Water & Oceans

How 'Rights of Nature' Is Recasting the Relationship Between Law and the Earth

In 2006, a local government council in Pennsylvania concerned about sewage sludge dumping enacted the Western legal system’s first formal “rights of nature” instrument. Today, numerous countries have laws recognizing specific rights or even legal personhood for nature. As legal expert Alice Bleby explains, this new perspective arises from a wide range of contexts and plays out in many different ways.

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"Drought And Bark Beetles Are Killing The Oldest Trees On Earth"

"Forest pathologist Martin MacKenzie strode forward on a narrow path through California’s mythic bristlecone pine forest in the White Mountains near the Nevada border, methodically scanning gnarled limbs for the invaders that threaten the lives of some of the world’s oldest trees."

Source: LA Times, 06/27/2022

"Biden’s Inner Circle Debates Future of Offshore Drilling"

"President Biden’s top aides are weighing whether to ban new oil and gas drilling off America’s coasts, a move that would elate climate activists but could leave the administration vulnerable to Republican accusations that it is exacerbating an energy crunch as gas prices soar."

Source: NYTimes, 06/24/2022

Enviros, Property Owners Sue To Block $2.5-Billion Dam In Santa Clara Co.

"As California endures water restrictions due to widespread drought, a proposed $2.5-billion reservoir expansion project in Santa Clara County promises to increase the amount of freshwater for more than a million people."

Source: LA Times, 06/23/2022

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