News From the Community Rights Movement

Jun 2, 2023

Wouldn’t You Say? – The Invisible Empire in Plain Sight

The American dream has turned out to be a nightmare. Wouldn’t you say?

May 31, 2023

Group announces PGE to plug controversial well

According to the CELDF, “not a single drop of frack waste has been injected within the township due to hard work, resistance and resilience.”

May 24, 2023

Waste well to be plugged in Grant Township

Feature photo by Mike Belleme, Rolling Stone GRANT TOWNSHIP — The online publication Marcellus Drilling News headlined the item this way: “Bad Guys Win: PA General Energy to Plug Grant Twp Injection Well.” The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund sees what happened differently, after Warren-based PGE, also known as Pennsylvania General Energy LLC, notified the… Read more »

When We Became Trees – A Short Story by Blake Lavia

“When we became trees, we left behind I and we became We.”

Read More | Community Wires, Rights of Nature

May 12, 2023

Radical Resilience and Restoration for Wetland Rights

On June 28th CELDF’s Kai Huschke will be presenting at the Society for Wetland Scientists annual conference.

Read More | Events

May 10, 2023

Unrepentant and Vindicated: Proposed Frack-Waste Injection Well in Grant Township to be Plugged and Abandoned

To date, not a single drop of frack waste has been injected within the Township due to hard work, resistance, and resilience.

May 4, 2023

Got Community Resistance?

Dean Barlese, an elder of the Pyramid Lake Paiute-Shoshone, who told us “We’ve got to stand up for our ancestors, they gave their lives, they shed their blood fighting for this land.”

May 3, 2023

From Lake to Lagoon: Exploring Sustainability in Cleveland & Venice

CELDF’s Tish O’Dell will be present at this free public event as part of the community programming for the exhibition Everlasting Plastics, curated by the Cleveland gallery SPACES for the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennial.

Read More | Events

May 1, 2023

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 »

Apr 17, 2023

Ohio River Rights Campaign Launched by Cincinnati Residents

“We began to understand through this process that we are not only connected to the Ohio River, but that we are part of the ecosystem,” stated Jim Schenk of CROW.

The Myth of American Democracy: The Ruling Class Crusade Against Community & Nature

Wednesday, April 19th at 6:30 PM (Central Time) CELDF’s Tish O’Dell will be a panelist on for the upcoming discussion, The Myth of American Democracy: The Ruling Class Crusade Against Community & Nature hosted by Athens Community Rights Coalition at Ohio University.

Read More | Community Wires, Events, News, News from the Grassroots

Apr 4, 2023

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.”

Mar 29, 2023

An Earth Day Presentation – No More Enviro-Mentalism: Earth Emancipation Now!

April 18th at 3:00 PM CELDF’s Ben Price will be speaking at Youngstown University in Ohio for Earth Day. Dr. Ray’s Energy and Environment Speaker Series, Ohio Environmental Council, and Citizens’ Climate Lobby Mahoning Valley Chapter present an Earth Day 2023 event on Tuesday April 18th at 3 PM in YSU Kilcawley Center – “No More Enviro-Mentalism:… Read more »

Read More | Events, News from the Grassroots

Mar 28, 2023

Webinar Sheds Light on Community’s Fight Against Fracking Waste Injection Well

Thursday, April 6th at 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM EDT FracTracker Alliance and Halt the Harm Network will host a special virtual screening of the documentary film “Hellbent” on April 6, 2023, at 2 p.m. ET. The screening will be followed by a discussion with the filmmakers and those involved in the fight to protect… Read more »

Read More | Events

Mar 27, 2023

Webinar: Community Resilience in the Midst of Chaos Thursday, May 18th @ 7pm EDT

Feature photo by Whylly Suhendra As much as humans have effectively organized to harm and destroy their land bases and each other, the innate drive to come together in community, to help each other in times of extreme events, is an even more powerful force. Manmade or naturally occurring, there are thousands of stories of… Read more »

Read More | Events

Mar 24, 2023

The Trains Don’t Always Run on Time:<br>Yet the System Keeps Rolling, and We’re Just Collateral Damage

The Trains Don’t Always Run on Time:
Yet the System Keeps Rolling, and We’re Just Collateral Damage

A more honest report on the East Palestine disaster and details how the system itself is to blame and why these horrific and deadly events keep happening and our communities and nature keep bearing the brunt.

Mar 23, 2023

East Palestine: “We Basically Nuked a Town with Chemicals So We Could Get a Railroad Open”

We can’t turn back time, but we can change this disastrous system so no company can harm communities in this way ever again.

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.

Mar 15, 2023

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 »

Mar 14, 2023

Guest Blog: We Must Overturn SCOTUS Decisions That Effectively Deny Rights to Black People

The posting of this piece is a reflection of CELDF’s commitment to featuring diverse perspectives and ideas in the quest to bring about a community rights and rights of nature existence into full being.

Conservation Today: Kai Huschke and the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund

Kai Huschke, with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, talks to us about the hierarchy of community rights, states rights, and corporate rights.

Mar 3, 2023

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

Read More | Events, Rights of Nature

Feb 20, 2023

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.

