Search Results for: rights of nature

Nov 6, 2012

Press Release: Broadview Heights Adopts Community Bill of Rights Banning Fracking

Today, the residents of Broadview Heights banned fracking from within the City limits through a Community Bill of Rights Charter Amendment. The amendment established the right to clean air and water, and the right to local self-government, banning fracking as a violation of those rights.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Success Story

Aug 7, 2012

Press Release: Washington Communities Launch Statewide Network To Advocate for Community Rights

SPOKANE: In late July, citizens from Washington communities gathered in Spokane to launch the Washington Community Rights Network (WCRN). Network members released The Spokane Declaration, calling upon communities across the state to join together in a movement to elevate the rights of people, their communities, and nature above the claimed rights of corporations….The creation of the Washington Community Rights Network comes out of active community campaigns on both sides of the Cascades.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Aug 7, 2012

Press Release: Washington Communities Launch Statewide Network To Advocate for Community Rights

Washington Communities Launch Statewide Network to Advocate for Community Rights.

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Apr 15, 2012

CELDF Press Release: Las Vegas, New Mexico, Adopts Community Bill of Rights; Bans Corporations from Fracking for Shale Gas

In front of a standing-room only crowd of residents, by a vote of 3-1, the City Council, Las Vegas, New Mexico enacted the Las Vegas Community Water Rights and Local Self-Government Ordinance.

Read More | News from the Grassroots

Nov 8, 2011

CELDF Press Release: State College Voters Adopt Community Rights Charter Amendment That Bans Gas Drilling

By a vote of 72% in favor, the people of the Borough of State College, home of Penn State University, adopted an amendment to their home rule charter that constitutionalizes a Local Bill of Rights, and protects those rights by prohibiting natural gas extraction and associated activities.

Read More | Community Wires

Jun 17, 2010

Press Release: Local Law declares “corporate rights” cannot compete with the rights of living people.

Monroe enacts local law asserting that the right of people to govern in their community is superior to legal claims that corporations are “persons” with constitutional rights.

Read More | Uncategorized

Apr 27, 2010

Mt. Shasta Community Water Rights Ordinance to Be put to Vote

The Mount Shasta City Council voted unanimously Monday evening to order a special report on the Mt. Shasta Community Water Rights and Self-Governance Ordinance, which would prevent corporations from cloud seeding and bulk water extraction within Mount Shasta city limits.

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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

Sep 1, 2022

Why CELDF will be watching more than sports this Sunday

As Chilean voters are poised to go to the polls this coming Sunday, September 4, to hopefully become the second country in the world to include recognition of the Rights of Nature (RON) in their national constitution, it is obvious just by reading a few headlines in any given week that more countries need to embrace and follow Chile’s lead.

Read More | News from the Grassroots, Rights of Nature

Aug 16, 2022

CELDF featured at Peatfest 2022, 30th August – 4th September

CELDF will be leading a workshop on dismantling corporate privilege and elevating local-self determination in the context of evolving legal rights of nature. CELDF will also be part of a panel titled “Universal Declaration of the Rights of Wetlands: How Do We Operationalize These Rights?” with international colleagues from the Rights of Wetlands working group.

Read More | Events

May 19, 2022

What do we want? Clean Water! When do we want it? Yesterday! 

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.

Read More | Chemical Trespass, Community Wires, Corporate Agriculture, Issues, Rights of Nature

Mar 10, 2022

Andrea Bowers: Can the world mend in this body?

The Lake Erie Bill of Rights and CELDF are influencing Bower’s work on Rights of Nature.

Read More | News from the Grassroots, Rights of Nature

Mar 1, 2022

Change That Matters by Jim Hightower | Creators Syndicate

Jim Hightower mentions CELDF in his publication on the growing Rights of Nature movement and the importance of protecting the health and survivability of ecosystems worldwide.

Read More | News from the Grassroots

Dec 17, 2021

Lessons from Ecuador

What will it take to advance the Rights of Nature in the United States?

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Nov 28, 2021

2021 in Review

We are witnessing tremendous gains for the Rights of Nature movement and an expansion of awareness about the injustices perpetrated by highly centralized state government systems.

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Nov 18, 2021

Newsletter: Ohio Update

Ohio communities have worked hard over the past eight years, proposing charter amendments and ordinances recognizing local self-governance and rights of nature.

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Nov 2, 2021

Shifting the Lens: Energy & Environment Series

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?

Read More | Events, Rights of Nature

Jun 18, 2021

Invisible Hand Screening

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?

Read More | Events

May 22, 2021

Common Dreams: Remembering Christopher D. Stone

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 | News, News from the Grassroots, Rights of Nature

Oct 21, 2020

WATERFRONT FRONTLINE

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, Issues, News from the Grassroots, Rights of Nature

Aug 27, 2020

COMING SOON: World Premiere of ‘Invisible Hand’

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, News from the Grassroots

Mar 25, 2020

Breaking: Grant Township Forces Pennsylvania to Revoke Injection Well Permit

PRESS RELEASE: Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection enforces local Rights of Nature law. Allows Grant Township to protect vital waterways in revoking permit for dangerous frack waste injection well.

Read More | Uncategorized

Dec 10, 2019

Guest Blog: A Conversation with The Guardian

LEBOR activists exchanged views with The Guardian on Rights of Nature and human rights. Here, they make clear the need to recognize that it is not nature’s rights vs human rights, but those combined against corporate claimed rights.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

Sep 19, 2019

Blog: We Stand With the Youth Climate Strike

CELDF stands with Youth Climate Strike as they demand systemic change, including legal Rights of Nature.

