Environmental Sustainability
Module 5
Religions and Ecology: Restoring the Earth Community
6 Courses
Introduction to Religions and Ecology Platform: Coursera Institution: Yale University Started: 15/01/2023 Finished: 29/01/2023 Indigenous Religions & Ecology Platform: Coursera Institution: Yale University Started: 01/02/2023 Finished: 02/03/2023 South Asian Religions & Ecology Platform: Coursera Institution: Yale University Started: 02/03/2023 Finished: 28/03/2023 East Asian Religions & Ecology Platform: Coursera Institution: Yale University Started: 28/03/2023 Finished: 23/06/2023 Western Religions & Ecology Platform: Coursera Institution: Yale University Started: 23/06/2023 Finished: 30/07/2023 Christianity & Ecology
“Rights of Nature is the recognition and honoring that Nature has rights. It is the recognition that our ecosystems – including trees, oceans, animals, mountains – have rights just as human beings have rights. Rights of Nature is about balancing what is good for human beings against what is good for other species, what is good for the planet as a world. It is the holistic recognition that all life, all ecosystems on our planet are deeply intertwined.
Rather than treating nature as property under the law, rights of nature acknowledges that nature in all its life forms has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles.
And we – the people – have the legal authority and responsibility to enforce these rights on behalf of ecosystems. The ecosystem itself can be named as the injured party, with its own legal standing rights, in cases alleging rights violations.“
What is Rights of Nature?, therightsofnature.org
Environmental rights are a radical means of tackling the climate crisis by ensuring the natural environment and its resources are afforded legal protections that defend it against damaging practices and unnecessary overexploitation that would inhibit its ability to exist and thrive as a living entity.
One of the biggest challenges and points of conflict in solving the climate crisis will be fairly managing the environment in a way that maintains the wellbeing of nature while also honoring the basic needs of human beings.
In many ways environmental rights are human rights, but the world still has a long way to go in order to strike an equilibrium between the two.
This module very much explores this far from finished debate and looks at the various possible solutions that may allow us to strike a balance between the legal rights of nature and the legal rights of human beings.