Read More | Events, Rights of Nature

Feb 16, 2023

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

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.

Read More | Events, Rights of Nature

Feb 7, 2023

CELDF is seeking a Grant Writer | Job Opening

The person in this position will play an integral role in expanding CELDF’s support for its mission to advance democratic and environmental rights. This is a part-time remote contract position, with the possibility of an expanded role over time.

Read More | Blogs, News, News from the Grassroots, Resources

Feb 2, 2023

“Water is Us” – This Time on Webinar Wednesday…

“Water Is Us” will be moderated by ORCRN board member and CELDF organizer Kai Huschke. Please send your request for the Zoom link to: info@orcrn.org

Read More | Events

Jan 25, 2023

Yamhill County, Oregon, Virtual Democracy School

The Yamhill County Raging Grannies are sponsoring and online virtual Democracy School. Democracy School is made up of 4 sessions. Please plan to attend each of them. The dates of the sessions are as follows: $40 registration fee Direct questions to Joni Zimmerman at raginggranniesyc@gmail.com.

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.

Guest Blog: Badges and Incidents of Slavery

The challenge: How to overcome the white dominance/Black subordination relationship. How to decolonize.

Tumbled by the surf: Figuring out which wave to ride next for recognizing rights

We must think about our history- the Revolutionaries were proposing an alternative to being a colony of England, abolitionists were fighting for an alternative to slavery, the suffragists for an alternative to patriarchy and on and on.

Wouldn’t You Say? – Materialism is Substance Abuse, Literally

Let’s be generous and call the COP–15 agreement a plan for conserving 1% of Earth’s biodiversity. That means that negotiators agreed to sacrifice 99% of Earth’s remaining biodiversity on the altar of human consumption for profit.

Dec 20, 2022

Grant’s Fight is Our Fight

As we head into the new year, please join us in continuing to stand with Grant Township. And let’s not only support them with words or dollars, but also follow their lead and bravely build on their efforts in the communities where we live.

Dec 10, 2022

Do No Harm: Protecting the Rights of Mangroves in Ecuador From Injury

Mangroves, according to the Ramsar definition, are considered wetlands – an area that CELDF is also helping to evolve coming out of the Declaration of the Rights of Wetlands.

Nov 30, 2022

Cleveland State trustees vote unanimously to strip John Marshall’s name from the college of law

Feature Photo by Gabriel Kramer / Ideastream Public Media Taru Taylor, a guest blogger with CELDF, helped spearhead efforts to rename law schools named after Former Chief Justice John Marshall, a key architect of the United State’s constitutional system who owned 200 slaves. CELDF along with many others signed onto the calls for law schools… Read more »

Read More | News from the Grassroots, Success Story

Nov 28, 2022

Newsletter: Susquehanna, Vol. 25, Issue 3

If you are interested in receiving our newsletter, the Susquehanna – either electronically or by mail – sign up here. Thank you! READ OUR NEWSLETTER and 2022 YEAR-END APPEAL

Press Release: Back to the Future — Ohioans Still Poisoned After All These Years

“The spreading of toxic and radioactive well waste brine on Ohio roads and other surfaces threatens all Ohioans,” stated FaCT Brine Education Committee Chair, Ron Prosek. “You could be living or traveling anywhere in Ohio and potentially be exposed to this dangerous material. This is one of the most reckless practices that the State of Ohio has ever allowed.”

Nov 16, 2022

Sneak Peek! — End of Year Newsletter 2022: We are Nature

Human and ecosystem viability come when we figure out how to orient our culture to be connected to all four parts: Living from, with, in, and as Nature.

CELDF presenting in the New England Environmental Justice Youth+ Summit — FREE WEBINAR OPEN TO ALL

November 19, 2022 ~ 11AM ET Ben Price – Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) – will be presenting at 11:00AM ET on “Nature as Property and the Nature of Property: Earth Emancipation is the Solution” Sponsored by the NH Conference of the United Church of Christ Co-sponsor: SNEUCC (Southern New England) Register Here. **Registration… Read more »

Join the OHCRN: Virtual film screening and discussion of “The Seeds of Vandana Shiva”

View the film on your own or with others (organize a viewing party!) from Friday November 18 to Sunday November 20. The OHCRN will host a Zoom webinar discussion on Sunday November 20 at 2:00 pm ET. The panel will include the filmmaker, Jim Becket.

Nov 8, 2022

Wouldn’t You Say? – What Do We Mean by “Community Rights?”

Lakota advocate and water protector Debra White Plume (Wioweya Najin Wina), upon being introduced to the history of municipal subjugation in the United States during a Democracy School hosted by residents of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, remarked that “municipalities are the white man’s reservations. The only difference is, we know we’re on reservations.”

Oct 31, 2022

Celebrating Victories in Europe and South America, the Rights of Nature Movement Plots Strategy in a Time of ‘Crises’

A global alliance formed in 2010 to advance an unorthodox legal theory that ecosystems and wild animals have rights, similar to humans. Now, says one leader, those ideas are “legitimate subjects of debate.”

