United Nations: The Rights of Nature Is Our Right to Life

Interestingly, the rights of nature would not need to be regarded when we are in harmony.  I can envisage extraction industry people, politicians and those espousing business-as-usual scoffing at The Rights of Nature as an idealistic unrealistic statement.  Yet in truth it is the very life support beneath their feet.  Denial is powerful when we have believed a mind set for a long time. Change is not easy, yet in truth, it is essential.  If the planet collapses we collapse, our future is intricately linked to the future of Gaia. 

In this moment I just felt inspiration to find the meaning of Gaia. Here it is from wikipedia.

Gaia ( /ˈɡeɪ.ə/ or /ˈɡaɪ.ə/; from Ancient Greek Γαῖα, a poetical form of Gē Γῆ, “land” or “earth”;^[1] also Gaea, or Ge) was the goddess or personification of Earth in ancient Greek religion,^[2] one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia was the great mother of all: the heavenly gods, the Titans and the Giants were born from her union with Uranus (the sky), while the sea-gods were born from her union with Pontus (the sea). Her equivalent in the Roman pantheon was Tellus.   The Greek word “γαῖα” (trans. as gaia or gaea) is a collateral form of “γῆ”^[3] (gē, Doric “γά” – ga and probably “δᾶ” da^[4][5]) meaning Earth,^[6] a word of unknown origin.^[7] In Mycenean Greek Ma-ka (trans. as Ma-ga: Mother Gaia) contains also the root ga-.[8

Some modern sources, such as James Mellaart, Marija Gimbutas and Barbara Walker, claim that Gaia as Mother Earth is a later form of a pre-Indo-European Great Mother, venerated in Neolithic times. Her existence is a speculation, and controversial in the academic community. Some modern mythographers, including Karl Kerenyi, Carl A. P. Ruck and Danny Staples interpret the goddesses Demeter the “mother,” Persephone the “daughter” and Hecate the “crone,” as aspects of a former Great goddess identified by some^[who?] as Rhea or as Gaia herself. In Crete, a goddess was worshiped as Potnia Theron (the “Mistress of the Animals”) or simply Potnia (“Mistress”), speculated^{[by whom?]} as Rhea or Gaia; the title was later applied in Greek texts to Demeter, Artemis or Athena. The mother-goddess Cybele from Anatolia (modern Turkey) was partly identified by the Greeks with Gaia, but more so with Rhea and Demeter.

My feeling reading this is definitely the importance of the mother.  I feel we must become like the mother who loves her child and in the same way, to love the planet.  It is the same energy, the energy of nurture and responsibility.  I remember my friend telling me the love of her son was that of a soul mate.  The bond was so strong she would do anything for him.  Until we feel the planet in this way, there will be platitudes about saving the earth.  We have to see the umbilical chord connecting us. It is easy to go with business-as-usual as it requires only compliance and no real change.  However, when you think of this natural wonder as 4 billion years old, orbiting in a Milky Way Galaxy, you gain a sense of  its preciousness.  What right do we have to render the planet a lifeless rock in space?  How does that affect other planets?

I feel these times are about connecting to love and the feminine within.  Inherent within men and women is the masculine and feminine. You meet some men that are more feminine (gentle, kind) and some women that are more masculine (active, assertive). The feminine has been suppressed in favour of active, aggressive approaches. You can see that with decaying social fabrics around the world where we witness more abuse, neglect and social hardening rather than child centred communities based on love, respect and cooperation. We have focussed on masculine qualities of competition and winning. It has created a deep imbalance not only in human society but with the planet. It means finding the balance within ourselves and then acting from the peace within.  It means the masculine learning to express feeling and the feminine learning to assert more, so taking on aspects of the other long suppressed. Males and females are complements not of unequal status. When we come together without putting down the feminine or masculine then we will find harmony. That is our true nature.  Until we find harmony we will continue creating imbalances with the natural system.  Now the way I am speaking is not scientific nor is it economic language, I choose this language as it is from the heart. I am feeling for my own truth.  The new society will espouse a heart based intelligence, that knows its essential unity with nature.

Often the UN is regarded as a toothless tiger and much hot air, yet my inner feeling is some fine ideas have been crafted.  The difficulty for those at the UN is dealing with others who do not share such noble ideas.   Each is operating from self (national) interest and not seeing themselves as cells in the body of the earth.  They see a competititve masculine approach of pushing through their agenda’s rather than a cooperative approach where what you do to another returns to the Self. This would be a holistic thinking. The creation of nation states within an economic global system has created competitive postures and national interest. Thus the sum of the parts do not work for the whole. This is why there is no power in the UN, they have not realised the power of unity yet. All will be in economic mindsets motivated by powerful economic interests who see wealth as prosperity, an unquestioned paradigm.  They are not able to entertain other languages that see true wealth in the ideas of ‘what I do to another returns to the self’ or ‘to be or not to be that is the question’ or ‘to thyself be true’.  Philosophy or statements about love or caring for the planet will be seen as motherhood and wispy rather than fundamental to life on earth.  There is still powerful beliefs in masculine rationality and business language where power concentrates. Until the heart changes the head continues with business-as-usual.  In this moment I think of Al Gore and his moment where his son nearly died.  It was then that he saw how precious life is.  He was able to  link it to nature, where he grew up and how it had changed.  He saw the urgency in change, yet how to change the politicians who are run by constituents and special interests? He felt one by one he must communicate the message.  I don’t think we have the time for one by one, it will be a consciousness shift where inately we suddenly realise  our essential oneness with the planet.  We are not separate economic units, we are life living encased by a living planet.

