An Evening with Nnimmo Bassey, Head of FoEI and winner of the Right Livelihood Award 2011. Monday 26th September. Posted by Gaia Foundation, London,
Justice for the Earth Community: Defending the Rights of Nature and holding Corporations to Account
Monday 26th September
6.30pm – 7.30pm food and wine at Gaia House
7.30pm – 9.30pm talk and Q&A at Burgh House, Hampstead.
Nnimmo will talk about the Rights of Nature and corporate responsibility campaigns in relation to cases in Ecuador and Nigeria.
In April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon disaster off the Gulf of Mexico saw over 4 million gallons of oil leak into the sea. It was the worst oil spill in American history and one of the worst spills the planet has ever seen. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their livelihoods and the devastation caused to marine life is unfathomable.
On 26th November last year, a coalition of environmental organisations and indigenous activists – led by Nnimmo Bassey and Vandana Shiva – filed a precedent setting case in the Constitutional Court of Ecuador against British Petroleum (BP). They accused BP of violating the Rights of Nature. The Ecuadorian Constitution was the first in the world to recognise the Rights of Nature (or ‘Pachamama’) and to state that humans have a legal obligation to ‘maintain and regenerate Earth’s vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution’.
He will also explore why this strategy is necessary and is part of a bigger shift required in society today. A shift that will require that laws and policies comply with the laws of the Earth, and a way of living which maintains the health and integrity of the whole Earth Community.
Nnimmo will also be sharing a small selection of poems from his new book “I will Not Dance to Your Beat”.
Cost: £12 full price, £8 concessions. Price includes wine and light buffet. Please Book online to reserve a place, or contact Rowan@gaianet.org.
More about Nnimmo
Nnimmo Bassey is a Nigerian environmental activist and poet, and head of Friends of the Earth International. In 2010 Nnimmo received of the Right Livelihood Award (alternative Nobel Peace Prize) and featured in Time Magazines ‘Heroes of the Environment’ in 2009.
http://www.gaiafoundation.org/content/defending-rights-nature-and-holding-corporations-account