Read More | News from the Grassroots, Rights of Nature

Oct 28, 2022

CELDF Allies with the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature in Siena, Italy

The Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN) gathered in Siena Italy at the 13th century monastery, Certosa di Pontignano, from October 15-18, and CELDF was there.

Read More | Events, News from the Grassroots, Rights of Nature

Sep 30, 2022

CELDF presenting with “turn” on October 11th at 9 AM PT/12 PM EDT

CELDF organizers Tish O’Dell, Michelle Sanborn, and Chad Nicholson will present a panel discussion, October 11th at 12 PM EDT, on “Tapped Out: Is Water a Commodity to be Owned or a Living Being with Rights to Exist, Flourish and Thrive?”

The rights of nature movement cannot be stopped

By Pamela Haines September 27, 2022 From the Navajo Nation to a small town in Pennsylvania to Ecuador, then across the world, the idea of enshrining the rights of nature is only growing.

Read More | News from the Grassroots, Rights of Nature

Sep 28, 2022

Happy Anniversary Rights of Pachamama Ecuador!

We at CELDF want to recognize and celebrate the 14-year anniversary of this historic date when the country of Ecuador codified Rights of Pachamama into their national Constitution.

Read More | News, News from the Grassroots, Rights of Nature

Sep 23, 2022

Wouldn’t You Say? – What are the Rights of Nature?

The law locks up the man or woman, Who steals the goose from off the common, But leaves the greater villain loose, Who steals the common from off the goose

Read More | Blogs, Issues, News, Rights of Nature

Sep 15, 2022

Water Speaks to Ohio Department of Natural Resources

YES, the waters have a voice in this project….or at least they should.

Sep 15, 2022

Announcing CELDF’s Proposed Rights of Nature Principles

A new system of law based on respect for Nature and the obligations we share as collaborators with life-supporting ecosystems must be institutionalized, recognizing Nature as a unique legal entity and rights holder.

Read More | Issues, News, Resources, Rights of Nature

Announcing CELDF's Proposed Rights of Nature Principles

Sneak Peek! -- End of Year Newsletter 2022: We are Nature

New Book: ‘Death by Democracy’

Wouldn’t You Say? – The Invisible Empire in Plain Sight

Group announces PGE to plug controversial well

Waste well to be plugged in Grant Township

When We Became Trees – A Short Story by Blake Lavia

Radical Resilience and Restoration for Wetland Rights

Unrepentant and Vindicated: Proposed Frack-Waste Injection Well in Grant Township to be Plugged and Abandoned

Got Community Resistance?

From Lake to Lagoon: Exploring Sustainability in Cleveland & Venice

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

Ohio River Rights Campaign Launched by Cincinnati Residents

The Myth of American Democracy: The Ruling Class Crusade Against Community & Nature

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

An Earth Day Presentation – No More Enviro-Mentalism: Earth Emancipation Now!

Webinar Sheds Light on Community’s Fight Against Fracking Waste Injection Well

Webinar: Community Resilience in the Midst of Chaos Thursday, May 18th @ 7pm EDT

The Trains Don’t Always Run on Time:Yet the System Keeps Rolling, and We’re Just Collateral Damage

East Palestine: “We Basically Nuked a Town with Chemicals So We Could Get a Railroad Open”

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

Watch the video: “Water is Us”

Guest Blog: We Must Overturn SCOTUS Decisions That Effectively Deny Rights to Black People

Conservation Today: Kai Huschke and the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund

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

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

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

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

Community Conversation: Rights and Rites

CELDF is seeking a Grant Writer | Job Opening

“Water is Us” – This Time on Webinar Wednesday…

Yamhill County, Oregon, Virtual Democracy School

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

Guest Blog: Badges and Incidents of Slavery

Tumbled by the surf: Figuring out which wave to ride next for recognizing rights

Wouldn’t You Say? – Materialism is Substance Abuse, Literally

Grant’s Fight is Our Fight

Do No Harm: Protecting the Rights of Mangroves in Ecuador From Injury

Cleveland State trustees vote unanimously to strip John Marshall’s name from the college of law

Newsletter: Susquehanna, Vol. 25, Issue 3

Press Release: Back to the Future — Ohioans Still Poisoned After All These Years

Sneak Peek! — End of Year Newsletter 2022: We are Nature

CELDF presenting in the New England Environmental Justice Youth+ Summit — FREE WEBINAR OPEN TO ALL

Join the OHCRN: Virtual film screening and discussion of “The Seeds of Vandana Shiva”

Wouldn’t You Say? – What Do We Mean by “Community Rights?”

Celebrating Victories in Europe and South America, the Rights of Nature Movement Plots Strategy in a Time of ‘Crises’

CELDF Allies with the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature in Siena, Italy

CELDF presenting with “turn” on October 11th at 9 AM PT/12 PM EDT

The rights of nature movement cannot be stopped

Happy Anniversary Rights of Pachamama Ecuador!

Wouldn’t You Say? – What are the Rights of Nature?

Water Speaks to Ohio Department of Natural Resources

Announcing CELDF’s Proposed Rights of Nature Principles

Support just, fair, and sustainable communities

The Trains Don’t Always Run on Time:
Yet the System Keeps Rolling, and We’re Just Collateral Damage