This letter by Michelle Maloney, co-founder and national convenor of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance, appeared in The Toledo Blade, January 12th, 2019.
Around the world, people are working hard to protect their local communities and local ecosystems from the destructive impacts of excessive industrial developments. One strategy that’s receiving growing attention, is how to change the legal status of nature from being seen as just human property or, at best, a protected object, to being seen as a living entity with its own legal rights.
Ecuador’s Vilcabamba River, New Zealand’s Taranaki Mountain, and Colombia’s Atrato River now have legal rights, as around the world the legal status of nature is being changed in constitutions, legislation, and court cases. This is happening at national and local levels, including now in Ohio with the effort in Toledo to secure rights of Lake Erie.
In Australia, we have started a new conversation about how to increase protection and custodianship of the world’s largest coral reef community — the Great Barrier Reef. The reef is in serious trouble. As temperatures rise due to climate change — in the ocean and in the atmosphere — the tiny coral creatures that comprise the massive reef struggle and die. The reef has been affected by devastating bleaching events over the past three years, which have killed off large areas in the northern parts of its range. MORE…