EVERY DAY IS A PRAYERFUL RESPECT FOR THE EARTH

The following, introductory extract, in honor of Earth Day 2023, is from “Sustainability and the Rights of Nature: An Introduction,” by Cameron La Follette and Chris Maser. “What would it really take for us, in the United States, to create and maintain a sustainable lifestyle? How would we even know where to begin, since “sustainability” is impossible to define—albeit the word is increasingly used? One sees it everywhere. But few of the many definitions have anything in common, because sustainability is not a fixed endpoint. Rather, it is a lifelong journey toward humility and reciprocity of caring in our relationship with Planet Earth. Beyond that, sustainability must mean creating and living in a society in which the integrity, resilience, and productivity of Nature’s Laws of Reciprocity come first. Sustainability is so frequently mentioned that we forget there are no ‘levels of sustainability.’ It is not systemically sustainable, for example, to build a gigantic ‘sun farm’ out in the desert, thereby degrading thousands of acres to power cities and industrial systems with ‘clean’ solar energy. We might call such a thing ‘shallow sustainability,’ but nothing more. Only by setting human use of resources within the Rights of Nature paradigm, in which Earth’s integrity comes first, can human societies flourish, living in harmony with Nature’s Laws of Reciprocity, which is a critical premise of this book. Human beings depend on Nature’s systems for life. If the global ecosystem becomes less able to support a good quality of life, humans will suffer accordingly. Thus, the central focus of this book is creating a blueprint for changing our relationship with the Earth by placing a Rights of Nature framework at the center of the American legal system, both at the Federal and State levels. Furthermore, the Rights of Nature must be ‘first among rights’ in our rights-based system, so Nature’s resilience is the basis from which all human society springs. We then explore ways in which placing the Earth’s ability to flourish first and foremost will change our relationship with the environment and our current land-management strategies. Finally, we offer suggestions and guidelines on how to bring those changes to fruition. We take this approach because true sustainability can only be achieved by thinking systemically—not by merely tackling one symptom after another without addressing the system as a whole. The blueprint is in our hands, thanks to the courageous and farsighted decisions by the nations of Ecuador and Bolivia, which have already placed the Rights of Nature at the heart of their legal systems. Ecuador, in 2008, became the first nation in the world to have the Rights of Nature in their Constitution, which has been accepted by a nationwide vote. Bolivia followed suit in 2010 with an even more comprehensive Rights of Nature statute, which the country is in the process of fully implementing. These two nations are leading the world in reorienting human relationship with the Earth to a nature-based legal and economic system. We acknowledge their courage, strength, and visionary action to protect the Earth for the future of all living beings. We begin by laying out the Nature’s fifteen Laws of Reciprocity. These laws constitute the biophysical foundation of all living systems—the often-invisible laws by which they operate. Human economic and social activity must fit within these laws if the Earth’s biological resilience is to continue. Laying these laws open to scrutiny helps us better understand the Earth’s systems in which we are embedded, and of which we are an inseparable part. Following this, we discuss the emerging paradigm of Nature’s Rights, led by Ecuador, Bolivia, and the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature. This new paradigm was formed in the wake of those two countries’ extraordinary, courageous leap in rewriting their laws to place Nature’s Rights first. Although still entirely outside the framework of existing international law, the Global Alliance has already created an international voice for Nature’s Rights. Innovative partnerships involving the cultural principles of indigenous peoples are beginning to appear in other places, such as New Zealand. In addition, new voices—such as the Catholic Papacy—are speaking out on the importance of protecting Nature’s integrity. Although no country, with the exception of Ecuador and Bolivia, has ensconced the Rights of Nature in their Constitutions or national laws, the concept is now being discussed, studied, and seriously considered, even in the United States. Although the heavily corporatized economic system in the U.S. might seem like the last bastion against Nature’s Rights, a growing number of American towns have adopted Rights of Nature clauses. As environmental degradation expands, so too does the urgent discussion of the need for the Rights of Nature, as the central operating principle within the legal system. It is the only way humans’ relationship with Nature can be fully repaired. … Sustainability in our vision simply means the ability of a natural system to maintain its critical functions. By analogy, if you commence cutting the strands of a net, it will retain the capacity to act as a net only so long as enough of the strands remain interconnected. But the net’s overall effectiveness is reduced with the severing of each strand. When enough of the apparently useless strands have been slashed, the net will develop such large holes that its ability to function as it was designed to will end. Linear-thinking, economically competitive, industrialized nations such as the United States often extract Nature’s commodities to the ‘bare bones’ of ecosystem function. It will require political determination, courage, humility, and cooperation to go down the road we describe in this book and begin living in a Rights of Nature legal system. Can it be done? Yes. We are today at a crossroads in terms of whether humanity’s future is reasonably assured because ecosystem resilience remains strong, or dangerously unstable because our intervention has sufficiently degraded them. The choice is ours. This choice does not mean we shall be thrown into a dark age, but it does mean that people must be more personally responsible, mindful, humble, and caring—both locally and globally. Put differently: Act locally and affect the whole world. We must repair our relationship with the Earth that sustains all, and live in a Rights of Nature culture. Diverse peoples throughout history have proven this is possible.” “No person, institution, or nation has the right to participate in activities that contribute to large-scale, irreversible changes of the Earth’s biogeochemical cycles or undermine the integrity, stability, and beauty of the Earth’s ecologies—the consequences of which would fall on succeeding generations as an irrevocable form of remote tyranny.” David Orr   “Our goal is to inspire compassion for animals, people, and the planet. It’s about motivating youth to become agents of positive change. And our work explores the interconnections between those three topics so that students have the knowledge and the tools to make more informed, compassionate and socially responsible decisions.” Meena Alagappan, Teach Heart executive director     Other Gifts-of-Nature Offerings: • Earth Day 2012 • Be One with Sacred Earth—Native American Wisdom • All Life is Equal • Revering All Life — Native American Kinship • The Essence of Spiritual Ecology • Nature’s Affluence • Oceans—Water Bearers for the Land • Forests as Our Spiritual Inheritance • Sacred Rivers • Bird Consciousness • In Truth All Godlings • The Global Heart © © Cameron La Follette and Chris Maser. Post © by Zane Maser, 2023. Fawn lily photo by Sue Johnston. Other photos gratefully used from Wikimedia Commons and FreeImages. All 2009-2023 rights of Zane Maser and SunnyCat Astrology reserved worldwide. Always am I grateful for the inspiration and editorial assistance from Chris Maser, my kind-hearted, generous soul mate.