Ho-Chunk Nation and others move to protect the Earth
This article by Mary Sussman appeared in the Shepherd Express on April 13th, 2019.
Imagine a world where nature has rights. A lake or waterway would have the right to remain clean and could assert that right against industrial polluters. Wetlands could stand up for themselves to push back against builders who wanted to fill them in with concrete and build 40-story towers on them. An endangered ecosystem could assert the right to restore itself and prevent future degradation.
Imagine no more. The rights of nature movement is gaining steam. Across the country, communities and tribal nations are signing on to it. In Wisconsin, the Ho-Chunk Nation took a first vote for a rights of nature tribal constitutional amendment in 2016. It was the first tribal nation in the U.S. to do so. In 2018, the White Earth band of the Chippewa Nation in Minnesota adopted the Rights of the Manoomin law, which secured legal rights of manoomin (wild rice); it was the first law to secure legal rights of a particular plant species. In 2010, the City of Pittsburgh enacted rights of nature legislation to keep fracking out of the city. In February 2019, the City of Toledo, Ohio, passed the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, which allows individuals to sue on behalf of the lake.
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