Rights of Nature

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May 19, 2025

From Standing Rock to the Endangered Species Act: Why the Environmental Movement Can’t Afford More “Victories” That Will Utterly Undo Us

From Standing Rock to the Endangered Species Act: Why the Environmental Movement Can’t Afford More “Victories” That Will Utterly Undo Us

The Endangered Species Act is almost 52 years old now and it is largely ineffectual at actually protecting endangered species. According to a 2016 study published by the Ecological Society of America, “less than 2 percent of all species that have ever been listed (formally protected by the [Endangered Species Act] as endangered or threatened) have recovered to the point where they qualified for delisting.”

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May 13, 2025

Counter Punch: CELDF and the Rights of Nature

Counter Punch: CELDF and the Rights of Nature

There is a critical need for a movement to recognize nature as a legal entity with rights. Just as human rights are enshrined in law to protect individuals, the rights of the natural world also need to be legally acknowledged.

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May 12, 2025

“A Slap in the Face” — Rights of Nature Advocates Silenced at the United Nations

“A Slap in the Face” — Rights of Nature Advocates Silenced at the United Nations

Dozens of activists for the rights of nature who traveled to the United Nations to participate in a high-level meeting were unexpectedly barred from speaking on April 22nd, Earth Day, due to a supposed “security breach.” 

Read More | Press Releases, Rights of Nature

May 6, 2025

Lake Erie is Talking but We Aren’t Listening

Lake Erie is Talking but We Aren’t Listening

Regional environmental leader Tish O’Dell spoke to Cleveland State students about the legal system’s failure to protect nature and the urgent need for cultural change.

Read More | Events, Multimedia, News, Rights of Nature

Apr 26, 2025

Rolling Stone: The Environment Is Under Attack. The Rights of Nature Movement Can Save It

Rolling Stone: The Environment Is Under Attack. The Rights of Nature Movement Can Save It

Grant Township’s 2014 Rights of Nature law became the first such piece of legislation to be enforced by a state, with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) citing it in rescinding a fracking waste injection permit.

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Apr 23, 2025

“A Bright Spot Amidst the Chaos” – From New York to Minnesota, the Rights of Nature are Growing

“A Bright Spot Amidst the Chaos” – From New York to Minnesota, the Rights of Nature are Growing

Today, April 22nd (Earth Day), advocates for the New York bill have been invited to the United Nations to address a high-level meeting on harmony with nature.

Read More | Press Releases, Rights of Nature

Apr 22, 2025

Salon: Take back the night – Establishing a “right to darkness” could save our night skies

Salon: Take back the night – Establishing a “right to darkness” could save our night skies

Voluntary standards for light pollution, like voluntary standards for much else where profit and community or ecosystem well-being might be at odds, have a habit of failing to meet the need, of being inconsistently applied, and of simply being ignored.

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Apr 22, 2025

Interview on the Great Lakes and NY State Waters Bill of Rights: Does Nature Have Rights?

Interview on the Great Lakes and NY State Waters Bill of Rights: Does Nature Have Rights?

This interview was conducted by the Environmental Coffeehouse welcoming Ben Price, CELDF Education Director & Tish O’Dell, Consulting Director of Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) who are working with Max Wilbert, Publicist for CELDF on the NYS Assembly Bill AO5156A, the Great Lakes and State Waters Bill of Rights, which is currently IN the… Read more »

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Apr 9, 2025

Project Censored: Conversations on Environmental Justice, Abolition, and the Future We Build

Project Censored: Conversations on Environmental Justice, Abolition, and the Future We Build

In the first part of the program, author and Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund’s education director Ben Price joins the program to talk about his new book, Wouldn’t You Say, A Collection of Essays on Environment and Community. In the book and in our conversation, Ben explains that what we’re seeing today is not a perversion… Read more »

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Mar 20, 2025

Common Dreams: New Bill to Recognize Legal Rights of All Water Bodies in New York State

Common Dreams: New Bill to Recognize Legal Rights of All Water Bodies in New York State

“Great Lakes and State Waters Bill of Rights” introduced in New York State Assembly BUFFALO – What if bodies of water were guaranteed the kinds of legal rights that would criminalize their destruction? What if communities had the authority to enact laws that prevented pollution, extraction, and waste-dumping? This would be the case under a new… Read more »

