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The Rights of Nature
Our legal system reflects the belief that humans are separate and above nature. As a result, our laws consider nature a "resource" to be owned, used, and degraded. Our current environmental protection laws do not protect the elements of nature per se. Rather, they regulate how much damage can be done to what is considered “property” before it harms one of us.
In contrast, the rights of nature movement recognizes that non-humans-- animals, rivers, forests, ecosystems-- have inherent rights akin to what we consider fundamental human rights. These rights arise simply from being in existence and do not depend on how useful the non-human element is to human purposes.
From eco-theologian Thomas Berry:
“The natural world on planet Earth gets its rights from the same source that humans get their rights, from the Universe that brought them into being.”
The Rights of Nature movement seeks to change our current legal system to reflect an new, more relational, way of viewing the non-human world.
There are already more than 500 rights of nature laws worldwide. In NYS, the Great Lakes and State Waters Bill of Rights has been introduced. Rather than treating the non-human world as property, these laws “acknowledge that Nature in all its life forms has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles.” [from The Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature]
If you'd like more information, or to get involved, contact Holly Rockwell at hrockwell@ssjrochester.org.