I thank those behind this declaration for acting from the heart.   Enjoy this noble attempt to give rights to the planet, an unheard of thought. Beneath that it raises the idea that the planet is alive. This is something I know, I felt an epiphany some years ago where I just knew it was conscious, a living being. It came as a surprise, I was taught it was resources.  In truth denying the planet’s rights to function naturally denies us of the right to life.  We are one and the same.

We, the peoples and nations of Earth:

considering that we are all part of Mother Earth, an indivisible, living community of interrelated and interdependent beings with a common destiny;

gratefully acknowledging that Mother Earth is the source of life, nourishment and learning and provides everything we need to live well;

recognizing that the capitalist system and all forms of depredation, exploitation, abuse and contamination have caused great destruction, degradation and disruption of Mother Earth, putting life as we know it today at risk through phenomena such as climate change;

convinced that in an interdependent living community it is not possible to recognize the rights of only human beings without causing an imbalance within Mother Earth;

affirming that to guarantee human rights it is necessary to recognize and defend the rights of Mother Earth and all beings in her and that there are existing cultures, practices and laws that do so;

conscious of the urgency of taking decisive, collective action to transform structures and systems that cause climate change and other threats to Mother Earth;

proclaim this Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth, and call on the General Assembly of the United Nation to adopt it, as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations of the world, and to the end that every individual and institution takes responsibility for promoting through teaching, education, and consciousness raising, respect for the rights recognized in this Declaration and ensure through prompt and progressive measures and mechanisms, national and international, their universal and effective recognition and observance among all peoples and States in the world.

Article 1. Mother Earth

(1)  Mother Earth is a living being.

(2)  Mother Earth is a unique, indivisible, self-regulating community of interrelated beings that sustains, contains and reproduces all beings.

(3)  Each being is defined by its relationships as an integral part of Mother Earth.

(4)  The inherent rights of Mother Earth are inalienable in that they arise from the same source as existence.

(5)  Mother Earth and all beings are entitled to all the inherent rights recognized in this Declaration without distinction of any kind, such as may be made between organic and inorganic beings, species, origin, use to human beings, or any other status.

(6)  Just as human beings have human rights, all other beings also have rights which are specific to their species or kind and appropriate for their role and function within the communities within which they exist.

(7)  The rights of each being are limited by the rights of other beings and any conflict between their rights must be resolved in a way that maintains the integrity, balance and health of Mother Earth.

Article 2. Inherent Rights of Mother Earth

(1)  Mother Earth and all beings of which she is composed have the following inherent rights:

(a)  the right to life and to exist;

(b)  the right to be respected;

(c)  the right to regenerate its bio-capacity and to continue its vital cycles and processes free from human disruptions;

(d)  the right to maintain its identity and integrity as a distinct, self-regulating and interrelated being;

(e)  the right to water as a source of life;

(f)   the right to clean air;

(g)  the right to integral health;

(h)   the right to be free from contamination, pollution and toxic or radioactive waste;

(i)    the right to not have its genetic structure modified or disrupted in a manner that threatens it integrity or vital and healthy functioning;

(j)    the right to full and prompt restoration for violation of the rights recognized in this Declaration caused by human activities;

(2)  Each being has the right to a place and to play its role in Mother Earth for her harmonious functioning.

(3)  Every being has the right to wellbeing and to live free from torture or cruel treatment by human beings.

Article 3. Obligations of human beings to Mother Earth

(1)  Every human being is responsible for respecting and living in harmony with Mother Earth.

(2)  Human beings, all States, and all public and private institutions must:

(a)  act in accordance with the rights and obligations recognized in this Declaration;

(b)  recognize and promote the full implementation and enforcement of the rights and obligations recognized in this Declaration;

(c)  promote and participate in learning, analysis, interpretation and communication about how to live in harmony with Mother Earth in accordance with this Declaration;

(d)  ensure that the pursuit of human wellbeing contributes to the wellbeing of Mother Earth, now and in the future;

(e)  establish and apply effective norms and laws for the defence, protection and conservation of the rights of Mother Earth;

(f)   respect, protect, conserve and where necessary, restore the integrity, of the vital ecological cycles, processes and balances of Mother Earth;

(g)  guarantee that the damages caused by human violations of the inherent rights recognized in this Declaration are rectified and that those responsible are held accountable for restoring the integrity and health of Mother Earth;

(h)  empower human beings and institutions to defend the rights of Mother Earth and of all beings;

(i)    establish precautionary and restrictive measures to prevent human activities from causing species extinction, the destruction of ecosystems or the disruption of ecological cycles;

(j)    guarantee peace and eliminate nuclear, chemical and biological weapons;

(k)  promote and support practices of respect for Mother Earth and all beings, in accordance with their own cultures, traditions and customs;

(l)    promote economic systems that are in harmony with Mother Earth and in accordance with the rights recognized in this Declaration.

Article 4. Definitions

(1)  The term “being” includes ecosystems, natural communities, species and all other natural entities which exist as part of Mother Earth.

(2)  Nothing in this Declaration restricts the recognition of other inherent rights of all beings or specified beings.

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http://therightsofnature.org/universal-declaration/