A-run Steelhead Caught Along the Northfork of the Clearwater.
We live in a world of progress. You must keep moving forward, or you will find yourself trampled by those moving quickly past you, or you simply may be lost, forgotten…what some people may regard as “irrelevant.” However, when did development and industry become the gauge for progress? Shouldn’t progress be measured in quality of life, human rights, and opportunity?
Unfortunately, nature has fallen as the initial victim of this fallacy which we call progress. As Garrett Hardin has coined it: “the tragedy of the commons.” How western ideology–encapsulated in the idea of ownership and dominion–has us believe that we live apart from nature, not part of it.
And this conception is written into our current legal standards. The only environmental laws which we do have in place do not ban pollution or protect nature, it sets legal limits to which we, as a society, can harm/pollute/pillage the waters and soils beneath our feet. This anthropocentric narrative has persisted for centuries in western culture.
Views Along the Salmon River, Southeast of Spokane. Another River which Encapsulates the Beauty and Bounty of Nature.
I am not writing to purposely ruffle feathers. I am not an ecowarrior. I do not run my house or vehicle on french fry oil, I still enjoy my Bacon Western Quarter Pound Cheeseburgers, and my dream car is still a 1965 orange Bronco. I consider myself as a Graham Zimmerman “imperfect advocate.” I love the outdoors, and I would love to conserve our rich landscapes for as long as possible. Quite frankly, I struggle enough with catching a nice B-run steelhead, and I do not need human intervention and industry to further aid in that struggle.
So, what does imperfect advocate mean to me? To me, it is all about balance. Nature is not binary; our relationship with nature is not binary. And one does not have to decide between conservation and development! What ever happened to the middle??
But when we have greater legal protections in place for corporations than we do for nature, this is an issue. We all need clean water, clean air, and sustenance to survive…along with a few other things (*cough* vacations *cough*). So, why do we have such a difficult time protecting the very elements which we need to survive? Noting that this is not trying to further the anthropocentric relationship with nature, I have simply found this to be the best question to drive my point.
In a room of 100 people, at least 90–making room for a few homebodies and gamers–will say they love being outside. This may look different to each one of them; and you do not have to be a large-scale, world adventurer to be categorized in this group. Unfortunately, if we continue along the current path we are on, and with the current laws we have in place, we will soon lose what we love about being outside.
What we are proposing may appear “radical” and “fantastical” to some; however, it does not have to be. Many people do not know this, but corporations are granted legal personhood under the 1st and the 14th amendment. Now, you may ask what this means. Simply put, it means that corporations/businesses are given equal protection under the law and have similar freedom of speech protections as any other citizen. If you are like me, you wonder how there is no conflict of interest? How are we allowing economically driven entities to have such protections? Truth is, I still do not understand. But, this is legal precedent. So, why is it so fantastical to grant personhood rights to nature??
Unlike a corporation, nature provides life. Some could argue that corporations provide life in terms of a monetary perspective, but money only has value because we say it does, and it is subject to market changes. However, the life perpetuated by nature is concrete and consistent. In effect, our legal standards must reflect the importance of the environment. Legal rights must be given to protecting our waterways and landscapes, not for our sake, but for nature itself. It is not until we grant such rights will there be actual legal protections for the environment. Protections for the environment to “exist, flourish, and regenerate.”
And this does not mean that industry must go bankrupt in the process. There is a middle ground; however, the environment cannot continue to be the victim of poorly worded and regulated legal standards. Let us start finding the middle.
To learn more about Rights of Nature, look at:
1. Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER)
https://www.centerforenvironmentalrights.org/
2. Earth Law Center
https://www.earthlawcenter.org/
3. The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF)
https://celdf.org/about-celdf/
4. The Spoken River Podcast; “Rights of Nature with Thomas Linzey”
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2u35KA1NB9c5IFRU0HyqPj?si=82c3d63ea1204675
5. Gonzaga University Center for Climate, Society, and the Environment; “The Rights of Nature: Saving the Planet or Harmful to Humanity?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxUBzG0MrxA