Bolivia enshrines natural world's rights with equal status for Mother Earth

[CHIMO]

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."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/apr/10/bolivia-enshrines-natural-worlds-rights

[madrchsod]

1. alvaro garcia linera is my hero...

we all have to go back to mother earth

[YankeyMCC]

2. Interesting approach

I wonder how effective it could be, it still seems to prop up the idea that at the fundamental level where these are rights they could also be called human rights, nature's "right to clean" water is also the right of the humans who live in the area to that same clean water, I mean to have clean water available not the right to 'own' the water. Maybe that's the point to try and make the point these things can't be owned.

[BeFree]

3. Well

We have that here, those rights... but then we issue "Permits to pollute"
A Permit to pollute the air. Permits to pollute water. Permits to dump garbage.

The idea is that the people have a right to clean water and air and if you want to alter that scenario we can then give you the right to pollute the water or air. Well, yes, you have to have some serious coin to get a permit to pollute, but isn't that balance? Haha.

I guess they'll be doing away with pollution permits in Bolivia?

[snot]

4. Now that's a supra-human "citizen"-ship I can root for!