THIS MEETING HAS BEEN CANCELLED

Wednesday, March 20, 2019 at 7 PM – 9 PM, Powhatan County Public Library, 2270 Mann Rd, Powhatan, Virginia 23139.

If you are interested in protecting your county from environment harms, come learn how we can work together to protect the Rights of Nature. We will have the opportunity to hear Ben Price, from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), share information about the concept of Community Bill of Rights (CBOR) for our local communities and how to protect the rights of nature. 200 municipalities nationwide have already passed CBORs and over 3 dozen communities have protected the rights of nature in their local communities. Check out the CELDF website for more information. (www.CELDF.org)

The Constitution of Virginia says it is our right to clean air and clean water. However, our rights conflict with the state and federal laws. As a systemic problem, the law is built around the needs of the monied corporations. The law is on their side. We are looking at legalized harm.

Activists in this movement often view the environment as the next frontier in humanity’s expanding moral circle: over the centuries, we’ve extended rights to more and more beings (e.g. slaves, women), so why shouldn’t nature itself be next?

The Lake Erie Bill of Rights (LEBOR), an amendment to the city charter of Toledo, has just been voted on and passed. It is the first rights-based legislation aimed at protecting a whole US ecosystem: the lake, its tributaries, and the many species connected to it, including humans!

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, PRESERVE VA rejects the conventional Western way of relating to nature — as property that is there for the taking, as an object rather than a subject. We recognize that we are going to have to work within the existing Western legal system, like the LEBOR mentioned above, if we want that to change.

We are betting that the best strategy for protecting the environment is to stretch our society’s understanding of what can have rights. If corporations have rights, why not nature? It’s a bold bet, but with climate change decimating the planet at such a ferocious rate, it is the kind of innovative thinking we need.

The LEBOR isn’t without precedent! It’s part of the nascent worldwide Rights of Nature movement, which has notched several victories in the past dozen years. The Rights of Nature have been included in the constitution of Ecuador. Rivers and parks have already won legal rights in countries like Colombia, India, and New Zealand.

Join us to learn more about how to bring this paradigm shift to your local community!