Wisconsin Democrats Push “Rights of Nature” Resolution

A few months ago, I posted about a Republican proposal in Wisconsin to have the state legally preempt local ordinances that grant “rights” to nature. I predicted that, if the bill passed, the Democratic governor would veto it because the nature rights movement is quickly entering the progressive mainstream.

Well, no veto yet, since the bill hasn’t passed. But some Democratic legislators have reacted against the legislation by proposing a joint resolution in favor of granting “inherent rights to nature.” Par for the course, they bow to the supposedly superior environmental wisdom of indigenous people. From the proposed joint resolution:

Whereas, Indigenous communities…have lived in respectful relationships with the land that is now Wisconsin for thousands of years, and their deep ecological knowledge and principles of reciprocity remain essential to understanding and protecting nature today.

Once again: Those communities were premodern. Their methods would not have been sufficient to feed Milwaukee, not to mention supply the resources required to live in our technologically advanced age.

According to the proposed resolution, nature’s “rights” are broad and wide:

Resolved by the assembly, the senate concurring, That the Wisconsin State Legislature recognizes that nature possesses inherent rights, including the right to exist, flourish, regenerate, and be restored.

Please consider what this would mean. If “nature” has the “right to exist, flourish, and regenerate,” virtually any human activity that interferes with natural systems would violate that right. And wouldn’t the “right” to “be restored” also require existing enterprises such as mining, industrial agriculture, fossil fuel production, and forestry — naming just a few — to remediate their properties back to natural states?

The resolution calls on the state legislature to pass laws granting rights to nature and urges local communities to do likewise. Perhaps worse, it advocates unleashing unelected bureaucrats in “agencies and institutions across Wisconsin to adopt rights-of-nature principles.” Imagine the prosperity-throttling opportunities!

Nature rights advocacy combines nature worship mysticism, the supremacy of feelings over thought, and radical anti-humanism into a form of decadence that only the most successful culture could generate. Can you imagine China’s communist leaders being this irrational? How they must be laughing. They are developing China’s economy and taking control of natural resources internationally in order to dominate the world economically. The nature rights movement plays right into their hands.

I hope “nature rights” becomes an election issue in Wisconsin. The contrasting proposals currently on the table will be clarifying about the strength of this radical environmental movement and whether opponents are finally taking its threat to human thriving seriously.