Search Results for: rights of nature

Invisible Hand Screening

by celdf

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

Common Dreams: Remembering Christopher D. Stone

by Ben Price

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

by Guest Author

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 

COMING SOON: World Premiere of ‘Invisible Hand’

by celdf

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

Photo by Public Herald

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

Photo by Public Herald

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

Photo by Public Herald

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

Photo by Public Herald

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

Photo by Public Herald

Breaking: Grant Township Forces Pennsylvania to Revoke Injection Well Permit

by celdf

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

by celdf

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 ruling, 28 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 ruling, 28 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 ruling, 28 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 ruling, 28 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 ruling, 28 February 2019.

Blog: We Stand With the Youth Climate Strike

by celdf

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

CELDF at the May 2018 Permanent People’s Tribunal

by celdf

On May 16th, CELDF participated in the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on Human Rights, Fracking and Climate Change.

Watch Here

Earth Law Alliance requested the PPT convene the tribunal to consider:

“What is the extent of responsibility and liability of States and non-state actors, both legal and moral, for violations of the rights of nature related to environmental and climate harm caused by these unconventional oil and gas extraction techniques?”

CELDF submitted an amicus curiae brief arguing that fracking violates the rights of nature and the human right to a healthy environment.  From impacts on air and water quality, to wildlife, to climate change, CELDF’s brief demonstrates how from a scientific, legal, moral, and spiritual perspective, both state and non-state actors are responsible, and therefore liable, for violating the rights of nature.

The Center for Earth Jurisprudence also submitted an amicus curiae brief to highlight indivisible connection between human rights and rights of the Earth, and detailed why they must be considered together.

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