Important Updates
Justice continues to be denied in Oregon. Community rights efforts in Lane…
Blogs
It is time to come together. Let’s have a conversation about our…
In The News
The intentional conflation of privileged property of this sort with personal property,…
Blogs
Nov 19, 2021
It is time to come together. Let’s have a conversation about our issues, our strategies, and how we can truly unite to enact change.
Read More | In The NewsOct 11, 2021
Bookchin recognized that social ecology will advance the cause of social and environmental justice by activating communities on many fronts. Uniting parallel efforts can actualize social ecology’s goals.
Read More | Events, In The NewsOct 7, 2021
Members of OHCRN have called on Ohio’s Attorney General, Dave Yost, to open an investigation into the violation of Ohio law and the criminal actions of state officials and industry who were and are well aware that this brine is highly radioactive, yet still approve and allow it to be spread in Ohio communities.
Read More | Chemical Trespass, In The NewsSep 23, 2021
The Freedom From Chemical Trespass Rights-Based Ordinance asserted residents’ rights to a healthy climate and banned corporate activities that would interfere with those rights, punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 per day.
Read More | Community Rights, Extraction & Pollution, In The News, Issues, Water PrivitizationSep 14, 2021
Invisible Hand, the rebirth of the WACRN, and updates from the West Coast.
Read More | Blogs, Community Wires, In The News, NewsSep 13, 2021
Community Rights organizing began in Pennsylvania over two decades ago. Since then, dozens of local laws have been adopted that ban everything from factory farms, to the spreading of sewage sludge, to oil and gas fracking and pipelines.
Read More | Blogs, Community Wires, In The News, NewsSep 13, 2021
As climate change brings suffering across the globe, in New Hampshire Judge Martin Honigberg has sided with a local corporate actor who seeks financial retribution against the Town of Nottingham for the popular adoption of an ordinance recognizing a right of townspeople to a “climate system capable of sustaining human societies.” On September 1, 2021 the sole corporate actor, Brent Tweed, of G&F Goods, LLC submitted a $40,281.50 bill to the court for attorney fees.
Read More | Community Rights, In The News, News, Press ReleasesAug 24, 2021
The General Synod of the United Church of Christ has become the first mainline Protestant body to publicly proclaim that nature has rights.
Read More | Community Wires, In The News, News, Rights of Nature, Success StoryJul 10, 2021
Tune in to Legal Talk Networks Lawyer 2 Lawyer podcast featuring CELDF attorney, Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin. Listen as they discuss law and Nature and take a look at what rights we have to access Nature.
Read More | In The News, Issues, News, Rights of NatureJun 16, 2021
Tune in on Monday June 28, 2021 for the national airing of the award-winning film “The People vs. Agent Orange” on PBS’ Independent Lens!
Read More | Chemical Trespass, Events, In The News, Issues, NewsMay 28, 2021
On May 28, 2021, CELDF’s Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin joined Rebecca Tsosie (constitutional and Indigenous law scholar of Yaqui descent and regents professor of law at the University of Arizona) and Carol Van Strum (Lincoln County Community Rights) on the nationally syndicated Climate One podcast.
Read More | In The News, NewsMay 22, 2021
Christopher Stone, the environmental scholar who championed fundamental rights of nature died at 83 on May 14, 2021. Stone was a legal scholar who argued in 1972 that trees, rivers, oceans and Nature itself possess fundamental legal rights, an argument that entered the bedrock of the modern environmental movement.
Read More | In The News, News, Rights of NatureApr 9, 2021
A lawsuit seeking a temporary suspension of Columbus’ one-year petitioning time limit due to the pandemic was dismissed by the U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio on April 14, 2021. The lawsuit was filed in June 2020 by our group, Columbus Community Bill of Rights (CCBOR), arguing that the city’s time limit during the COVID-19 pandemic was unconstitutional and placed a severe burden on ballot access for our initiative, which sought to ban harms from the fracking industry within Columbus and it’s watershed area.
Read More | Democratic Rights, In The News, Issues, NewsFeb 4, 2021
Demands to abolish the Electoral College and restructure the U.S. Supreme Court can be pegged to substantive constitutional change. It’s the role of movements to demand and make changes to the “applicable law,” and its interpretation.
Read More | In The News, NewsFeb 1, 2021
The World We Need offers a vivid look at the people protecting America’s communities against environmental degradation and racism. Their strategies for saving lives, protecting land, and creating opportunities provide a model for activists everywhere.
