect-your-roots or earth-first principle).
Don't do anything that depletes the earth's physical, chemical, and biological capital that supports all life and human economic activities; the earth deficit is the ultimate deficit (balanced-earth budget principle).
Love thy species and other species today and in the future as thyself (principle of species love and protection).
To love, cherish, and understand the earth and yourself, take time to experience and sense the air, water, soil, plants, animals, bacteria, and other parts of the earth directly; learning about the earth indirectly from books, TV images, and ideas is not enough (direct-experience-is-the-best-teacher principle).
Learn about and love your local environment and live gently within that place; walk lightly on the earth (love-your-neighbourhood principle).