Rights of Nature and Systemic Change for Real Climate Solutions
September 23 2:15pm UN Church Center New York, NY
On September 23rd, Global Alliance and Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) will host a Rights of Nature and Systemic Change for Real Climate Solutions event at 2:15-3pm at UN Church Center. After decades of environmental protection laws (which have achieved some notable successes), our modern legal systems have failed to prevent the increasingly grave threats of climate change, degradation of earth’s ecosystems, and the growing displacement of humans and other species. To achieve sustainability even at its most basic level, the time has come for society to restructure the fundamental framework of our governance and economics systems as they relate to the relationship of humans and our Earth. A growing Rights of Nature movement is committed to creating a system of jurisprudence that treats nature and Mother Earth as a rights bearing entity. Rooted in traditional indigenous wisdom, which respects the equal rights of nature and honors the interrelationship of all life, a new paradigm founded in the notion of living in harmony with nature is critical to climate discussions, sustainability goals, community’s having the right to self-determination, and a just transition to a clean energy economy as we face urgent ecological tipping points. Panelists will provide an introduction to Rights of Nature/Rights of Mother Earth and examine :- Past and upcoming international Rights of Nature Ethics Tribunals;
- Rights of Nature and the new economy
- Rights of Nature as a key alternative to market-mechanism “solutions”; and
- At a local level, what Rights of Nature can do to protect your community from fracking and other harms.
- Pablo Solon, Focus on the Global South, former Bolivian Ambassador to the UN
- Osprey Orielle Lake, Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network
- Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environment Network
- Linda Sheehan, Earth Law Center
- Shannon Biggs, Global Exchange
- Casey Camp-Horinek, Actress, Indigenous Environment Network
- Gloria Ushigua, Associaiton of Sapara Women, Sapara, Ecuador