As The World Snoozes, Environmentalists Cheer Turning Nature into "Rights Bearing Entity"
One of the most radical alterations in the self definition of humankind has just occurred in Ecuador and the world snoozes. But the radical environmental movement sees what is happening and is cheering. From a Global Exchange press release:
Today, the people of Ecuador voted to recognize the inalienable rights belonging to ecosystems in their new constitution. A set of groundbreaking articles that transform the status of nature from mere property to a rights-bearing entity are now incorporated into the national charter. Ecuador, one of the world's most biodiverse places, has set a precedent for other nations who have struggled against multinational corporations' exploitation, which has turned ecosystems and whole communities into sacrifice zones. The world watches as Ecuador takes its first step into what many people believe is the legal unknown.Well, here's the problem: Even if you want to thwart the evil international corporations, the constitution doesn't just do that. It makes NATURE a RIGHTS BEARER that is co-equal with people. That means the provision will apply as harshly against the subsistence farmer as the corporation, who being part of the power structure, will often escape the snare.
But that is not what this is really all about. Indeed, the idea that Ecuador's new constitution is merely about protecting the environment is sheer baloney. It is a radical redefinition of the nature and meaning of humankind from the pedestal of exceptionalism to merely as one of the millions of species on the planet--as disposable as any other. In the end, if nature is a rights bearing entity, we will be required to sacrifice human welfare and prosperity to ensure that we don't oppress the trees, snails, and other flora and fauna of the denizens of natural world.
The problem is; other than SHS and the Catholic writer Thomas A. Szyszkiewicz--who first brought this matter to my attention (here's a piece by Szyszkiewicz on Ecuador in the American Spectator)--the world is snoring. And so human exceptionalism teeters. This bodes very ill for the human race--particularly the weakest among us--unless we wake up and push back. Soon.
I will have a more extended analysis out in a week or two. And I will keep pounding this drum! Stay tuned.
Labels: Nature Rights. Ecuador. Global Exchange. Human Exceptionalism.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 5:33 PM
11 Comments
11 Comments:
Wesley,
Actually, everyone I talk with is either alarmed or quickly becomes so when they have the implications of these nature laws pointed out to them.
It seems to me that there is now in our global society a push to return to ancient pagan ideas about personification of nature. What people seem to have forgotten (or simply ignore) is that those cultures were very bloody and brutal. The weak (old, young, or female) were often killed and many, many more were sacrificed, often in horrible ways, to appease various nature gods.
When humans hold no particular place of honor in creation, then they are treated (and often act) as animals.
Jesse: Good to hear. But this needs to be brought to much greater attention than it has so far. We have niche publications and SHS. We need greater visibility.
It is an earth religion. I agree. And if we define ourselves as animals, that is indeed precisely how we shall act.
Thanks.
The real problem is a financial wind fall for environmentalist & lawyers that will debate in courts on behalf of a rock and the truck driver that destroyed that rocks position on a river bank will pay for his transgressions. Substitute tree or skunk but it is apparent that the rock would never have complained. Ditto the tree or the skunk.
Wesley,how in the world do you deal with a person who...upon reading something like this...blows it off as a joke? I am not the world's most intelligent person...but I am not stupid....and those who can't or don't want to see the implications of this are in a word frustrating!
jan: Thanks for writing. I deal with that problem all of the time, in front of audiences that should know better. "Ape rights," ha ha, "What will they think of next?"
I tell them ridicule is a proper method of fighting this, but not taking it seriously and saying, "Oh, it can't happen here," is not acceptable. Indeed, it is dangerous.
People are stunned. Don't want to see. "It can't happen here," is (I hope) a defense mechanism.
I think the proper response is to understand the attitude--because it is NUTS!--but then reply gently but firmly, "It IS happening here. It is happening now." And you prove it.
If they still don't care, shake the dust off your feet and move on to the next person. What else can we do?