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Aug 6, 2024

The Killing of Lake Erie and Discovering Right Relationship Ten Years Later

The Killing of Lake Erie and Discovering Right Relationship Ten Years Later

On August 2, 2014, Toledo residents awoke to government alerts to not drink, bathe, use or touch the water coming out of their taps. The water could make adult humans very sick and even worse for babies, children, and anyone with compromised immune systems. Fish, animals, and plants weren’t even considered. What was clear though,… Read more »

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Jun 18, 2024

CELDF Response to “Can granting legal ‘personhood’ to nature stem biodiversity loss?” by Viktoria Kahui

CELDF Response to “Can granting legal ‘personhood’ to nature stem biodiversity loss?” by Viktoria Kahui

The prospect of liability introduced by conferral of personhood status monetizes the relationship between humans and the rest of nature.

Read More | Blogs, Community Rights, Democratic Rights, Rights of Nature

May 28, 2024

Should Rivers & Trees Have Rights?

Should Rivers & Trees Have Rights?

On May 20, 2024, Rockland Sierra Club, Lower Hudson Group and ROAR (Religious Orders Along the River) hosted this conversation titled: SHOULD RIVERS AND TREES HAVE LEGAL RIGHTS? A new movement is growing around the rights of nature, arguing that rivers, lakes, and forests should have legal rights for themselves, not for their value to… Read more »

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May 8, 2024

Wouldn’t You Say? – Paid Speech Isn’t Freedom of Speech

Wouldn’t You Say? – Paid Speech Isn’t Freedom of Speech

Feature photo by Christine Roy Like Junk Mail, Junk Speech is Trash Talk Freedom of speech isn’t what it used to be. Toward the end of the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st, its definition was changed in two unprecedented rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court. Today, what’s called free speech has… Read more »

Read More | Blogs, Community Rights, Corporate 'Rights', Corporate Agriculture, Democratic Rights, Extraction & Pollution, Rights of Nature

May 7, 2024

The Great Salt Lake is Disappearing… So Utah Bans Rights of Nature.

The Great Salt Lake is Disappearing… So Utah Bans Rights of Nature.

The Great Salt Lake. Image by Erin Testone. A growing number of American jurisdictions are outlawing Right of Nature as we embark on the greatest rates of extinctions in our planetary history.  In this essay, Will Falk, encourages Rights of Nature advocates to recognize that we cannot wait for courts and governments to enforce Rights… Read more »

Read More | Blogs, Chemical Trespass, Extraction & Pollution, Rights of Nature

Apr 29, 2024

CELDF Co-sponsoring Justin Nobel’s Musical Book Tour: Petroleum-238

CELDF Co-sponsoring Justin Nobel’s Musical Book Tour: Petroleum-238

Book cover design by Sabrina Bedford, cover photo by Julie Dermansky Thursday, May 16 from 2-3:30 pm at moCa Cleveland in Cleveland, OH CELDF and moCa Cleveland invite you to this Cleveland stop on author and journalist Justin Nobel’s Book Tour of his just-published book Petroleum-238 on the dangers to all of us and nature from the… Read more »

Read More | Events, Extraction & Pollution, Rights of Nature

Mar 27, 2024

AM I AN ACTIVIST?

AM I AN ACTIVIST?

Testimony of a Community Organizer CELDF’s Consulting Director, Tish O’Dell, submitted her testimony, “Am I an Activist?” to the 2024 Spring Activism Peace Chronicle publication. Tish has been involved in community rights and Rights of Nature work starting in her own community of Broadview Heights, Ohio, which led to the adoption of Ohio’s first Home… Read more »

Read More | Blogs, Chemical Trespass, Community Rights, Democratic Rights, Extraction & Pollution, Rights of Nature, Water Privitization

Feb 2, 2024

Changing Culture, Changing Law through Art – Andrea Bowers and CELDF: Exist, Flourish, Evolve

Changing Culture, Changing Law through Art – Andrea Bowers and CELDF: Exist, Flourish, Evolve

Developed through an ongoing partnership with CELDF Exist, Flourish, Evolve is a new, multi-site, multimedia campaign that builds awareness and action around the dangers facing Lake Erie and the Great Lakes ecosystem. 

