RSS feed11.09: Mother Earth rights and rights of all beings in Copenhagen Treaty
One year on from planetary rights being presented to the United Nations, Mother Earth rights and rights of all beings have been included in the forthcoming Copenhagen Treaty currently being drafted for the international climate change negotiations to be held in Copenhagen in December.
Paragraph 13 of the Non-Paper No 52 (of the Ad-hoc Working Group on Long-term Co-operative Action under the Convention, to give it it’s full title) currently states:
“Noting that a shared vision for long-term cooperative action should take account not only of the rights of human beings, but also of the rights of Mother Earth and all its natural beings as the adverse effects of climate change also have a range of direct and indirect implications for the full and effective enjoyment of human rights – including the right to sustainable development, self determination, statehood, life, the right of people not to be deprived of their own means of subsistence, the right to water and the right to live well – and are increasingly posing a risk to security and the survival, sovereignty and territorial integrity of states.”
As of yet, the inherent rights of the wider earth community have not been included. The rights listed are are specifically human-centered. Most are not rights identified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (the exception being right to life), nor are they enshrined in national or international legislation. The proposed list does not take into account of the wider inherent rights that apply equally to all beings (including humans).
The inherent rights and freedoms that could be included here are:
- the right to diversity;
- the right to ecological integrity;
- the freedom of the natural cycles of life;
- the right not to be polluted;
- the right to restorative justice; and
- the freedom of a clean and healthy environment.
The implications of such wording for the future protection of biodiversity and restoration of large degraded eco-systems is of course enormous.
The Right to Diversity
The concept of diversity is a recognition that each being is unique, and the acceptance of our individual differences. This applies not only to human race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies. It applies equally to all species, all beings and variations of life form within a given eco-system, including biodiversity. The problem is that we are losing thousands of species at an unprecedented rate.
The latest update of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species shows that 17,291 species out of the 47,677 assessed species are threatened with extinction. The results confirm that 21% of all known mammals, 30% of all known amphibians, 12 per cent of all known birds and 32% of all known gymnosperms (conifers and cycads) are threatened with extinction. Results for other species-groups that have not yet been comprehensively assessed such as freshwater fishes and dragonflies, indicate similar high levels of threat including bees, who are suffering from extensive worldwide colony collapse disorder and without which we will lose 60% of our food. We need to take proactive steps to protect the remaining endangered species, as well as ensuring the continuance of others not yet threatened, to ensure diversity flourishes. Without diversity our eco-systems begin to fail. One consequence of loss of diversity is the disruption of interconnected feeding chains for numerous species, including humans.
The Right to Ecological Integrity
Ecological Integrity is the condition in which the ecological processes and biological communities of a natural eco-system function in a relatively self-sustaining equilibrium. The challenge for the concept of ecological integrity is to provide a means of distinguishing between responses that represent improvements in the quality of ecosystems, and those that are degradations.
The notion of ecological integrity is analogous to that of health. A healthy individual is relatively vigorous in his or her physical and mental capacities, and is uninfluenced by disease. Health is indicated by diagnostic symptoms that are bounded by ranges considered to be normal, and by attributes that are regarded as desirable. Unhealthy conditions are indicated by the opposite, and may require treatment to prevent further deterioration. However, the metaphor of human and ecosystem health is imperfect in some important respects, and has been criticized by ecologists. This is mostly because health refers to individual organisms, while ecological contexts are much more complex, involving many individuals of numerous species, and both living and nonliving attributes of ecosystems.
Read more on Ecological Integrity
The Freedom of the Natural Cycles of Life
is the culmination of the Right to Diversity and the Right to Ecological Integrity being applied. When both are implemented the Freedom of the Natural Cycles of Life are thereby upheld.
The Right not to be Polluted
By definition, pollution is the introduction of contaminants – be they synthetic or an excess of natural – into the environment that cause instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to physical systems and living organisms. Thus, the excess of greenhouse gases can be termed a pollutant. Such legislation is necessary to stop the continuance of large scale creation of GHG’s that are damaging to people and planet. Until we actually stop the pollution at source, no amount of offsetting, carbon crediting or carbon capture and storage will solve the problem.
On 17.04.09 the US Environmental Protection Agency ruled that excess greenhouse gas emissions are to be now termed as “pollutants, which are a danger to public health”. Greenhouse gases are also a danger to all beings health, as is cogently demonstrated by the loss of numerous species (the polar bear being the most obvious example). Likewise, Europe is now considering implementing a similar directive.
The Right to Restorative Justice
Large scale restoration of degraded eco-systems (wetlands, forests, deserts etc) provides tangible, effective and true remedy on various fronts: the use of physical interventions to change biodiversity and biomass results in raised water tables, perennial agro-forestry practices, soil stability, natural fertility, hydrological regulation and the creation of natural carbon sinks. Correspondingly, such activities dramatically reduce biodiversity loss, fresh water stress, desertification, loss of soil fertility, poverty, disparity, population growth, conflict and climate change.
In China, the principle of restorative justice was applied with enormous success to the restoration of the Loess Plateau (referred to as the Loess Plateau principles) – 35,000 square kilometers of previously desert land (roughly the size of France) was restored to green oasis within 8 years (see: www.earthshope.org). All that was learned from this project that had positive benefit has now become national policy, and all behaviours that were recognised to have negative input were banned.
The Freedom of a Clean and Healthy Environment
is the culmination of these two rights being applied. When both pollution and restoration are addressed, a clean and healthy environment for all beings is assured.
By including wider rights, the drafting of the Copenhagen Treaty would be a vitally important first step to integrating the principle of the interconnectedness of all life.
“A human being is a part of a whole, called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest… a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” Einstein
Lessons of the Loess Plateau: www.earthshope.org