We at CELDF are privileged to build relationships with so many people across the country working on Community Rights and Rights of Nature in their communities and we hear so many stories. This guest blog by Sherry Straub is a way for us to share one of these stories with you. 

From one community protest to another over the past twelve years, I have heard the chant “What do we want? Clean water! When do we want it? Now!” Well, “now” has come and gone, and we still don’t have clean water.

Reflecting back on the environmental disaster of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and in conversations with people about it, I realized two things:

1. People didn’t understand our ecosystem was in big trouble. 

2. There were plenty of passionate people who wanted to create awareness by educating those who didn’t understand. 

Photo by Sherry Straub

This is about the same time I attended and participated in the first Fort Myers beach protest, Hands Along the Water. It was organized by one of our beach locals and honored nature advocate, Jo Ann Finney. Looking back this was actually the start of the South Florida Clean Water movement. I remember this day like it was yesterday. 

All of the people lined up on Fort Myers Beach and held hands as we stretched across the sand for miles on our little seven-mile island. We stood united for the Gulf of Mexico. 

The loudmouth on the megaphone, John Heim, another nature advocate, was just what this crowd needed to get them pumped up and pissed off.  As he shouted, “what do we want?” The crowd shouted back “Clean Water”. Then he got louder and shouted “when do we want it?” It was in Chorus as the crowd shouted back “NOW”.  At that moment I knew even though it seemed so simple that was what we wanted, Clean Water Now. This is when I created the Facebook page and public group named the same, Clean Water Now

So how did I get to where I am now from there? 

It’s been a long journey and along the way, I realized that it didn’t really start on Fort Myers beach. I am from Toledo, Ohio, and have spent most of my life living there or in Florida. But, I think that’s where the realization started and I found some of the pieces to the big puzzle I have been trying to put together for years. 

Sherry Straub educating the public

You see, some days the effects of my exposure to environmental toxins make it difficult for me to simply do simple life tasks because of my health. When I say this, I also mean my mental health, as that is part of my physical well-being. I know a lot of people don’t want to talk about it, but we have to. The mental effects of industrial toxins introduced into the environment are impacting so many of us. It should not be taboo. Neurological disorders caused by exposure to toxins cause mental health problems. It’s not a fluke of nature, and someone is responsible.  Sadly, mental disorders are too frequently treated as personal failings, or at best as unfortunate naturally occurring chemical imbalance, but never as a pathology with a man-made cause. I’ve been haunted by trying to answer the question: why the denial?

Sherry Straub

I am not a doctor and I do not give medical advice. But, during my medical journey, which follows my environmental activist journey, I have learned a lot and I willingly share what I’ve learned. Whether you listen or not, that’s up to you.

When I first got sick nobody was talking much about the autoimmune system. Doctors finally determined mine was out of whack.

After many tests and doctor visits, I found out I had an autoimmune disorder called Hashimoto’s disease.  This was in 2015, after the cyanobacteria water crisis in Toledo Ohio, which happened in 2014. A huge algae bloom, fed by industrial agricultural runoff into Lake Erie, made the tap water in Toledo toxic to consume and even poisonous to bathe in or touch.

Photo by Sherry Straub

Today I’m not allowed to relay this story around my closest friends, as they have heard about it so many times.  They can’t take it anymore. I get it…I understand. Some days I’m tired of saying it. Some days I’m tired of trying to put all of these puzzle pieces together. I’m sick, but luckily not dead yet! So, I can’t stop telling my story. I won’t… I refuse to give up! 

I can’t help but wonder how many other people in Toledo, in Florida and all the other places experiencing severe algae blooms are suffering the same as I am? I do know there is research being done (simply google cyanobacteria and health effects) and also a documentary that came out in 2017, Toxic Puzzle, covering the issue.

Many tell me to leave it to the professionals as if I’m not an expert on what it’s like to be on the receiving end of a public poisoning that is making a profit for some. Anyway, I’ve talked to the professionals til I’m blue in the face. What happens when they don’t have any answers? 

Of course, I seek advice from my doctor often. I have gone for numerous tests, procedures, and have even had surgery to remove my enlarged thyroid.

Photo by Sherry Straub

I value her opinion as a medical doctor, but what I don’t understand is how she can tell me, “there just isn’t enough information and data to make the connection between the toxins in the water and your issues.  Our county health system is in a small town.“  Ft. Myers a small town? Seriously? If that’s the case, I feel sorry for the people that live in rural cities and towns. 

And this is the real reason why I speak out. We are putting toxins not only into the rivers, lakes, and oceans but into our bodies and our children’s bodies through that water. And there are other toxins that we breathe into our lungs and others in the food we swallow. And, we aren’t the only ones. What about the fish, the turtles, the birds, the trees, and all the beautiful life that we share this Earth with? What are we doing?

Photo by Sherry Straub

We have to fight for the Rights of Nature like our lives depend on it, because they do. We are nature!

Our communities deserve more than just the right to Clean Water; our entire ecosystem, our Mother Earth depends on us to end the poisoning. It seems to me we need to recognize the Rights of Nature, and make it illegal to poison Earth and her inhabitants.

Cat Chase
Photo by Cat Chase

Join our community of friends giving a voice for our environment, at Florida Community Rights Facebook page. Our communities are uniting and becoming stronger. The power is in the people. 

What do we want? Clean Water!!!

When do we want it? NOW!!!

Lessons from Ecuador

Drawing on a provision in Ecuador’s popularly-adopted constitution of 2008, the nation’s Constitutional Court (Ecuador’s highest court) halted mining concessions and permits issued in the Los Cedros Protected Forest ecosystem. The mining would violate the Rights of Nature, the court ruled in the landmark decision.

In the United States, whether it be about oil/gas drilling, corporate agriculture or pesticides, people in the communities that face harms caused by these industries can rarely even get into court to make a case and present evidence, let alone ecosystems themselves. We live under a system that presumes environmental regulations actually protect the environment. The court in Ecuador actually overruled existing environmental regulatory law, which had permitted mining in Los Cedros. 

What will it take to advance the Rights of Nature in the United States in such a way that similarly challenges the existing environmental regulation paradigm, which has thus far only regulated the rate of destruction?

Comparing the Los Cedros Forest to Ohio, USA

In 2012, my own community of Broadview Heights, Ohio passed a law after residents petitioned for a direct democracy initiative to prohibit any new oil/gas drilling in the municipality. The law they drafted and presented to voters included residents’ right to a healthy environment and Rights of Nature within the community. Voters passed the law by 67%, denying consent to any additional drilling. (Ninety wells had already been drilled in our 13-square-mile community). 

Two drilling corporations that had obtained state permits to drill more oil/gas wells, using the process of “fracking,” then sued the municipality of Broadview Heights. The people and the environment could not even get into the courtroom as intervenors in the case and were forced to sit back and watch local elected officials and lawyers half-heartedly defend the law, a law which the officials themselves did not pass and never supported. Being a direct democracy initiative, it was voters who wrote and passed the law. 

