Search Results for: rights of nature

Jan 21, 2014

Press Release: Colorado Community Rights Network Files Constitutional Amendment To Secure the Right to Community Self-Government Free from State Preemption

Denver, Colorado, January 20, 2014 – The Colorado Community Rights Network (COCRN) has submitted to the state for review and comment the language for a Community Rights Constitutional Amendment to be placed on the 2014 ballot.

Read More | News from the Grassroots

Sep 16, 2013

Press Release: Oregon Communities Launch Statewide Network for Community Rights

On September 12th, community members from eight Oregon counties gathered in Corvallis, Oregon, to launch the Oregon Community Rights Network (ORCRN).

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

May 19, 2013

Press Release: New Hampshire Community Rights Network Signs the Barnstead Declaration

The New Hampshire Community Rights Network signs the Barnstead Declaration, stating their intention to provide education for a statewide call for legislative and constitutional changes recognizing the right to local self-government and the Rights of Nature.

Read More | News from the Grassroots

May 8, 2013

Read the Dirt: Does Food Sovereignty Exist in the United States? Food and the Community Rights Movement

Trisha Mandes speaks to the deficiencies of U.S. food activism and proposes an adaptive way forward. Trisha has worked with community-based food projects in Oregon and Pennsylvania and is now pursuing a Masters Degree in Public Health Nutrition and Sustainable Development at the University of Eastern Finland.

Read More | Uncategorized

Mar 28, 2013

CELDF Statement: A New Civil Rights Movement: Liberating Our Communities from Corporate Control

A Pennsylvania Judge Holds That Corporations Are Not “Persons” Under the Pennsylvania Constitution.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

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.

Read More | Uncategorized

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.

Read More | Uncategorized

Jan 16, 2024

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?

Read More | Blogs

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.

Read More | Blogs

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.

Read More | Blogs

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

Read More | Uncategorized

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.

Read More | Uncategorized

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

Apr 29, 2024

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

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

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

Mar 27, 2024

AM I AN ACTIVIST?

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

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

Feb 2, 2024

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

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

Read More | Press Releases, Rights of Nature

Nov 6, 2023

CELDF is seeking a Donor Relations Coordinator | Job Opening

We need you to help us partner with others in fostering a culture and governing system that is all about community-based governing authority in the name of right relationship with Nature. We invite you to apply today!

Read More | News, Resources

Oct 25, 2023

Truth, Reckoning & Right Relationship

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

Read More | Events, Rights of Nature

Sep 1, 2023

CELDF is seeking a Multimedia Specialist|Job Opening

CELDF is in need of a multimedia specialist who can generate content in a variety of formats and of varying levels of complexity.

Read More | News

Jul 24, 2023

Conversations on Culture, Corporate Power, and the Constitution coming to California in August!

Date/Time/Location: August 21st, 7pm, TBD Los Angeles + August 23rd, 7pm

Read More | Events

Jul 13, 2023

New Moon Mycology Summit 2023

August 9-13, 2023 in Wheelock, VT On August 10th, CELDF’s Michelle Sanborn will be presenting at the New Moon Mycology Summit on the Rights of Nature. The New Moon Mycology Summit is a gathering for communal learning around environmental + social justice through the lens of fungi. With 50+ presenters from various fields, this multi-day outdoor… Read more »

Read More | Events

Jul 10, 2023

How Do We Speak for the Trees When Our Human Right to Free Speech is Cut Down? 

In our legal system, one is either a legal subject (humans and corporations) or a legal object (nature)

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

Jul 7, 2023

15 Questions that Are More Useful than “What New Regulation Should We Fight For?”

Difficult as it may be, we’d all be better off focusing on how to change the legal system itself instead of pleading for stricter regulations.

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

Jun 19, 2023

Free Speech Advocate Moves to Lift Gag Order Regarding Radioactive Brine Used on Roadways

“SLAPP suits are just another tool used by industry and corporations to silence and intimidate those who speak out against them and their activities,” stated Wyatt Sugrue, Chicago attorney.

Read More | Chemical Trespass, Community Rights, Democratic Rights, Press Releases, Rights of Nature

Jun 14, 2023

Wouldn’t You Say?

Welcome to CELDF’s commentary series that focuses on key concepts in our work to advance Community Rights and the Rights of Nature. Superficially, these may appear to be separate movements for legal rights but, as we have come to understand, everything’s connected and the artificial separation of human communities from the natural communities that we… Read more »

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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