Ask What You Can Do for Your Planet

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'In our globalized world, the threats we face are interconnected

. . . Whatever threatens one threatens all,' Gro Harlem Brundtland, former prime minister of Norway and former director-general of the World Health Organization, said at an October 2005 sustainability conference. 'We must respond to HIV/AIDS as robustly as we do to terrorism and to poverty and as we do to [nuclear arms] proliferation. . . . We can all make a difference to influence public policies, nationally and globally. What we need is to inspire greater political commitment and determination to make this world a better place.'

The Earth Corps for Global Service would work with existing service organizations to recruit and help international citizens to, among other things, address the United Nations' eight Millennium Development Goals, which include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; providing universal primary education; reducing child mortality; combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and promoting gender equality and empowering women.

Earth Corps for Global Service has already begun a global media recruiting campaign with a goal of doubling the current number of service volunteers around the world in the next three years, and quadrupling that number by 2012. The plan is to work with more than 200 service organizations, such as the Peace Corps, UN Volunteers, and AIESEC (an international work exchange organization) to form an Earth Corps Coalition. An Earth Corps training to help environmental and social justice service volunteers match their interests and skills with global needs will be available soon.

If John F. Kennedy were alive today, he might be saying, 'Ask not what your planet can do for you. Ask what you can do for your planet.' Those who are moved by this call can visit www.serveyourplanet.org.

Eric Utne is the founder of Utne Reader. Carol Bellamy is CEO of World Learning, president of the School for International Training, and former executive director of the Peace Corps (1993-95) and UNICEF (1995-2005).

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