Read More | Press Releases, Rights of Nature

Jan 17, 2024

International Rights of Nature Tribunal rules impacts caused by current forestry model as ecocide

International Rights of Nature Tribunal rules impacts caused by current forestry model as ecocide

Press release · 11th Local Rights of Nature Tribunal Biobío, Concepción, Chile International Rights of Nature Tribunal rules impacts caused by current forestry model as ecocide The International Rights of Nature Tribunal held its 11th Local Tribunal in the Biobío region in Chile on Friday, January 12, focusing its attention on the violations of the Rights of… Read more »

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Jan 16, 2024

Raising Awareness through art – Andrea Bowers: Exist, Flourish, Evolve

Raising Awareness through art – Andrea Bowers: Exist, Flourish, Evolve

The “Exist, Flourish, Evolve” art show will be held at The Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art and will focus on Rights of Nature and the Great Lakes in particular.

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Nov 29, 2023

Sneak Peek! — 2023 Year-end Newsletter: Living with Nature

Sneak Peek! — 2023 Year-end Newsletter: Living with Nature

Your efforts to be resilient and resist a system that wants to dominate Nature are critical to the changes we need.

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Oct 25, 2023

Truth, Reckoning & Right Relationship

Truth, Reckoning & Right Relationship

On October 16, 2023 CELDF hosted Part 1 of Truth, Reckoning & Right Relationship for the Great Lakes, Nature, and each other at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. Set on the shoreline of Lake Erie, over 70 invited guests were witness to Part 1: Truth and Reckoning of a two-part… Read more »

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Oct 12, 2023

CELDF’s Kai Huschke presents: Legalized Chemical Warfare – Community Resistance and Resilience to Protect the Future

CELDF’s Kai Huschke presents: Legalized Chemical Warfare – Community Resistance and Resilience to Protect the Future

In 2017 voters of Lincoln County adopted a community rights law banning aerial spray of pesticides by the corporate timber industry. CELDF was involved in assisting in the drafting of the law along with supporting the effort to get it adopted. In 2019 the courts, at the behest of the timber industry, overturned that law leaving public health and… Read more »

Read More | Chemical Trespass, Community Rights, Democratic Rights, Events, Extraction & Pollution, Rights of Nature

Sep 18, 2023

Industrial Society Needs Cultural Transformation to Embrace Rights of Nature

Industrial Society Needs Cultural Transformation to Embrace Rights of Nature

That Begins with the Stories we Tell . . . CELDF’s Education Director, Ben G. Price, is a pioneer in establishing the legal Rights of Nature. He organized the first community on Earth to enact a Rights of Nature law (Tamaqua, PA, 2006). In 2019 he shared what he had learned from nearly two decades… Read more »

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Aug 22, 2023

Trust the Children, Not the System

Trust the Children, Not the System

Featured photo: The plaintiffs in Held v. State of Montana walking and chatting outside the courthouse. (Photo: Robin Loznak) It will take an extended commitment to community organizing to expand the Held ruling into tangible relief as a vital state constitutional protection for nature. The 16 child plaintiffs in Held v. State of Montana, the Children’s… Read more »

Read More | Blogs, Chemical Trespass, Community Rights, Corporate 'Rights', Democratic Rights, Extraction & Pollution, Rights of Nature

Aug 2, 2023

Unmuting Rights of Nature

Unmuting Rights of Nature

“In our history, humans were owned at one point. That is the position Nature is currently in.”

