BOLIVIA… 11 NEW RIGHTS FOR NATURE

– Posted in: Sustainable Gardening

Normally I would Tweet or link to this article on Facebook. Perhaps you’ve already read about this on another garden blog. In case you didn’t though, this is BIG news. Please pass on to your friends and colleagues……Fran Sorin

Law of Mother Earth expected to prompt radical new conservation and social measures in South American nation

Written by By John Vidal for The Guardian

Bolivia is set to pass the world’s first laws granting all nature equal rights to humans. The Law of Mother Earth, now agreed by politicians and grassroots social groups, redefines the country’s rich mineral deposits as “blessings” and is expected to lead to radical new conservation and social measures to reduce pollution and control industry.

The country, which has been pilloried by the US and Britain in the UN climate talks for demanding steep carbon emission cuts, will establish 11 new rights for nature. They include: the right to life and to exist; the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration; the right to pure water and clean air; the right to balance; the right not to be polluted; and the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered.

Controversially, it will also enshrine the right of nature “to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities”.

“It makes world history. Earth is the mother of all”, said Vice-President Alvaro García Linera. “It establishes a new relationship between man and nature, the harmony of which must be preserved as a guarantee of its regeneration.”

The law, which is part of a complete restructuring of the Bolivian legal system following a change of constitution in 2009, has been heavily influenced by a resurgent indigenous Andean spiritual world view which places the environment and the earth deity known as the Pachamama at the centre of all life. Humans are considered equal to all other entities.

Read full article at: The Guardian

Link to video on Bolivia’s Climate Change Wars

Fran Sorin

Fran is the author of the highly-acclaimed book, Digging Deep: Unearthing Your Creative Roots Through Gardening, which Andrew Weil, M.D., recommends as "a profound and inspiring book."  

A graduate of the University of Chicago with Honors in Psychology, she is also a gardening and creativity expert, coach, inspirational speaker, CBS radio news gardening correspondent, and Huffington Post Contributor.

Learn more about Fran and get free resources that will help you improve your life at www.fransorin.com.

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Fran Sorin
4 comments… add one

Leave a Comment

Debi April 15, 2011, 10:48 am

This is absolutely fascinating news! I shall dig for more data and Tweet to the heavens!

Great Debi!! Thanks so much. Fran

professorroush April 15, 2011, 12:03 pm

The “right not to have cellular structure genetically altered?” ” The right to pure water and clean air?” Is there still any room for humans on the planet?

I can see the headlines now; “Canna sues gardener for more space!”

Benjamin Vogt April 15, 2011, 3:38 pm

This is fantastic. A student was talking about this in class today when we were debating if we could ever have communicated clearly with animals, and I brought up that we once did and still do (see some David Abram). Didn’t Sweden or Switzerland recently pass a plant bill of rights, too?

Lydia Plunk April 15, 2011, 9:32 pm

To quote the great philosopher Charlie Brown,
“Good grief.”

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