While I was far away in Australia, I launched a podcast: On the Rights of Nature!
For almost two years, I have been thinking about how to share the stories of the people who are at the forefront of what I believe is one of the most powerful movements of our time: the rights of nature movement. As long as laws allow destruction of nature, there is a limit to our collective capacity of care. Even if we say that nature is important, there will be a gap that holds us in destructive behaviours and in the belief that this somehow is as it should be. Acknowledging that more-than-human beings are subjects, not objects of law, shifts our perception and heals the very old separation between humans and the rest of the living world. This is a huge shift; as Alessandro Pelizzon (interviewed here) says: ecological jurisprudence is to law what quantum physics is to physics.
This transformative movement has emerged like a fungal network since I first encountered it almost 15 years ago. There are now almost 500 legal instruments that recognize the rights of nature in 40 countries (see this update by Alex Putzer et al). Behind each and every one of these decisions are people who hold the vision of a society with the capacity to live with healthy relationships. Activists, indigenous people, lawyers, researchers and judges who refuse to accept the status quo, who work tirelessly for a more dignified human presence on Earth. I am in awe of these people. I want their work to be known far and wide.
The podcast On the Rights of Nature is my way of contributing to the visibility of this movement. Not least to support the movement to be aware of itself in all its splendour!
Most of this work is unpaid; people just do it because it is the decent thing to do. It is a source of endless frustration to me that the resources to study the processes that these people bring about, probably outnumber the resources accessible for the work itself (without which any research would have been impossible, obviously) by something like 1000:1. If you want to support the awareness, maybe you would consider liking and sharing this podcast?
In any case, thank you so much for your attention in this space. Attention is the beginning of devotion, as Mary Oliver says. Live well!
Important PS: could not do this without my excellent producer Fredrik Arestav. Thanks a million Fredrik.
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