The Madras High Court in India, which has jurisdiction over the state of Tamil Nadu, has declared that nature is a living being with rights. Read More ›
When we give up human exceptionalism, we go a bit mad and soon are eating our own tails. The green movement — which thinks it is attacking capitalism and fighting global warming — will find that out sooner rather than later if they succeed in granting rights to the natural world and its various elements. Read More ›
If COVID has taught us anything, it is that the technocratic class has little compunction about restricting freedom. Moreover, once they grab power, they are very reluctant to give it back. Read More ›
So, we can’t mine and burn coal. We can’t drill and burn oil or natural gas. We need to end the use of internal-combustion engines. And now, we can’t mine lithium. Sometimes I think these anti-modernity throwbacks won’t be satisfied until we return to the caves. Read More ›
Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Wesley J. Smith participated in a debate hosted by Gonzaga University with a leading proponent of the nature rights movement, Thomas Linzey. Read More ›
The anti-humanists are on the march! Today, I want to discuss subversive advocacy campaigns to expand rights from the human realm to animals, and indeed, the rest of the natural world. Read More ›
Petition gatherers will soon be trying to qualify one of the most radical constitutional amendments in Florida history for the ballot. The Florida Right to Clean Water initiative masks as a benign proposal to protect the state’s waters from pollution. In reality, the measure would explicitly grant human-type rights to H2O. Read More ›
Despite the grueling permit processes, extensive environmental impact reports, and litigation gauntlets that currently protect the environment and/or throttle development — take your pick — nature rights intends to become the “shield” preventing the exploitation of natural resources regardless of how responsibly undertaken, while ecocide intends to be the “spear” punishing it. Read More ›
This is serious. Signatures are being gathered in Florida to qualify a “rights of waterways” constitutional amendment for Florida. The proposed amendment is a form of “nature rights” and is being pushed by (among others) the Florida Rights of Nature Network, the slogan for which is, “Nature is not just an object. It is alive. It has as much right to live as we do.” Read More ›
The “nature rights” movement is stunningly anti-human. It not only removes the concept of “rights” from the strictly human realm — us, our juridical entities and associations, etc. — but was created to thwart human enterprise. Read More ›
