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The declaration of Planetary Rights, by Polly Higgins

December 22nd, 2009

On Thursday I saw an excellent talk by Polly Higgins, an environmental lawyer and George Monbiot, a scientist. Out of all the talks I had seen over the few weeks at Copenhagen, I found this one of the most interesting and inspiring.

Polly had an idea, in the form of a declaration of “Planetary Rights”. This is something that could be applied instantly through a UN agreement, like the UN declaration of human rights was after the second world war. The basis is quite simple, but very powerful:

Firstly, we need to agree that the Earth is a living being. (If you don’t agree with this, then feel free to tell me what you think the Earth is!). I admit, it may sound a bit hippy, but if you consider the resources the Earth provides us with, we need to treat it with a little more respect. Like all living beings, the Earth would have a declaration of rights. Amongst these would include:

- The right to diversity
- The right to ecological integrity
- The right not to be polluted

Once this declaration had come into place, polluting the earth would become illegal. (I can hear the fossil fuel Lobbyists spewing into their Latte’s as they read this!) For companies caught polluting, instead of paying a fine, they would need to put it back to the way it was. Currently, it’s often cheaper for a company to pay the fines than it is to stop polluting. There would be an international court like the Hague for those who break the law. Big companies are multinational, so we need an international court to be able to effectively govern them.

Rather than going into more detail, check out treeshaverights.com, or here is Polly Higgins discussing it:

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