Activist Winona LaDuke encourages people to understand that our future depends on humans recognizing the rights of the natural world This article by Alyssa Kelly appeared in the Char-Koosta News on March 28th, 2019. MISSOULA — From blazing temperatures and billion dollar wildfires igniting across the country, to rising sea levels and entire animal species [...]
Sometimes it’s hard for me to keep up with the rapid growth that Community Rights US is experiencing. And we are managing all of it with the tiniest of budgets devoted to actual wages. We truly believe that we are on to something big - helping increasing numbers of people from across the US to discover a [...]
This article by David Webber was published in The Missourian on, March 8th, 2019. The Lake Erie Bill of Rights, adopted by voters in Toledo, Ohio, last month, establishes the right of citizens to sue polluters of Lake Erie for damages to the lake itself. It establishes “legal rights for nature.” At first blush, this [...]
This article by Cameron La Follette was published in the American Association of Geographers newsletter on March 6th, 2019. Rights of Nature is a short-hand term for a form of ecological governance that both provides for and prioritizes Nature’s right to flourish. It also provides for various subsidiary rights, such as the right to restoration, [...]
The piece below was read aloud at Portland, Oregon’s public event: "Roasting 200 Years of Corporate Constitutional 'Rights' 1819-2019". Paul Cienfuegos, Director and Founder of Community Rights US, did the writing and reading of what follows. In 1816, the society was still primarily composed of small farmers. It was important to them that higher education would be available [...]
This article by Daniel McGraw appeared in The American Conservative, February 28th, 2019. TOLEDO, Ohio—About a month ago on a snowy afternoon, driving over the spindly 90-year-old Anthony Wayne Bridge, I couldn’t help but notice how this city seemed stuck in neutral. Behind me was the huge Toledo Refinery, a 280-acre gasoline processing plant, but [...]
Local residents now have standing in court to sue corporate polluters on behalf of the lake. The local effort has been vigorously opposed by a group linked to some of the largest corporations and lobbying groups on the planet. This article by Simon Davis-Cohen appeared in The Progressive, February 27th, 2019. Last night, residents of [...]
News update from one of our active Community Rights groups in northern Wisconsin, from one of its core members, Curt Hubatch (who also maintains our website's NewsFeed): The Washburn County Community Rights Alliance (WCCRA) introduced our Climate Bill of Rights to the Chicog Town Board in Northwestern Wisconsin in December. There was an hour of [...]
This original essay was written by Paul Cienfuegos, our Founding Director, in direct response to all of the progressive cheerleading that has been going on across the indy media for the past few days since Amazon Corp's directors pulled out of their plans to build a second HQ in New York City. His essay was [...]
This letter to the editor by Douglas Darrell appeared in the Laconia Daily Sun, February 10th, 2019. To the Daily Sun, I endeavor to appeal to the civic mindedness of our democracy with a republican form of government to follow the plea in attention of 2019 legislative session CACR-8. This bill is not an innovation [...]