Read More | Community Rights, Democratic Rights, In The News, News, Press Releases, ResourcesJan 5, 2021
Join us Tuesday 12 January, at 12:30 p.m EST for the third episode of this conference series, entitled “Nature rights: an extension of Human rights?”.
Read More | Community Wires, Events, In The News, Resources, Rights of NatureJan 4, 2021
Coverage on the ongoing Rights of Nature efforts in Grant Township – see the full original article by the Indiana Gazette.
Read More | Democratic Rights, Extraction & Pollution, In The News, NewsDec 11, 2020
Over the past five years, organizers in seven Ohio communities (three cities, four counties) have qualified ballot measures to recognize enforceable rights of ecosystems and human rights to water. All take the historic and bold step of elevating these basic rights above the legal privileges currently enjoyed by private corporations in the United States.
Read More | Community Rights, Corporate 'Rights', Corporate Agriculture, Extraction & Pollution, In The News, Issues, News, Rights of NatureDec 4, 2020
A bill was just proposed in Missouri to ban Rights of Nature litigation, the American Petroleum Institute just filed a brief to oppose local Rights of Nature laws, as the Democratic Party shows interest in the concept.
Read More | In The News, Rights of NatureOct 21, 2020
Lisa Burroughs for Ashtabula County Water Watch interviews CELDF’s Tish O’Dell on the Rights of Nature Movement in an October 2020 edition of North Coast Voice Magazine.
Read More | Community Rights, Community Wires, In The News, Issues, Rights of NatureOct 6, 2020
From Bolivia to New Zealand, rivers and ecosystems in at least 14 countries have won the legal right to exist and flourish, as a new way of safeguarding nature gains steam. This new legal route to protect the planet – overriding the long-held human right to harm – bring fresh arguments to court, rally communities and shift local politics.
Read More | In The News, Issues, Rights of NatureSep 6, 2020
Rights of Nature advocates caution against handing over Rights of Nature oversight to the Democratic Party.
Read More | Community Rights, Corporate 'Rights', Corporate Agriculture, Democratic Rights, In The News, IssuesAug 27, 2020
From Executive Producer Mark Ruffalo comes the world’s first documentary film on the Rights of Nature Movement. Attend the virtual world premiere followed by a panel discussion around the Rights of Nature Movement.
Read More | Community Wires, In The NewsAug 19, 2020
One hundred years ago, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, purporting to grant women the right to vote in the United States. In reality, this right applied only to white women; explicitly racist laws during and beyond the Jim Crow era categorically prohibited Black people from voting, and kept Indigenous and many Asian, Middle Eastern, and Latinx people from obtaining citizenship.
Read More | In The NewsAug 18, 2020
The UCC hosts CELDFs Tish O’Dell for a Rights of Nature presentation. Watch the full webinar here!
Read More | In The NewsJun 29, 2020
Chad Nicholson joins Thom Hartmann to discuss how the 1% are effectively, suing the 99% for their own benefit, citing the findings of our June 2020 Report.
Read More | Corporate 'Rights', In The NewsApr 22, 2020
For 50 years, environmentalists have celebrated the illusion that the law is on their side. Earth Day’s laws have systematically failed to guard against mass species die-offs, the climate crisis, deadly air pollution, the corporatization of freshwater, and the largest loss of biodiversity in human history.
Read More | Community Wires, In The NewsApr 20, 2020
This year CELDF will be hosting an online Q&A with organizers who have been engaging communities across the country in paradigm-shifting work for decades.
Read More | Community Wires, Events, In The NewsApr 13, 2020
Pennsylvania organizer, Chad Nicholson, discusses the Rights of Nature victory in Grant Township despite the ongoing rollback of environmental protections across the country.
Read More | In The News, Resource LinksApr 9, 2020
Pacific Northwest organizer, Kai Huschke, details how COVID-19 has opens timely conversation about the Rights of Nature as a legal framework for protecting Nature.
Read More | Community Wires, In The News, Resource LinksApr 6, 2020
In this interview, Kai speaks on the current state of community rights, gives an explanation of the events taking place in Grant Township, and talks about how we must take this time during Covid-19 to progress forward in the movement.
