As I take a breath this summer, I have been thinking a lot about Ayana Elizabeth’s Johnson’s What If We Get It Right? I am sliding right into the next book project asking a similar question, propelled by the abundant riches of all the interviews I did for Poisoning Our Children. There is more to say than could fit in any one book.

One of the most striking parts of Johnson’s book is the Climate Oath, which she appends towards the end of her rich and delightful miscellany. Do No Harm is a motto I have often quoted, particularly in conversations with healthcare providers, and it centers her oath.

To the splendid idea of pledging fealty to people and planet, I have added my own thoughts about conscientious objection – something that sprung from a public debate on the aids and ills of AI with a colleague at Benedictine this Spring.

The original Hippocratic Oath starts with swearing to the healing gods: we instead choose elements of life on Earth we hold particularly dear. Substitute in those that reverberate deeply with you, those you would be mortified to let down and elated to make proud. We offer this model for you to make your own, and pass along:
On the majesty of turquoise seas, and fireflies, and aspen trees,
On the honor of our parents, our ancestors, and humans-to-come,
On the wonders of laughter and sunshine,
I make these devotions to climate solutions for my community and for our magnificent planet:

First, move from “I” to “we.”
We will expand our sense of interdependence.
We will rein in our sense of individualism.
We will ask, “What should we do, together?”
Survival is collective, our fates are intertwined.

Second, do no harm.
We will restore and heal, not pollute and deplete.
We will regenerate ecosystems and our own resolve.
We will live lightly, as part of the Earth.
Accountability, generosity, and sweetness.

Third, less is more.
We will expand our creativity and contract our consumerism.
We will conserve, and distinguish between needing and wanting.
We will be gentle with our own imperfections and others’.
There is such a thing as enough. Basta.

Possibility exists.
This is a world of our making.
We can remake it, remix it, restore it, rebalance it.
The path of least resistance is only one of many paths.

I will be part of getting it right.
We will be part of getting it right. (Johnson 2024)

I will add the following:

I am a conscientious objector to

· War

· Fossil Fuels

· Pesticides

· Plastics

· PFAS

· Tobacco

· Fast Fashion

· Ultra-processed food

· AI

· Gross Inequality

· All industries that seek to mine the Earth, to extract the shared resources of our common home, fragile ecosystems, and human attention to the detriment of all, just to make more money for the already wealthy.

I am a conscientious affirmer of

· Truth and Justice

· Equality

· Thriving Ecosystems

· Simple Living

· Learning and Wisdom

· Human Community and Connection

· All those many people who are willing to work for the common good, serve others, and protect the living planet on whom we all depend. All flourishing is mutual.

I pledge to try every day to choose the obvious good and leave the obvious bad, in adherence to these values and in defense of all that is sacred.

Reference

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, What If We Get It Right? New York: One World, 2024.