Point of clarification to my comment to Jan: When I wrote, "It is NUTS," I was referring to the anti human agenda, not the reaction of those who can't believe it is really happening.
this is a novel and a noble idea whose time has come. the drive to create financial wealth has long ravaged both nature and humans. mother earth has its limits and therefore human exploitation of nature to derive wealth must also be controlled to achieve sustainable growth. or is the destruction already irreversible? It's wise to read "the limits to growth", by dennis meadows, and assess where are we bound granting the current state of nature.
Wesley you're confusing acknowledgement with worship. It's a pity though to have to create this illusionary law, when this recognition should be intrinsic with us. Nature is so much a part of us as we are to it. It has limits too.
Wesley you're confusing acknowledgement with worship. It's a pity though to have to create this illusionary law, when this recognition should be intrinsic with us. Nature is so much a part of as we are to it. It has limits too.
wow.
to the author, wesley, donnie mac and jan.. and all others who have read and posted..
wow is an explicative which punctuates my state of speechlessness.
no-one is stupid enough to actually worship rocks or put them on a plane equal to ourselves. the human ego forbids it, it's naturally hardwired in us so don't get carried away with what you read here. and pagans never worshipped rocks, nor personified them. bugs bunny is a personification. look, you don't have to confuse the ideas of being pro homo sapien with the notion that you have to do so at the expense of the world we live in. just as you don't have to be anti darwin to be pro life in the abortion issue. i invite you to open yourself to the notion that life in equador is emminently different from the life we have here in the us. our political systems will never mingle, so there's really no sense in concerning youselves with what these people choose is important to them. and as far as the cry the author had heard from the catholic writer who informed him of this issue: catholics are mostly ignorant of their own history, a history which co-mingled its traditions with paganism in order to appeal to that greater body of people and gain the upper hand. naturally any catholic would be on the lookout for anything they could label paganism, because its part of their doctrine and they are unknowingly towing the party line and fighting a very old battle which they already 'won' long ago thru 'cleansing'. people, don't side with ignorance. and to look at this another way, as a whole the equadorian peoples live closer to the land than we do. they aren't industrialized like we are. it's easy for outsiders, in NY city or in Shanghai, to do away with this perspective because it's hard to even see the stars or moon at night thru the pollution and buildings. what nature? but for these equadorian people who have had their natural resources literally stripped by corporations are looking for a way to protect themselves from hunger and loss of jobs, and the theft of their resources. so its natural for them to want to have it in writing that they have a fundamentally essential reliance on their environment, and it should be protected. that IS pro homo sapien. just next door to them in the amazon is a single tribe of 6 surviving people who speak their own language and are all unable to reproduce, so their basically going to be extinct. and the reason they're in this situation is because of the corporations who have stripped the surrounding lands and starved them. i don't hear any humanitarian call from the author fighting for these people. all i hear is fear, and hearsay and misunderstanding. i commend these equadorian people for putting this in writing. it is a fact of nature that our existence is a culmination of very unique occurrences, and in a very delicate balance. our proximity to the sun, our atmosphere, our 23 degree axis which allows the seasons. without which we would not exist or have evolved over eons into the form that we are in. it would harm no-one to give nature a nod and strive to keep it fit. its shows that you acknowlege you are part of something greater than yourself, and speaks a lot about your character and who you choose to be. you're not going anywhere, you're not leaving the planet. you didn't just wake up one day as you are with a head on your shoulders and say 'i me mine'. nothing in the cosmos says that the cosmos and its contents must follow suit after mankind. it created us. we follow whatever it brings us. we can alter our world with our hands and minds, but we cannot alter all of it without eliminating ourselves. that's becomming apparent more and more every day. the brilliant thinker and social anthropologist loren eisley said back in 1965 that we had already done too much damage and it is too late to do anything about the fate we have sealed for ourselves, speaking of industrialization and pollution. i condemn the ingnorance of people like this author. ignorance is a choice, stupidity you're born with. i say make use of yourself instead of being part of the problem, and you can start by leaving these little brown people and their positive ideas alone.
swath: Except it wasn't the idea of "the little brown people." It was the idea of American environmental extremists.
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