Read More | Community Wires, In The News, Rights of NatureApr 2, 2020
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) revoked a permit for a toxic frack waste injection well in Grant Township. The DEP cited the Township’s Home Rule Charter, which includes a “Community Bill of Rights,” in their decision. Through the Charter that residents adopted in 2015, they banned injections wells as a violation of the rights of the community and the ecosystems that sustain them. CELDF assisted in drafting and defending the law.
Read More | Community Wires, In The News, Resource Links, Success StoryMar 30, 2020
Government allies and corporate interests are treating the global pandemic as a business opportunity. Communities enduring this crisis are taking bold and necessary actions to exercise their powers of self-governance where governments are not functioning in the way people want or need.
Read More | In The News, NewsMar 21, 2020
Ohio Organizer Tish O’Dell responds to Gov. Mike DeWine’s concerns for public health and constitutional rights during the COVID-19 crisis. Let’s hope he upholds his own words when it’s time to recover and rebuild.
Read More | Community Wires, In The News, Resource LinksMar 6, 2020
As the Pennsylvania DEP attempts to block Grant Township’s defense of their ban on fracking injection wells, the court rules that the case can move forward. Grant argues they have the right to local governing authority to protect against corporate harm.
Read More | Community Wires, In The News, Success StoryFeb 6, 2020
Check out this interview with CELDF’s Hawaii and Northwest organizer, Kai Huschke, on CELDF’s partnerships with communities across the U.S. who have spearheaded the Rights of Nature movement.
Read More | Community Wires, In The News, Resource Links, Rights of NatureFeb 6, 2020
If corporations have individual rights under US law – like freedom of speech – why not a grant a lake or forest or river the same status? Ohio organizer Tish O’Dell talks about Toledo’s groundbreaking law – the Lake Erie Bill of Rights – and the Rights of Nature Movement!
Read More | Community Rights, Community Wires, In The News, Resource Links, Rights of NatureFeb 5, 2020
This 6 minute short explains how, across numerous social issues—from housing, worker rights, environmental protection to gentrification—“the people in the community lack the legal authority to determine their own future, a basic tenet of democracy.”
Read More | Blogs, Community Rights, In The News, Multimedia, Resource Links, ResourcesFeb 3, 2020
Toledoans are tired of waiting for action out of Columbus. State and federal authorities — who are supposed to protect the lake, and the people who rely on it for drinking water, recreation and more — should step up to their responsibilities.
Read More | Community Wires, In The NewsJan 25, 2020
Can a corporation 40 miles from Toledo interfere with the rights of Toledoans to amend their charter and protect Lake Erie?
Read More | Community Wires, In The NewsJan 22, 2020
When the courts inevitably fail us, our only recourse is direct actions, says writer, lawyer, and activist Will Falk.
Read More | Community Wires, In The NewsJan 21, 2020
Oral arguments in the federal case brought by a corporation to overturn the Lake Erie Bill of Rights are coming up. The world stands with Toledoans.
Read More | Community Wires, In The NewsJan 20, 2020
Florida state representatives endeavor to stop Rights of Nature as growing numbers of communities across the state advance local laws recognizing such rights.
Read More | Community Wires, In The NewsJan 19, 2020
The Lake Erie Bill of Rights is part of a growing movement, and people are joining. What will the courts do?
Read More | Community Wires, In The NewsJan 19, 2020
Toledoans grow support for the Lake Erie Bill of Rights as their day in court approaches.
Read More | Community Wires, In The NewsDec 19, 2019
2019 has been a remarkable year for CELDF and our partner communities. Check out what we are celebrating!
Read More | In The News, Press Releases & BlogsDec 17, 2019
The epic story of Grant Township, Pennsylvania, fighting for their community’s water in the face of PGE’s proposed fracking wastewater injection well.
Read More | Community Wires, In The News, Success StoryNov 13, 2019
Regardless of political gains by Democrats in Virginia, residents still do not have authority to govern themselves in their own communities. Here’s why – and what communities can do about it.
Read More | Community Wires, In The NewsOct 23, 2019
Lincoln County residents continue their fight to protect themselves and ecosystems from aerial sprayed pesticides, and spark not only hope, but tangible strategies for advancing rights.
Read More | Community Wires, In The NewsOct 14, 2019
An Ohio resident makes clear that it is state government itself that is driving forward polluting Lake Erie. The state is even joining a lawsuit to overturn the Lake Erie Bill of Rights while permitting four factory farms.
Read More | Community Wires, In The News