The drilling corporations argued their “rights” were being violated by the law and that the state had passed a law in 2004 preempting any local community from passing laws regarding the oil/gas industry. The judge agreed with them. The corporate “persons” had obtained all the necessary government permits and so their activities were legal in the eyes of the court—and there was nothing the community could do about it. No scientific studies on the harms of fracking and drilling in the community were ever considered or presented as evidence. All that mattered to the court was that the drilling companies’ actions were deemed legal by the state. The rights of the natural environment and the people were never considered, let alone defended, because they were “preempted” by state law.

This is why the recognition of the Rights of Nature in the Ecuadorian Constitution was so crucial in helping protect the people and forest of Los Cedros. The plaintiffs who brought the case to enforce the Rights of Nature were able to get into the courtroom and present evidence, something the people of Broadview Heights never got the chance to do.

What about Pennsylvania, USA?

When we compare what is happening in Grant Township, Pennsylvania to Broadview Heights, Ohio and Los Cedros, Ecuador, we can see how having the recognition language for the rights of a healthy environment in a state or federal constitution can help facilitate leveling the playing field at least a little bit.

Unlike in Broadview Heights, the Grant Township case is progressing to trial. This gives Grant Township the opportunity to collect information through the court “discovery” process and to depose witnesses. This is farther than Broadview Heights and Toledo, Ohio (Lake Erie Bill of Rights) and most other communities across the United States have gotten. Typically, the courts have looked for procedural ways to overturn Rights of Nature laws, or they take seriously corporate lawyers’ claims that Rights of Nature laws violate the civil rights of corporate “persons.”

Part of the reason the Grant Township case has progressed in the way it has is thanks to a 1971 “Environmental Rights” amendment to the Constitution of Pennsylvania that secures rights “to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources,” the amendment continues, “are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.”

Of course, this language did not stop fracking, corporate agriculture, industrial pollution and other harms from wreaking havoc in the state over the past 50 years.

But, it did help residents in Grant Township to get a foot in the door. The trial is scheduled for 2022. No one knows how the court will rule.

What do these cases mean for building a movement?

The case surrounding the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, in Toledo, Ohio, garnered the attention of people around the world. Even though a federal judge made the decision to overturn the law passed by the people recognizing Lake Erie’s right to exist, flourish and thrive, it did help expand peoples’ political imagination. Thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of people were exposed to a new way of thinking about nature and the relationship between people and a Great Lake. This new way of thinking about nature helps push a cultural shift.

Chicken or the egg?

So this brings me to the “which comes first?” question.

Does the law change first and shift the culture? Or does the cultural shift happen first and the law follows?

After a decade of doing this work as a Community Rights and Rights of Nature organizer, I would have to say that they happen together. Victories on both fronts are both important for the movement. If laws are supposed to reflect a society’s values and morals, that would suggest to me that the cultural shift will need to happen first. If we truly value clean air, water and a livable future for our species, our current laws and system do not reflect these values. However, if we value profits and power and define “progress” as creating more and more stuff while destroying more and more of the Earth, then our laws are reflecting those values. 

So a movement for systemic change will require a cultural shift in the values of the society. And manifestations of cultural shift often happen at the local level first. That’s why we fight for local power. 

In 2006, Tamaqua Borough, a small rural town in Southeastern Pennsylvania was the very first municipality to pass a law in the western, settler colonial legal structure recognizing Rights of Nature. 

Following decades of Indigenous movement building and resistance in Ecuador, a newly empowered peoples constitutional assembly learned of Tamaqua as it was helping draft a constitution. This contributed to the Rights of Nature language that eventually made its way into the new constitution.

The movement then began to snowball. In New Zealand, Bolivia, Colombia, India and others. In Pittsburgh, Barnstead New Hampshire, Spokane Washington, Toledo Ohio, Lafayette Colorado, Mora County, New Mexico and more U.S. cities. Indigenious nations have also taken the lead on this front on the continent. 

Are Rights of Nature the end goal?

We have to be realistic about what Rights of Nature as a legal construct can achieve. And in the larger movement context, we have to be careful not to simply recreate the mistakes of the past. If Nature will be able to get into court and “studies, data and experts” will be relied upon to protect ecosystems, we have to realize that corporations with many more financial resources than local community members and local governments, may be able to manipulate the system just as they have in the past. Those with more money can hire more expert witnesses, donate to universities and pay private firms to do more computer modeling and put out more research to “prove” their side of the argument.

The Rights of Nature movement, particularly in the United States, as it is evolving, will need to be aware of and address these issues in order to really protect ecosystems and people. Just as oppressed classes gained rights in the legal system, only to see them eroded over time by the wealthy and powerful, ecosystem rights will face similar challenges. Maybe we need a whole new system and way to organize our communities? Rabble rousers and creative thinkers will need to remain vigilant.

Photo by Alexander Schimmeck on Unsplash

2021 in Review

Planning for the future

We are witnessing tremendous gains for the Rights of Nature movement and an expansion of awareness surrounding the injustices perpetrated by highly centralized state government systems. At CELDF we actively fight some of the most powerful corporate interests in the nation, in Ohio, Oregon and Pennsylvania.

We are helping to advance the most comprehensive state constitutional change in the nation to recognize the rights of ecosystems and communities, through legislative efforts in Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, we have continued organizing and legal action in Oregon, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New Hampshire. Clara Township, PA is campaigning to consider a Home Rule charter to protect precious water sources from fossil fuel developments. Residents in Reading, PA have pursued a campaign to amend the city charter to address environmental racism and outlaw “toxic trespass.” The Washington Community Rights Network has been relaunched. The recently-launched Virginia Community Rights Network has finalized text for an ordinance in anticipation of gold mining in Buckingham County. The group Community Roots is collecting signatures to place the Asheville Climate Bill of Rights ordinance on the 2022 ballot. In Florida, outreach and education has included a 2021 Rights of Nature billboard campaign. And CELDF’s Democracy School program has made a quick pivot to an online format. 

Our work has taken us (virtually) across the world and into living rooms across the United States.

International

This year CELDF officially endorsed a proposal for a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Wetlands, to be shared with the Declaration with the 171 signatory countries of the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar Convention). We work in solidarity with a new French-speaking network to advance Rights of Nature in Europe. The network includes Marie Toussaint, elected Member of the European Parliament, Loire Parliament, Valentransition, A.R.B.R.E.S., id-eau, Notre Affaire à Tous and others. We participated in World Unity Week. CELDF’s Ben Price presented a paper at the Transnational Institute of Social Ecology 2021 Conference. We’ve participated in international screenings of the documentary film “Invisible Hand.”

Universities

We’ve been hosted by Montclair State University, presented at the University of Toronto Mississauga and University of Toledo, participated in the​​ Public Interest Environmental Law Conference, and hosted interns from Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University and Lewis & Clark Law School.

Radio

We’ve been featured on the nationally syndicated Climate One Podcast, the Stuff You Should Know Podcast, Raging Chicken Podcast, Legal Talk Network: Lawyer 2 Lawyer Podcast and on local radio stations across the country.

Books

CELDF’s Ben Price wrote the foreword to the new De Gruyter book Enabling Municipal Sustainability: A Guide for Towns, Cities, and Citizens. CELDF’s ​​Kai Huschke authored a chapter for the new Latah Books publication One-Block Revolution: 20 Years of Community Building. Simon Davis-Cohen authored a chapter in The New Press’s The World We Need: Highlights, Stories and Lessons From America’s Unsung Environmental Movement titled “CELDF’s Effort to Decolonize the Law.” An exciting new book titled The Politics of Rights of Nature: Strategies for Building a More Sustainable Future has been published; this MIT analysis identifies CELDF as a top contributor to the international movement.

