The “burgeoning” legal movement determined to amend U.S. law so that “nature"—rivers, forests, mountains, rocks, wildlife—holds equal legal standing with human rights, is eager to test the legality of such action at a court hearing in November in Orange County, Florida, “Inside Climate News” (ICN) reported enthusiastically on Sept. 19.
An incredible 89% of Orange County voters reportedly voted in the November 2020 election for that county to add a “nature’s rights” provision to the county’s charters, so that waterways and the like can be legally protected against such “harmful pollution” as fertilizer runoff from agriculture, septic systems, or poor stormwater management.
Similar laws and ordinances have been adopted by more than 30 localities in the United States, and more are working on them, according to ICN, but they have never been upheld in a U.S. court of law. Therefore, the November hearing “could be the most consequential legal moment to date for the rights of nature concept in the American courts.”
Jonathan Swift would appreciate just how insane this is: The suit to stop a planned local residential and commercial development in Orange County was filed by six plaintiffs: one human being, two streams, two lakes, and a marsh! (Your guess as to which will be testifying…)
Yet, this is not some cute stunt. “The concept of granting rights to nature has gained saliency and urgency across the globe over the last 15 years,” ICN writes. “As the movement matures, it has dovetailed with a global push to criminalize `ecocide,’ or widespread destruction of the environment. That campaign aims to add `ecocide’ as a fifth crime, alongside genocide and crimes against humanity, before the Hague-based International Criminal Court.
“While the crime of ecocide would outlaw only severe environmental destruction, rights of nature laws aim to protect against more commonplace acts, like government permitted pollution. The concept has raised the question: What level of human impact on nature is acceptable?”