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Jul 31, 2023

Local Governments Are Blocking Ballot Initiatives at the Behest of Corporations

Local Governments Are Blocking Ballot Initiatives at the Behest of Corporations

Feature photo by Paul Vernon AFP via Getty Images In 1979, the children’s educational television series Schoolhouse Rock! broadcast a now-classic episode titled “Three Ring Government” about the three branches of the U.S. government — executive, legislative and judicial. “No one part can be more powerful than the other,” proclaimed the narrator, who explains that our system of government… Read more »

Read More | Blogs, Community Rights, Democratic Rights, Rights of Nature

May 1, 2023

Toledo voters approved a bill of rights for Lake Erie. A group wants the same for the Ohio River

Toledo voters approved a bill of rights for Lake Erie. A group wants the same for the Ohio River

Feature photo by Bill Rinehart/WVXU “An advocacy group wants Cincinnati to recognize the right of the Ohio River to thrive. Members of Citizens for the Rights of the Ohio River Watershed are circulating a petition to get an amendment to Cincinnati’s charter on the ballot. Susan VonderHaar says CROW members want to give the river a seat… Read more »

Read More | Chemical Trespass, Community Rights, Community Wires, Corporate Agriculture, Democratic Rights, Extraction & Pollution, Issues, News, News from the Grassroots, Rights of Nature

Apr 4, 2023

Wouldn’t You Say? – The Challenge of Movement Building

Wouldn’t You Say? – The Challenge of Movement Building

“It seems like legal rights for community and for nature would almost be unnecessary if our attitude toward the world were based on reciprocity, responsibility, and accountability instead of maximizing personal advantage.”

Read More | Blogs, Community Rights, Democratic Rights, Rights of Nature

Mar 22, 2023

In Times of Increasing Uncertainty, We Already Have What We Need

In Times of Increasing Uncertainty, We Already Have What We Need

We must start trusting in ourselves and in our community members to be able to meet our needs, solve our problems and create truly participatory community-based forms of government and public spaces.

Read More | Blogs, Community Rights, Democratic Rights, Rights of Nature

Mar 15, 2023

Watch the video: “Water is Us”

Watch the video: “Water is Us”

“Water Is Us” was moderated by ORCRN’s board member and CELDF organizer Kai Huschke. Joining him was: On February 22nd the ORCRN’s Webinar Wednesday meandered through a variety of water topics, from current conditions of water access and water quality to how the law sees water, to the growth of rights of nature to protect and preserve water, to… Read more »

Read More | Community Rights, Events, Extraction & Pollution, Multimedia, Resource Links, Rights of Nature, Water Privitization

Mar 3, 2023

Wouldn’t You Say? – From Rights of Nature to Right Relationship

Wouldn’t You Say? – From Rights of Nature to Right Relationship

We are used to extracting not only metallic ores and fossil fuels, but ourselves and our communities from the natural world, and yet we don’t notice the increasing distance placed between us and our natural habitat by the human-made environment.

Read More | Blogs, Community Rights, Rights of Nature

Feb 28, 2023

RIGHTS OF NATURE PANEL DISCUSSION: Tuesday, March 21, 2023 from 6:30pm – 8:30pm PST

RIGHTS OF NATURE PANEL DISCUSSION: Tuesday, March 21, 2023 from 6:30pm – 8:30pm PST

Rights of Nature Panel Discussion: Tuesday, March 21, 2023 from 6:30pm – 8:30pm PST

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Feb 16, 2023

Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) 2023 Panel: “Protecting our Vital Watersheds – Transitioning to Rights of Nature”

Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) 2023 Panel: “Protecting our Vital Watersheds – Transitioning to Rights of Nature”

March 3rd at 1:15pm to 2:45pm PST/4:15pm to 5:45pm EST. CELDF’s Kai Huschke will be facilitating this panel on “Protecting our Vital Watersheds – Transitioning to Rights of Nature” focused on giving entities in nature such as rivers and watersheds legal rights.

Read More | Events, Rights of Nature

Feb 14, 2023

Community Conversation: Rights and Rites

Community Conversation: Rights and Rites

Using illustrator and writer Shaun Tan’s short story “Bears with Lawyers” as a touchstone, this discussion will interrogate the societal conception of rights (and rites) within our current legal system and beyond.

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Jan 19, 2023

Wouldn’t You Say? – Saving the Economy Means Not Saving Nature

Wouldn’t You Say? – Saving the Economy Means Not Saving Nature

At the risk of expediting the die-off of most life on the planet, including most humans, judges continue to turn a blind eye toward the rights of natural communities – where humans live in harmony with their environment – while giving full-throated support for legal rights vested in corporate property.

Read More | Blogs, Rights of Nature