Film

Our work was featured in “The People vs. Agent Orange” a PBS Independent Lens film.

Along with participating in a multitude of local events and discussions, we hosted a Beyond Earth Day series, and participated in events with Earth Law Center, Fix Democracy First, Carolina Public Humanities, MN350, Western States Waterkeeper Alliance and others.

We anticipate 2022 with excitement. Keep an eye out for the opportunity to participate in a national symposium focusing on systems change, and the upcoming CELDF book Death By Democracy, detailing Rights of Nature and municipalist activism in Ohio over the past decade.

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

Newsletter: Ohio Update

Book Announcement

Ohio community members have worked hard over the past eight years with CELDF, proposing charter amendments and ordinances recognizing local self-governance and rights of nature community bills of rights to protect both residents and ecosystems from harmful corporate projects where they live. These harmful projects ranged from oil/gas fracking, injection wells, industrial agriculture, water privatization and corporate control of local elections. What the people discovered over all those years is that the system is set up to stop the people from taking meaningful action to stop the harms. Some of these communities, like Williams and Medina counties are labeled conservative “red” and others, like Youngstown, Columbus, Athens, Kent and Toledo are seen as progressive “blue.” In the end it didn’t matter. The system in all of these places attempted to stifle the people’s voice. 

But the people learned to collaborate on what they share in common. They got together in 2013 to form a network, the Ohio Community Rights Network (OHCRN). In 2019 they jointly filed a civil rights lawsuit against the state. They have become more than allies, they have become friends, united around the shared values for Community Rights and Rights of Nature. They have differences of opinion but work through them to focus on shared goals, a lesson they hope to share with others. Soon they will be releasing a book entitled, Death by Democracy,  Protecting Water and Life: Frontline Stories from Ohioans Fighting Corporate and State Power. In the book they tell their own stories. The book conveys the hard work and perseverance involved in systemic change. Look for announcements and updates on how to order your copy.

Democracy Film Festival

The OHCRN and Simply Living finished up their 4-part Democracy Film Festival on Oct. 24. The series included the films, “What is Democracy?,” “Invisible Hand,” “The New Corporation” and “The People vs Agent Orange.” Post screening discussions were recorded and are available to watch. Contact: ohiocrn@gmail.com.

Toxic Brine Campaign

Members of OHCRN and other residents of Ohio discovered through CELDF lawyer Terry Lodge that Ohio currently has a law on the books protecting water supplies from radioactive poisoning. This law ORC 2927.24 (B)(1) makes it a criminal offense to knowingly place radioactive substances into water sources. For years, the state has allowed the spreading of radioactive oil/gas brine to be spread on roads both in the winter as a deicer and in the summer as a dust suppressant, with knowledge that it gets into water tables and goes down drains leading directly to rivers and streams. In 2017, the state regulatory agency conducted their own tests on one of these products. They found high levels of Radium 226 and 228 and yet still allowed it to be spread. Many of the same residents who saw their proposed rights of nature laws struck down by the system now want to hold the hypocritical state accountable by enforcing its own law. They are making serious gains, getting particular companies banned, and are keeping the pressure on local and state officials to ban the practice entirely.

Citizens for Rights of the Ohio River Watershed (C.R.O.W.)

A group of concerned residents in the Cincinnati area have been learning about Rights of Nature and attempting to spread the word to others in the community, with the assistance of CELDF organizer Tish O’Dell and CELDF attorneys. They held a 3-part conversation series over the summer, had a booth at a local waterfront festival and continue to hold regular bi-weekly Saturday meetings. Their goal is to connect area residents to the Ohio River and to recognize that without a healthy river and river ecosystem, the people cannot possibly be healthy either. The river’s rights to thrive, regenerate and be healthy is interconnected to all life in the watershed. They want to learn from the Lake Erie Bill of Rights and hope to take Rights of Nature to the next level. According to the EPA, the Ohio River is one of the most polluted rivers in the U.S. for over a decade. Contact: crowohio@gmail.com.

Photo by Robert Conklin on Unsplash

Wednesday, November 17th @ 7:00 PM EST

On Wednesday, November 17th, the Dr. Ray’s Energy & Environment Series welcomes CELDF’s Tish O’Dell for an important conversation about how a paradigm shift in both our legal system and culture can make a big impact from the personal to the global level.

Would recognizing Rights of Nature affect you, the community and possibly the planet? Instead of looking at nature as mere property and as resources, what if we shifted the lens and the law to recognizing nature as living and therefore entitled to rights to life, to flourish and thrive?


Invisible Hand Screening

Sunday, June 27th @ 6:30 pm PT

INVISIBLE HAND is a “paradigm-shifting” documentary about the creation of the ‘Rights of Nature.’ The defining battle of our times where nature, democracy, and capitalism face off in rural America.

*We just found out we are not able to screen the film via Zoom. Please watch the film before the panel discussion on Sunday, June 27th @ 6:30 pm. After registering, you will receive a link and password to watch the film, which will be available for viewing until 6:30 pm PT on Sunday, June 27th. Then join us for panel discussion at 6:30 pm PT.

Panelists include:
• Elizabeth Dunne, Director of Legal Advocacy with Earth Law Center
• Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin, Councilmember for Port Angeles & Attorney with Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF)
• Cindy Black, Executive Director of Fix Democracy First
• Rayne Ellycrys Benu, Award-winning filmmaker of the documentary The Hundred-Year-Old Whale & Producer of the Skaana Podcast – MODERATOR

From Executive Producer Mark Ruffalo comes INVISIBLE HAND, the world’s first documentary film on the Rights of Nature Movement. A “paradigm shifting” story about the fate of capitalism and democracy where we find out “Who speaks for Nature?”

SPONSORS:
Primary sponsor: Everett Meaningful Movies
Cosponsors: Fix Democracy First; Sno-King Meaningful Movies, Mt Baker Meaningful Movies, West Seattle Meaningful Movies, Beacon Hill Meaningful Movies & Meaningful Movies Gig Harbor; LEGAL RIGHTS FOR THE SALISH SEA & South Seattle Climate Action Network

An Early Scholar for Legal Rights of Nature Concept

In 2006, when I was advising a borough council member in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania about options for the municipality to oppose plans to dump PCB-laden river dredge—mixed with mercury-rich coal fly ash— into the local Springdale open-pit mine, I mentioned an idea raised by Christopher Stone. Back in 1972, Stone published a paper in the Southern California Law Review titled “Should Trees Have Standing?— Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects.”

To be clear, the municipality didn’t own the abandoned pit mine, and so it lacked that legal “standing”—that is, a claim of impending harm to property owned by the borough—referred to in the title of Stone’s seminal paper. But if the borough and its residents had no property interest to be defended against the toxic project agreed to between the governors of Pennsylvania and New York, and the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Corporation, what if the local ecosystem had legal standing, that is, rights defendable in court, as Christopher Stone had suggested 34 years earlier?

