LETTERS FOR THE RIVERS

Why Rights of Nature?

Recently there has been news of residents in several north country communities approaching local governments to consider resolutions acknowledging the Rights of the St. Lawrence River. The typical initial reaction, as it was once for me, is “what is that and why do we need it?” I have frequently encountered this response when speaking about the Rights of Nature to people raised in the western legal tradition.

Why? Because for centuries nature has been merely property, a resource, to be used by its owners, (humans) as we see fit and for our ultimate gain. And where has that gotten us? A short, incomplete list: 40% of all U.S. waterways fail to meet even minimum clean water standards; 90% of all original forests worldwide have been logged; at least one million species threatened with extinction; 4 billion pounds of toxic chemicals released into the atmosphere each year; 80,000 industrial chemicals currently in use; 700 of which are now found within every human body; microplastics found in human placentas; and global climate change threatening ecosystems and the life that depends on them.

Rivers don’t exist for us. They don’t exist to be a resource either for us or our neighbors or the weekend visitor or commercial interests. They existed long before we came along and have nurtured us since we got here. Although rivers will exist, in some form, long after we are gone, it is certainly true that the course we are on will cause many of them to lose their ability to sustain and enrich life as they have since time immemorial. It feels like our current efforts are too small for this moment.

Rivers and their watersheds are a tapestry of geology, hydrology, weather, plants, fish, mammals, birds and humans interacting to create a living whole. Acknowledging that the River and its watershed have rights - to exist, to be free of pollution, and to evolve naturally - is a step toward accepting our responsibilities as individuals and communities to respect and protect them.

The movement to acknowledge the Rights of Nature in the north country and worldwide is citizen-driven by knowledge held by the local community - those closest to their environment are the best to speak on its behalf. It is a way for communities to democratically decide what happens to the watersheds they share, the people who live in them, and their other-than-human relations. It is a return to an understanding of humanity's connection with and obligation to nature in a mutual web of respect and responsibility.

The resolutions before north country towns and villages evidence more than a progression in our thinking. It is a paradigm shift that embodies a respect for the north country’s rivers and their watersheds, their importance to us, our interdependence with them and our responsibility to treat them like family. It calls us to our higher selves and behaviors. It emphasizes our responsibility to take the health of the watershed into account in our actions. It asks us as individuals and the agencies acting on our behalf to be thoughtful, to review our actions and rules, and (where appropriate) make the changes necessary to protect it.

It’s a responsibility we should be proud to acknowledge and share.

Waters and waterways have and will exist independent of humans. The question is do we continue to degrade them to the detriment of the web of life they support (which includes us)? Or do we accept our responsibility to live alongside them in the reciprocal and beneficial way humans did for thousands of years before we asserted dominion over all of nature.

Lee Willbanks, Talking Rivers, Inc.
President and founding board member

Published

• Abridged version published in the Watertown Daily Times.
  

Date

March 16th, 2015