Read More | Press Releases & Blogs, Success Story

May 18, 2018

CELDF at the May 2018 Permanent People’s Tribunal

On May 16, 2018, a CELDF representative presented at the PPT on fracking as a violation of the Rights of Nature and the human right to a healthy environment.

Read More | News from the Grassroots, Success Story

Mar 24, 2017

PR: India Court Declares Personhood for Ganga and Yumana Rivers

This week the High Court of Uttarakhand, a state in India, recognized the personhood rights of the River Ganga and River Yumana – a step towards recognizing the rights of nature to exist and flourish.

Read More | Press Releases & Blogs, Success Story

Aug 11, 2015

Highland Township

Highland Township in Elk County, PA, adopted a Community Bill of Rights Ordinance in January 2013, codifying the community’s rights to clean air, water, the rights of nature, and to local self-governance – and banning fracking wastewater injection wells as a violation of those rights.

Read More | Uncategorized

Jan 24, 2012

Earth Air Waves: An End to Begging and Pleading?

Sidsel Overgaard of KUNM, New Mexico’s Community Powered Public Radio, interviews CELDF’s Thomas Linzey about elevating community rights and rights of nature above corporate “rights” to protect local communities and ecosystems.

Read More | Uncategorized

Dec 6, 2010

CELDF on the Radio

“Democracy Matters” Podcast for the week of Dec 6: Featuring Part I of our interview with Professor Christopher Stone, author of “Should Trees Have Standing?” on Rights of Nature

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Sep 30, 2010

CELDF on the Radio

“Democracy Matters” New Podcast for September 30, 2010 – Raw Milk and the FDA, the Tea Party – new party or just the new “right” of the Republican Party, and Bill Twist on Rights of Nature.

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Sep 2, 2008

Los Angeles Times: Ecology in Ecuador

Ecuador citizens are poised to vote on the adoption of the world’s first Constitution recognizing the Rights of Nature.

Read More | News from the Grassroots

May 19, 2023

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 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.

Read More | Community Rights, Extraction & Pollution, Press Releases, Rights of Nature

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.”

Read More | Community Rights, Community Wires, Democratic Rights, News from the Grassroots, Rights of Nature

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

Mar 24, 2023

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.

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

Mar 22, 2023

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

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

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

Mar 15, 2023

Watch the video: “Water is Us”

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

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

Mar 10, 2023

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.

Read More | Community Rights, Corporate 'Rights', Democratic Rights, Events, Extraction & Pollution, Multimedia, Rights of Nature

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 16, 2023

Guest Blog: Badges and Incidents of Slavery

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

Read More | Blogs, Democratic Rights

Nov 17, 2022

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.”

Read More | Chemical Trespass, Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Press Releases

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?”

Read More | Events, News

Sep 7, 2022

It’s Inevitable – More to Come in Chile

Despite the claims of the corporate-minded, rejection of the new constitution by the voters of Chile is not a repute of what the new constitution contained but one that shows the desperation of the powerful elite to hold on to their planetary destroying levels of greed and the lengths they will go to deny the inevitable. 

Read More | News from the Grassroots, Rights of Nature

Jul 5, 2022

Available Now: English Translation & Webinar of the Landmark Decision in Ecuador to Protect Los Cedros Forest over Mining Profits

We at CELDF were excited to be able to read the full decision of the Constitutional Court of Ecuador upholding the rights of the Los Cedros Forest over a mining project and we are sharing that decision with you in both English and Spanish. We want to thank the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature… Read more »

Read More | News, Resources, Rights of Nature

Jun 15, 2022

A Living Tribute to Philip Jurus

In February 2019, just days before the Toledo special election on the Lake Erie Bill of Rights in Toledo Ohio, Philip Jurus heard an interview on NPR about the upcoming vote. The interview moved him to write to me and share a poem he had written about Lake Erie and her distressed condition back in… Read more »

Read More | Community Wires, News

Jun 14, 2022

The Elephant in the Zoo(m): Should Non-Humans and Natural Resources be Considered “Persons” Under the Law?

NYWBA’s Animal Law and WBASNY’s Environmental Law Committees presents a webinar on June 20, 2022 at 6:00 – 7:30 PM (Eastern Time) On May 18, 2022, the New York Court of Appeals heard the habeus corpus petition involving “Happy the Elephant” and considered whether she is a person under the law. Recent legal efforts in… Read more »

Read More | Events, Rights of Nature

Jun 13, 2022

We are pleased to announce the program for the upcoming International Society of Public Law 2022 Online ICON•S Conference!

Dismantling the US Property Doctrine in the Name of Planet and People | JULY 5 | 9:15 PM (European Time Zone) CELDF’s Kai Huschke will be presenting in Poland for the International Society of Public Law (Panel #79). This conference is available to members only. You can join here. See the full program here. Environmental degradation is… Read more »

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Jun 8, 2022

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN! Webinar June 30th at 7:00 PM (EDT) – Putting Our Heads in the Clouds: Landmark Decision in Ecuador Points to Protection over Exploitation

This past November, Ecuador’s Constitutional Court ruled in favor of the Los Cedros Cloud Forest ecosystem and local communities’ rights over the rights of a foreign mining corporation. Truly a seminal case for legal rights of nature, the court addressed the regulatory permitting process, the precautionary principle, biodiversity, community input into the decision-making process, and… Read more »

Read More | Events

May 11, 2022

Building Our Children’s Trust Needs to Start With Reality

While we’re being told by scientific authority that decisive action to reduce carbon emissions is mandatory within the 2020’s, the legal theory underlying Juliana is risky and time-consuming. Worse, “victory” in Juliana would mean contradictory and self-defeating technological fixes which are misleadingly cast as proven ways to salvage life on the planet. In these potentially closing moments of human existence, the inhabitants, human and otherwise, deserve a whole lot better.

Read More | Blogs, News