In those intervening years, it hadn’t been tried. So, in the spirit of seeking justice in creative ways, I suggested Tamaqua Borough enact a local law to recognize the enforceable legal rights of the local ecosystems and which simultaneously prohibited the violation of those rights by the depositing of toxic waste there. We wrote the ordinance and Council Member Cathy Miorelli introduced it for consideration. When the vote came, it was a squeaker. Council is made up of seven members. One was absent. Three voted for the rights of ecosystems; three voted against. Mayor Chris Morrison broke the tie, voting “yes,” and little Tamaqua Borough in Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal country became the first non-indigenous government on Earth to recognize Nature as a rights-bearing entity.

A lot has happened since then, and the Rights of Nature Movement has gained unexpected momentum over the past decade and a half. Two years after Tamaqua enacted its law, the people of Ecuador ratified a new national constitution by popular vote that recognizes the legal rights of Pachamama—Mother Earth. In Bolivia, India, New Zealand, Canada, and elsewhere, the list of nations and sub-national bodies adopting Rights of Nature laws continues to grow. In the U.S., scores of communities have enacted community bills of rights that recognize Nature as a rights-bearing entity. It is a Movement on the move.

Like little Tamaqua, where no one expected their audacious act of local legislating to have any effect beyond that community, Christopher Stone may not have envisioned, in 1972, how his bold idea would change the way we think and talk about environmentalism. When Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas cited Stone’s law review article in his famous dissent to the 1972 court decision in Sierra Club v. Morton, the stars seemed to align, and a bold idea whose time had come made a quiet entrance onto the stage of history.

Thank you, Professor Stone! You will be long remembered!

Originally published in Common Dreams.

Photo: jotily/Getty Images

WATERFRONT FRONTLINE

In this publication Lisa Burroughs of Ashtabula County interviews Ohio Organizer, Tish O’Dell. They discuss the growing Rights of Nature Movement, the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, and local lawmaking efforts to empower and amplify community voices.

Full Interview 

In this publication Lisa Burroughs of Ashtabula County interviews Ohio Organizer, Tish O’Dell. They discuss the growing Rights of Nature Movement, the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, and local lawmaking efforts to empower and amplify community voices.

Full Interview 

The Mark Ruffalo production explores the global Rights of Nature movement, including CELDF’s story and work in Grant Township, PA and Toledo, OH.

September 4th, 2020 is the virtual World Premiere of INVISIBLE HAND, a documentary from Public Herald Studios about the Rights of Nature and community rights movements, narrated and executively produced by actor and advocate Mark Ruffalo.

Critics call the film a “paradigm shifting” story. It features CELDF’s work in Grant Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, and Toledo, Ohio

The film features CELDF’s Markie Miller, Tish O’Dell, Chad Nicholson, Ben Price, and other staff.

Following the World Premiere will be a panel discussion featuring Markie Miller, degawëno:da’s (he who thunderz) of the Wolf Clan, Seneca Nation of Indians, Mark Ruffalo, co-directors Melissa Troutman and Joshua Pribanic, and editor Andrew Geller.

Watch the official Trailer.

Watch the post film premiere discussion below.

“Our legal system is rigged to commodify Nature, to favor private property above Life,” said INVISIBLE HAND co-writer & director Melissa Troutman. “It’s a system that makes it perfectly legal to harm innocent people without their consent and threaten the survival of the planet.”

Co-writer and director Joshua Pribanic says, “INVISIBLE HAND is about witnessing the elephant in the room before it’s extinct. It’s showing us that, when face-to-face with the harmful effects of capitalism and our current way of life, Rights of Nature becomes the battle cry. My hope is that wherever you are, this film can speak to your fight.”

“People are adapting to these perils in daring and creative ways – and winning,” Ruffalo added. “INVISIBLE HAND shows how to fight the forces that put profit above all else while addressing the root cause of our flawed system.”

Reserve Tickets

The Mark Ruffalo production explores the global Rights of Nature movement, including CELDF’s story and work in Grant Township, PA and Toledo, OH.

September 4th, 2020 is the virtual World Premiere of INVISIBLE HAND, a documentary from Public Herald Studios about the Rights of Nature and community rights movements, narrated and executively produced by actor and advocate Mark Ruffalo.

Critics call the film a “paradigm shifting” story. It features CELDF’s work in Grant Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, and Toledo, Ohio

The film features CELDF’s Markie Miller, Tish O’Dell, Chad Nicholson, Ben Price, and other staff.

Following the World Premiere will be a panel discussion featuring Markie Miller, degawëno:da’s (he who thunderz) of the Wolf Clan, Seneca Nation of Indians, Mark Ruffalo, co-directors Melissa Troutman and Joshua Pribanic, and editor Andrew Geller.

Watch the official Trailer.

Watch the post film premiere discussion below.

“Our legal system is rigged to commodify Nature, to favor private property above Life,” said INVISIBLE HAND co-writer & director Melissa Troutman. “It’s a system that makes it perfectly legal to harm innocent people without their consent and threaten the survival of the planet.”

Co-writer and director Joshua Pribanic says, “INVISIBLE HAND is about witnessing the elephant in the room before it’s extinct. It’s showing us that, when face-to-face with the harmful effects of capitalism and our current way of life, Rights of Nature becomes the battle cry. My hope is that wherever you are, this film can speak to your fight.”

“People are adapting to these perils in daring and creative ways – and winning,” Ruffalo added. “INVISIBLE HAND shows how to fight the forces that put profit above all else while addressing the root cause of our flawed system.”

Reserve Tickets

The Mark Ruffalo production explores the global Rights of Nature movement, including CELDF’s story and work in Grant Township, PA and Toledo, OH.

September 4th, 2020 is the virtual World Premiere of INVISIBLE HAND, a documentary from Public Herald Studios about the Rights of Nature and community rights movements, narrated and executively produced by actor and advocate Mark Ruffalo.

Critics call the film a “paradigm shifting” story. It features CELDF’s work in Grant Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, and Toledo, Ohio

The film features CELDF’s Markie Miller, Tish O’Dell, Chad Nicholson, Ben Price, and other staff.

Following the World Premiere will be a panel discussion featuring Markie Miller, degawëno:da’s (he who thunderz) of the Wolf Clan, Seneca Nation of Indians, Mark Ruffalo, co-directors Melissa Troutman and Joshua Pribanic, and editor Andrew Geller.

Watch the official Trailer.

Watch the post film premiere discussion below.

“Our legal system is rigged to commodify Nature, to favor private property above Life,” said INVISIBLE HAND co-writer & director Melissa Troutman. “It’s a system that makes it perfectly legal to harm innocent people without their consent and threaten the survival of the planet.”

Co-writer and director Joshua Pribanic says, “INVISIBLE HAND is about witnessing the elephant in the room before it’s extinct. It’s showing us that, when face-to-face with the harmful effects of capitalism and our current way of life, Rights of Nature becomes the battle cry. My hope is that wherever you are, this film can speak to your fight.”

“People are adapting to these perils in daring and creative ways – and winning,” Ruffalo added. “INVISIBLE HAND shows how to fight the forces that put profit above all else while addressing the root cause of our flawed system.”

Reserve Tickets

The Mark Ruffalo production explores the global Rights of Nature movement, including CELDF’s story and work in Grant Township, PA and Toledo, OH.

September 4th, 2020 is the virtual World Premiere of INVISIBLE HAND, a documentary from Public Herald Studios about the Rights of Nature and community rights movements, narrated and executively produced by actor and advocate Mark Ruffalo.

Critics call the film a “paradigm shifting” story. It features CELDF’s work in Grant Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, and Toledo, Ohio

The film features CELDF’s Markie Miller, Tish O’Dell, Chad Nicholson, Ben Price, and other staff.

Following the World Premiere will be a panel discussion featuring Markie Miller, degawëno:da’s (he who thunderz) of the Wolf Clan, Seneca Nation of Indians, Mark Ruffalo, co-directors Melissa Troutman and Joshua Pribanic, and editor Andrew Geller.

Watch the official Trailer.

Watch the post film premiere discussion below.

“Our legal system is rigged to commodify Nature, to favor private property above Life,” said INVISIBLE HAND co-writer & director Melissa Troutman. “It’s a system that makes it perfectly legal to harm innocent people without their consent and threaten the survival of the planet.”

Co-writer and director Joshua Pribanic says, “INVISIBLE HAND is about witnessing the elephant in the room before it’s extinct. It’s showing us that, when face-to-face with the harmful effects of capitalism and our current way of life, Rights of Nature becomes the battle cry. My hope is that wherever you are, this film can speak to your fight.”

“People are adapting to these perils in daring and creative ways – and winning,” Ruffalo added. “INVISIBLE HAND shows how to fight the forces that put profit above all else while addressing the root cause of our flawed system.”

Reserve Tickets

The Mark Ruffalo production explores the global Rights of Nature movement, including CELDF’s story and work in Grant Township, PA and Toledo, OH.

September 4th, 2020 is the virtual World Premiere of INVISIBLE HAND, a documentary from Public Herald Studios about the Rights of Nature and community rights movements, narrated and executively produced by actor and advocate Mark Ruffalo.

Critics call the film a “paradigm shifting” story. It features CELDF’s work in Grant Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, and Toledo, Ohio

The film features CELDF’s Markie Miller, Tish O’Dell, Chad Nicholson, Ben Price, and other staff.

Following the World Premiere will be a panel discussion featuring Markie Miller, degawëno:da’s (he who thunderz) of the Wolf Clan, Seneca Nation of Indians, Mark Ruffalo, co-directors Melissa Troutman and Joshua Pribanic, and editor Andrew Geller.

Watch the official Trailer.

Watch the post film premiere discussion below.

“Our legal system is rigged to commodify Nature, to favor private property above Life,” said INVISIBLE HAND co-writer & director Melissa Troutman. “It’s a system that makes it perfectly legal to harm innocent people without their consent and threaten the survival of the planet.”

Co-writer and director Joshua Pribanic says, “INVISIBLE HAND is about witnessing the elephant in the room before it’s extinct. It’s showing us that, when face-to-face with the harmful effects of capitalism and our current way of life, Rights of Nature becomes the battle cry. My hope is that wherever you are, this film can speak to your fight.”

“People are adapting to these perils in daring and creative ways – and winning,” Ruffalo added. “INVISIBLE HAND shows how to fight the forces that put profit above all else while addressing the root cause of our flawed system.”

Reserve Tickets

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection enforces local Grant Township law in revoking permit for dangerous frack waste injection well

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 25, 2020

CONTACT:
Chad Nicholson
Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund
Pennsylvania Community Organizer
CELDF.org
chad@celdf.org
207-541-3649

GRANT TOWNSHIP, INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA: In an extraordinary reversal, last week, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) revoked a permit for a frack waste injection well in Grant Township. DEP officials cited Grant Township’s Home Rule Charter banning injection wells as grounds for their reversal.

Injection wells are toxic sewers for the fracking industry that cause earthquakes, receive radioactive waste, and threaten drinking water and ecosystems. 

Township residents popularly adopted a Home Rule Charter (local constitution) in 2015 that contains a “Community Bill of Rights.” The Charter bans injection wells as a violation of the rights of those living in the township and recognizes rights of nature. The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) assisted in drafting the Charter.

In 2017, DEP issued a permit to legalize an injection well in Grant, and simultaneously sued the township. The agency claimed that Grant’s Home Rule Charter – which protects the local environment – interfered with the DEP’s authority to administer state oil and gas policy.

Yet, in a stunning about-face, DEP enforced Grant’s law and rescinded the injection well permit, last week. “Grant Township’s Home Rule Charter bans the injection of oil and gas waste fluids,” the DEP writes. “Therefore, the operation of the Yanity well as an oil and gas waste fluid injection well would violate that applicable law.”

Since 2014, Township residents have faced a variety of intimidation tactics, including lawsuits, from the corporation behind the injection well (Pennsylvania General Energy), the oil and gas industry, and their own state government and agencies. They have not backed down, even in the face of potential municipal bankruptcy. They have continued to assert and protect their community’s rights. 

“We are over the moon that the permit was rescinded,” said Grant Township Supervisor Vice-Chair Stacy Long. “However, we know the permit should never have been issued in the first place. We can’t forget that DEP sued us for three years, claiming our Charter was invalid. Now they cite that same Charter as a valid reason to deny the industry a permit. It’s hypocritical at best. Add this to the pile of reasons Grant Township did not trust the DEP to protect our environment, and why we’ve had to democratically work at the local level to protect our community.” 

“This decision does not validate the actions of the DEP, but rather vindicates the resistance that communities like Grant have engaged in to force governmental agencies into doing the right thing,” says CELDF Pennsylvania Organizer Chad Nicholson. “DEP has been acting in bad faith. I’m glad they revoked the permit. But it took them too long to do what all governments should be doing: enforcing democratically-enacted local laws that protect public health and safety.” 

Grant Township is aware that the industry and/or state agencies, such as DEP, may sue them again. As of today, there is no injection well in Grant Township.

About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund 

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) is building a movement for Community Rights and the Rights of Nature to advance democratic, economic, social, and environmental rights – building upward from the grassroots to the state, federal, and international level.

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection enforces local Grant Township law in revoking permit for dangerous frack waste injection well

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 25, 2020

CONTACT:
Chad Nicholson
Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund
Pennsylvania Community Organizer
CELDF.org
chad@celdf.org
207-541-3649

GRANT TOWNSHIP, INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA: In an extraordinary reversal, last week, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) revoked a permit for a frack waste injection well in Grant Township. DEP officials cited Grant Township’s Home Rule Charter banning injection wells as grounds for their reversal.

Injection wells are toxic sewers for the fracking industry that cause earthquakes, receive radioactive waste, and threaten drinking water and ecosystems. 

Township residents popularly adopted a Home Rule Charter (local constitution) in 2015 that contains a “Community Bill of Rights.” The Charter bans injection wells as a violation of the rights of those living in the township and recognizes rights of nature. The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) assisted in drafting the Charter.

In 2017, DEP issued a permit to legalize an injection well in Grant, and simultaneously sued the township. The agency claimed that Grant’s Home Rule Charter – which protects the local environment – interfered with the DEP’s authority to administer state oil and gas policy.

Yet, in a stunning about-face, DEP enforced Grant’s law and rescinded the injection well permit, last week. “Grant Township’s Home Rule Charter bans the injection of oil and gas waste fluids,” the DEP writes. “Therefore, the operation of the Yanity well as an oil and gas waste fluid injection well would violate that applicable law.”

Since 2014, Township residents have faced a variety of intimidation tactics, including lawsuits, from the corporation behind the injection well (Pennsylvania General Energy), the oil and gas industry, and their own state government and agencies. They have not backed down, even in the face of potential municipal bankruptcy. They have continued to assert and protect their community’s rights. 

“We are over the moon that the permit was rescinded,” said Grant Township Supervisor Vice-Chair Stacy Long. “However, we know the permit should never have been issued in the first place. We can’t forget that DEP sued us for three years, claiming our Charter was invalid. Now they cite that same Charter as a valid reason to deny the industry a permit. It’s hypocritical at best. Add this to the pile of reasons Grant Township did not trust the DEP to protect our environment, and why we’ve had to democratically work at the local level to protect our community.” 

“This decision does not validate the actions of the DEP, but rather vindicates the resistance that communities like Grant have engaged in to force governmental agencies into doing the right thing,” says CELDF Pennsylvania Organizer Chad Nicholson. “DEP has been acting in bad faith. I’m glad they revoked the permit. But it took them too long to do what all governments should be doing: enforcing democratically-enacted local laws that protect public health and safety.” 

Grant Township is aware that the industry and/or state agencies, such as DEP, may sue them again. As of today, there is no injection well in Grant Township.

About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund 

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) is building a movement for Community Rights and the Rights of Nature to advance democratic, economic, social, and environmental rights – building upward from the grassroots to the state, federal, and international level.

Guest Blog: A Conversation with The Guardian

A few weeks ago, the Lake Erie Bill of Rights (LEBOR) was profiled in an article in The Guardian. The article, titled “Should this tree have the same rights as you? was written by Robert Macfarlane. Two key organizers behind LEBOR responded to the article, in a letter to the editor, which was published in the newspaper in November. 

You can read the original article here and the published letter to the editor here. 

However, the organizers, Markie Miller and Crystal Jankowski, have a few more thoughts to share. Below is their guest blog for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.

Stay tuned: Oral arguments in the corporate lawsuit against LEBOR are scheduled for January 28, 2020 (in Toledo, Ohio).

In our letter to The Guardian, we wrote that “we agree with the ‘lawyers and philosophers’ cited by Macfarlane, who think ‘assigning of legal personhood to a more than human entity is a profound category error.’” This might seem counterintuitive coming from LEBOR organizers.

“In fact,” we continued, when drafting LEBOR, “we were careful to distinguish between human rights (‘personhood’) and ecosystem rights. For humans, LEBOR recognises rights ‘to a clean and healthy environment’ and to a system of government that protects ‘human, civil, and collective rights.’ But for the lake, it recognises different rights: to ‘exist, flourish and naturally evolve’ – it does not establish ‘personhood.’”

The Guardian’s original article warned that “personhood” for ecosystems could be seen as competing with the rights of poor people.

For example, a sister group of ours, the Williams County Alliance, is advancing a measure that would stop ongoing corporate efforts to privatize the massive Michindoh Aquifer that spans parts of Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. That measure would not only recognize the rights of the aquifer, it would, like LEBOR, also recognize the human right to clean drinking water. Crucially, it elevates those rights above the legal privileges of corporate actors.

It explicitly bans the corporate privatization of the precious aquifer.

What this means is that as clean water becomes increasingly scarce, we are advancing law that prevents a future where water is privatized and sold to the highest bidder. Protecting ecosystems’ rights protects human rights.

Our work is to elevate human and ecosystem rights above corporate greed, so we can avert a future of profit-driven water apartheid that favors the rich and wealthy at the expense of the poor and the nature world.

Markie and Crystal both live in Toledo, Ohio.

Featured image from The Telegraph, US lake wins its own ‘human rights’ in landmark ruling28 February 2019.

A few weeks ago, the Lake Erie Bill of Rights (LEBOR) was profiled in an article in The Guardian. The article, titled “Should this tree have the same rights as you? was written by Robert Macfarlane. Two key organizers behind LEBOR responded to the article, in a letter to the editor, which was published in the newspaper in November. 

You can read the original article here and the published letter to the editor here. 

However, the organizers, Markie Miller and Crystal Jankowski, have a few more thoughts to share. Below is their guest blog for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.

Stay tuned: Oral arguments in the corporate lawsuit against LEBOR are scheduled for January 28, 2020 (in Toledo, Ohio).

In our letter to The Guardian, we wrote that “we agree with the ‘lawyers and philosophers’ cited by Macfarlane, who think ‘assigning of legal personhood to a more than human entity is a profound category error.’” This might seem counterintuitive coming from LEBOR organizers.

“In fact,” we continued, when drafting LEBOR, “we were careful to distinguish between human rights (‘personhood’) and ecosystem rights. For humans, LEBOR recognises rights ‘to a clean and healthy environment’ and to a system of government that protects ‘human, civil, and collective rights.’ But for the lake, it recognises different rights: to ‘exist, flourish and naturally evolve’ – it does not establish ‘personhood.’”

The Guardian’s original article warned that “personhood” for ecosystems could be seen as competing with the rights of poor people.

For example, a sister group of ours, the Williams County Alliance, is advancing a measure that would stop ongoing corporate efforts to privatize the massive Michindoh Aquifer that spans parts of Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. That measure would not only recognize the rights of the aquifer, it would, like LEBOR, also recognize the human right to clean drinking water. Crucially, it elevates those rights above the legal privileges of corporate actors.

It explicitly bans the corporate privatization of the precious aquifer.

What this means is that as clean water becomes increasingly scarce, we are advancing law that prevents a future where water is privatized and sold to the highest bidder. Protecting ecosystems’ rights protects human rights.

Our work is to elevate human and ecosystem rights above corporate greed, so we can avert a future of profit-driven water apartheid that favors the rich and wealthy at the expense of the poor and the nature world.

Markie and Crystal both live in Toledo, Ohio.

Featured image from The Telegraph, US lake wins its own ‘human rights’ in landmark ruling28 February 2019.

A few weeks ago, the Lake Erie Bill of Rights (LEBOR) was profiled in an article in The Guardian. The article, titled “Should this tree have the same rights as you? was written by Robert Macfarlane. Two key organizers behind LEBOR responded to the article, in a letter to the editor, which was published in the newspaper in November. 

You can read the original article here and the published letter to the editor here. 

However, the organizers, Markie Miller and Crystal Jankowski, have a few more thoughts to share. Below is their guest blog for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.

Stay tuned: Oral arguments in the corporate lawsuit against LEBOR are scheduled for January 28, 2020 (in Toledo, Ohio).

In our letter to The Guardian, we wrote that “we agree with the ‘lawyers and philosophers’ cited by Macfarlane, who think ‘assigning of legal personhood to a more than human entity is a profound category error.’” This might seem counterintuitive coming from LEBOR organizers.

“In fact,” we continued, when drafting LEBOR, “we were careful to distinguish between human rights (‘personhood’) and ecosystem rights. For humans, LEBOR recognises rights ‘to a clean and healthy environment’ and to a system of government that protects ‘human, civil, and collective rights.’ But for the lake, it recognises different rights: to ‘exist, flourish and naturally evolve’ – it does not establish ‘personhood.’”

The Guardian’s original article warned that “personhood” for ecosystems could be seen as competing with the rights of poor people.

For example, a sister group of ours, the Williams County Alliance, is advancing a measure that would stop ongoing corporate efforts to privatize the massive Michindoh Aquifer that spans parts of Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. That measure would not only recognize the rights of the aquifer, it would, like LEBOR, also recognize the human right to clean drinking water. Crucially, it elevates those rights above the legal privileges of corporate actors.

It explicitly bans the corporate privatization of the precious aquifer.

What this means is that as clean water becomes increasingly scarce, we are advancing law that prevents a future where water is privatized and sold to the highest bidder. Protecting ecosystems’ rights protects human rights.

Our work is to elevate human and ecosystem rights above corporate greed, so we can avert a future of profit-driven water apartheid that favors the rich and wealthy at the expense of the poor and the nature world.

Markie and Crystal both live in Toledo, Ohio.

Featured image from The Telegraph, US lake wins its own ‘human rights’ in landmark ruling28 February 2019.

A few weeks ago, the Lake Erie Bill of Rights (LEBOR) was profiled in an article in The Guardian. The article, titled “Should this tree have the same rights as you? was written by Robert Macfarlane. Two key organizers behind LEBOR responded to the article, in a letter to the editor, which was published in the newspaper in November. 

You can read the original article here and the published letter to the editor here. 

However, the organizers, Markie Miller and Crystal Jankowski, have a few more thoughts to share. Below is their guest blog for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.

Stay tuned: Oral arguments in the corporate lawsuit against LEBOR are scheduled for January 28, 2020 (in Toledo, Ohio).

In our letter to The Guardian, we wrote that “we agree with the ‘lawyers and philosophers’ cited by Macfarlane, who think ‘assigning of legal personhood to a more than human entity is a profound category error.’” This might seem counterintuitive coming from LEBOR organizers.

“In fact,” we continued, when drafting LEBOR, “we were careful to distinguish between human rights (‘personhood’) and ecosystem rights. For humans, LEBOR recognises rights ‘to a clean and healthy environment’ and to a system of government that protects ‘human, civil, and collective rights.’ But for the lake, it recognises different rights: to ‘exist, flourish and naturally evolve’ – it does not establish ‘personhood.’”

The Guardian’s original article warned that “personhood” for ecosystems could be seen as competing with the rights of poor people.

For example, a sister group of ours, the Williams County Alliance, is advancing a measure that would stop ongoing corporate efforts to privatize the massive Michindoh Aquifer that spans parts of Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. That measure would not only recognize the rights of the aquifer, it would, like LEBOR, also recognize the human right to clean drinking water. Crucially, it elevates those rights above the legal privileges of corporate actors.

It explicitly bans the corporate privatization of the precious aquifer.

What this means is that as clean water becomes increasingly scarce, we are advancing law that prevents a future where water is privatized and sold to the highest bidder. Protecting ecosystems’ rights protects human rights.

Our work is to elevate human and ecosystem rights above corporate greed, so we can avert a future of profit-driven water apartheid that favors the rich and wealthy at the expense of the poor and the nature world.

Markie and Crystal both live in Toledo, Ohio.

Featured image from The Telegraph, US lake wins its own ‘human rights’ in landmark ruling28 February 2019.

A few weeks ago, the Lake Erie Bill of Rights (LEBOR) was profiled in an article in The Guardian. The article, titled “Should this tree have the same rights as you? was written by Robert Macfarlane. Two key organizers behind LEBOR responded to the article, in a letter to the editor, which was published in the newspaper in November. 

You can read the original article here and the published letter to the editor here. 

However, the organizers, Markie Miller and Crystal Jankowski, have a few more thoughts to share. Below is their guest blog for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.

Stay tuned: Oral arguments in the corporate lawsuit against LEBOR are scheduled for January 28, 2020 (in Toledo, Ohio).

In our letter to The Guardian, we wrote that “we agree with the ‘lawyers and philosophers’ cited by Macfarlane, who think ‘assigning of legal personhood to a more than human entity is a profound category error.’” This might seem counterintuitive coming from LEBOR organizers.

“In fact,” we continued, when drafting LEBOR, “we were careful to distinguish between human rights (‘personhood’) and ecosystem rights. For humans, LEBOR recognises rights ‘to a clean and healthy environment’ and to a system of government that protects ‘human, civil, and collective rights.’ But for the lake, it recognises different rights: to ‘exist, flourish and naturally evolve’ – it does not establish ‘personhood.’”

The Guardian’s original article warned that “personhood” for ecosystems could be seen as competing with the rights of poor people.

For example, a sister group of ours, the Williams County Alliance, is advancing a measure that would stop ongoing corporate efforts to privatize the massive Michindoh Aquifer that spans parts of Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. That measure would not only recognize the rights of the aquifer, it would, like LEBOR, also recognize the human right to clean drinking water. Crucially, it elevates those rights above the legal privileges of corporate actors.

It explicitly bans the corporate privatization of the precious aquifer.

What this means is that as clean water becomes increasingly scarce, we are advancing law that prevents a future where water is privatized and sold to the highest bidder. Protecting ecosystems’ rights protects human rights.

Our work is to elevate human and ecosystem rights above corporate greed, so we can avert a future of profit-driven water apartheid that favors the rich and wealthy at the expense of the poor and the nature world.

Markie and Crystal both live in Toledo, Ohio.

Featured image from The Telegraph, US lake wins its own ‘human rights’ in landmark ruling28 February 2019.

Blog: We Stand With the Youth Climate Strike

Rights of Nature is a key component of the strike.

Addressing global warming is not an option. Our survival, future generations, and countless species, depend on our success in implementing swift structural change to our societies.

There are countless ways to approach this crisis and to contribute.

Many focus on structural change to the economy. Others, like us, focus on structural change to the law.

We are in this climate crisis because of our legal doctrines, and they must be changed. The Youth Climate Strikes understand this.

Strike demands include a “Green New Deal” that attempts to transform the economy—the devil’s in the details—and bold environmental justice and agricultural demands, as well as structural legal change to recognize the Rights of Nature.

Leaders across the world are called on to:

“Recognize the Rights of Nature into law to protect our sacred ecosystems and align human law with natural law to ban resource extraction in defense of our environment and people.”

We stand with these demands.

We have supported dozens of local groups to draft and adopt legally-binding municipal laws that manifest this demand for Rights of Nature. We are working internationally to do the same.

We are not referring to resolutions, or legally toothless motions. This is not about feel-good action.

We’re talking about legally-binding and enforceable laws that recognize the Rights of Nature and that empower communities to govern the activities of private corporations.

This is what is needed. And this is what we are doing across the United States and around the world. This February, residents of Toledo, Ohio, for example passed a law we assisted them to write, which recognizes Lake Erie’s rights to “exist, flourish, and naturally evolve.”

That lake—imperiled by pollution and warming waters—provides drinking water to millions of people, and countless species.

To enforce the rights of the Lake, the Lake Erie Bill of Rights subordinates the “rights” of corporations to the Lake’s rights and residents’ rights to “a clean and healthy environment.” According to the law, residents’ rights, “shall include the right to a clean and healthy Lake Erie and Lake Erie ecosystem.”

The law allows these residents to sue polluters on behalf of the Lake and themselves, and sets up a fund for proceeds to restore the Lake.

Join us in building a movement to drive this structural change deep into our legal doctrines.

#strikewithus

Images: Global youth strike for climate justice, Nottingham market square by kthtrnr, Flickr Creative Commons
Climate Strike by Roy, Flickr Creative Commons

Rights of Nature is a key component of the strike.

Addressing global warming is not an option. Our survival, future generations, and countless species, depend on our success in implementing swift structural change to our societies.

There are countless ways to approach this crisis and to contribute.

Many focus on structural change to the economy. Others, like us, focus on structural change to the law.

We are in this climate crisis because of our legal doctrines, and they must be changed. The Youth Climate Strikes understand this.

Strike demands include a “Green New Deal” that attempts to transform the economy—the devil’s in the details—and bold environmental justice and agricultural demands, as well as structural legal change to recognize the Rights of Nature.

Leaders across the world are called on to:

“Recognize the Rights of Nature into law to protect our sacred ecosystems and align human law with natural law to ban resource extraction in defense of our environment and people.”

We stand with these demands.

We have supported dozens of local groups to draft and adopt legally-binding municipal laws that manifest this demand for Rights of Nature. We are working internationally to do the same.

We are not referring to resolutions, or legally toothless motions. This is not about feel-good action.

We’re talking about legally-binding and enforceable laws that recognize the Rights of Nature and that empower communities to govern the activities of private corporations.

This is what is needed. And this is what we are doing across the United States and around the world. This February, residents of Toledo, Ohio, for example passed a law we assisted them to write, which recognizes Lake Erie’s rights to “exist, flourish, and naturally evolve.”

That lake—imperiled by pollution and warming waters—provides drinking water to millions of people, and countless species.

To enforce the rights of the Lake, the Lake Erie Bill of Rights subordinates the “rights” of corporations to the Lake’s rights and residents’ rights to “a clean and healthy environment.” According to the law, residents’ rights, “shall include the right to a clean and healthy Lake Erie and Lake Erie ecosystem.”

The law allows these residents to sue polluters on behalf of the Lake and themselves, and sets up a fund for proceeds to restore the Lake.

Join us in building a movement to drive this structural change deep into our legal doctrines.

#strikewithus

Images: Global youth strike for climate justice, Nottingham market square by kthtrnr, Flickr Creative Commons
Climate Strike by Roy, Flickr Creative Commons

Rights of Nature is a key component of the strike.

Addressing global warming is not an option. Our survival, future generations, and countless species, depend on our success in implementing swift structural change to our societies.

There are countless ways to approach this crisis and to contribute.

Many focus on structural change to the economy. Others, like us, focus on structural change to the law.

We are in this climate crisis because of our legal doctrines, and they must be changed. The Youth Climate Strikes understand this.

Strike demands include a “Green New Deal” that attempts to transform the economy—the devil’s in the details—and bold environmental justice and agricultural demands, as well as structural legal change to recognize the Rights of Nature.

Leaders across the world are called on to:

“Recognize the Rights of Nature into law to protect our sacred ecosystems and align human law with natural law to ban resource extraction in defense of our environment and people.”

We stand with these demands.

We have supported dozens of local groups to draft and adopt legally-binding municipal laws that manifest this demand for Rights of Nature. We are working internationally to do the same.

We are not referring to resolutions, or legally toothless motions. This is not about feel-good action.

We’re talking about legally-binding and enforceable laws that recognize the Rights of Nature and that empower communities to govern the activities of private corporations.

This is what is needed. And this is what we are doing across the United States and around the world. This February, residents of Toledo, Ohio, for example passed a law we assisted them to write, which recognizes Lake Erie’s rights to “exist, flourish, and naturally evolve.”

That lake—imperiled by pollution and warming waters—provides drinking water to millions of people, and countless species.

To enforce the rights of the Lake, the Lake Erie Bill of Rights subordinates the “rights” of corporations to the Lake’s rights and residents’ rights to “a clean and healthy environment.” According to the law, residents’ rights, “shall include the right to a clean and healthy Lake Erie and Lake Erie ecosystem.”

The law allows these residents to sue polluters on behalf of the Lake and themselves, and sets up a fund for proceeds to restore the Lake.

Join us in building a movement to drive this structural change deep into our legal doctrines.

#strikewithus

Images: Global youth strike for climate justice, Nottingham market square by kthtrnr, Flickr Creative Commons
Climate Strike by Roy, Flickr Creative Commons

Rights of Nature is a key component of the strike.

Addressing global warming is not an option. Our survival, future generations, and countless species, depend on our success in implementing swift structural change to our societies.

There are countless ways to approach this crisis and to contribute.

Many focus on structural change to the economy. Others, like us, focus on structural change to the law.

We are in this climate crisis because of our legal doctrines, and they must be changed. The Youth Climate Strikes understand this.

Strike demands include a “Green New Deal” that attempts to transform the economy—the devil’s in the details—and bold environmental justice and agricultural demands, as well as structural legal change to recognize the Rights of Nature.

Leaders across the world are called on to:

“Recognize the Rights of Nature into law to protect our sacred ecosystems and align human law with natural law to ban resource extraction in defense of our environment and people.”

We stand with these demands.

We have supported dozens of local groups to draft and adopt legally-binding municipal laws that manifest this demand for Rights of Nature. We are working internationally to do the same.

We are not referring to resolutions, or legally toothless motions. This is not about feel-good action.

We’re talking about legally-binding and enforceable laws that recognize the Rights of Nature and that empower communities to govern the activities of private corporations.

This is what is needed. And this is what we are doing across the United States and around the world. This February, residents of Toledo, Ohio, for example passed a law we assisted them to write, which recognizes Lake Erie’s rights to “exist, flourish, and naturally evolve.”

That lake—imperiled by pollution and warming waters—provides drinking water to millions of people, and countless species.

To enforce the rights of the Lake, the Lake Erie Bill of Rights subordinates the “rights” of corporations to the Lake’s rights and residents’ rights to “a clean and healthy environment.” According to the law, residents’ rights, “shall include the right to a clean and healthy Lake Erie and Lake Erie ecosystem.”

The law allows these residents to sue polluters on behalf of the Lake and themselves, and sets up a fund for proceeds to restore the Lake.

Join us in building a movement to drive this structural change deep into our legal doctrines.

#strikewithus

Images: Global youth strike for climate justice, Nottingham market square by kthtrnr, Flickr Creative Commons
Climate Strike by Roy, Flickr Creative Commons

Susquehanna, Vol. 22, Issue 1

https://celdf.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Susquehanna-Fall-2019.pdfOur newsletter, the Susquehanna, comes out 2 – 3 times annually.  If you are interested in receiving the newsletter – either electronically or by mail – sign up here.

Download Here