U.N. Prepares to Debate Whether 'Mother Earth' Deserves Human Rights Status

Summary of a declaration on the rights of Mother Earth

Proposal by President Evo Morales Ayma of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, made to the General Assembly of the United Nations on 22 April 2009, the first International Mother Earth Day.

1. The right to life This means the right to exist, the right of every ecosystem, animal or vegetable species, snow-capped mountain, river or lake not to be eliminated or exterminated by irresponsible behaviour on the part of human beings. We humans must acknowledge that Mother Earth and other living beings also have the right to exist and that our rights end where we begin to cause the extinction or destruction of nature.

2. The right to the regeneration of biocapacity Mother Earth must be able to regenerate her biodiversity; neither human activity on planet Earth nor Earth’s resources are infinite. Development cannot be open-ended, there is a limit and that limit is the ability of the animal, vegetable and forest species, of water sources, of the very atmosphere to regenerate. If we human beings consume and, even worse, waste more than Mother Earth is capable of replacing or recreating then we are slowly killing our home, little by little we are choking our planet, all living beings and ourselves.

3. The right to a clean life Means the right of Mother Earth to a life free from pollution, because not only we humans have the right to live well, but also rivers, fish, animals, trees and the Earth itself have the right to live in a healthy environment, free from poison and pollution.

4. The right to harmony and balance with everyone and among everyone Mother Earth has a right to be recognized as a part of a system in which all living creatures are interdependent. This implies the right to live in harmony with human beings. There are millions of living species on the planet, but only we human beings have the awareness and ability to take command of our own destiny in order to promote harmony with nature.

But wait, there's more:

46. In recent years there has been a paradigm shift in rights. Numerous subjects who heretofore had no guaranteed rights now enjoy such rights. Similarly, inanimate beings have been endowed with rights because it was felt that they needed to be protected to the extent that they were of concern to human beings. There appears to be a conceptual change in the history of human rights. 30 Some outlooks are undergoing change in the face of evidence, including scientific evidence, with the idea that human beings have a symbiotic relationship with nature, gaining currency. 47. This is not something that has only just been realized. In 1949, with the advent of international human rights law, Aldo Leopold proposed a Land Ethic, arguing that the individual is part of a community and that this community is a Whole. His proposal sought to change human behaviour from that of conqueror of the land to a citizen of it, implying respect for the other beings that are part of that natural community. 31 In 1969, James Lovelock proposed the Gaia Hypothesis, which considered the Earth as a single organism in which all parts, including human beings, are almost as closely interrelated and as interdependent as the cells of the human body. 32 Similarly, the deep ecology movement, which has been promoted by Arne Naess since 1973, states that all human beings are constituent parts of one single natural system and are therefore interdependent with the other components. Thus, all natural things have the right to exist, regardless of their capacity for selfdetermination. 33 Deep ecology promotes a new integrating vision of the universe as a network of relations. 34 What is called spiritual ecology also proposes a closer relationship between nature and mankind. 35

Read the whole thing if you have the stomach...

Thanks for a very interesting post.

When I read the book, D’Souza’s take on Obama’s rage as “anti-neo -colonialist” seemed outdated. Not that I disagreed with D’Souza, but hadn’t heard the word “neo-colonialist” since the late 1950’s . So, what does neo-colonialism it have to do with left-wing politics in 2011?

The narrative in your posted article your narrative was a great insight into the left’s “mother earth” mysticism. It reminded me of the story line in the movie “Avatar”, with murderous Capitalist land rapers debauching nature and all its children. In the end, with the help of a few funky dude activists, the colonized are saved from the land rapers.

My curiosity was aroused enough to Google “Evo Morales”. The Wilkipedia bio reads like a history of Bolivia since the 1990’s. The old tin mines are declining, but Bolivia has the largest oil and gas reserves in Latin America after Venezuela. But countries that would like to develop these reserves have been frustrated by Bolivian politics. There is the usual conflict between the privilaged white upper class minority and the largely tribal Indian masses whose grievances have been exploited by leftist politicians.

In 2006 Evo Morales signed a decree stating that all Bolivian gas reserves were to be nationalized , and has pushed to renegotiate all contracts. This comes on top of a previous law which forces companies to negotiate with leaders of indigenous people who inhabit land with oil & deposits.

The resulting uncertainty has caused U.S. companies to lose interest in buiding any facilities in Bolivia. Brazil’s Petrobras, is even less happy, because it already owns 14% of Bolivia’s gas reserves, but in negotiations with Bolivia’s Energy Minister it refused to budge on costs and other terms. So what did Morales do after talks failed? He fired the energy minister and acquiesced to Petrobras. AS Morales put it, “We are obligated to live with Brazil in a marriage without divorce, because we both need each other”

Cut to the U.S. With Oil prices going out of sight and the Western World increasingly dependent on the unstable Midlle East, Obama’s EPA is squashing efforts by domestic oil companies to develop our reserves. And at Obama’s insistence, the moratorium on offshore drilling is ongoing. Weird , isn’t it?

Not according to Obama’s universe. There, American industry is the neo-colonialist (or in Bolivian terms, the evil white overlords), which has raped the land and must be stopped . Obama is Morales, and Morales is Obama.

Does that exclude every swinging drill string from tapping into mother earth? Is there anyone that Obama finds worthy of poking around in our waters? Well there is, because Brazil’s Petrobras just happens to be Obama’s activist dude hero on a white horse (Soros is there to get a little on the side). So there, all you, you neo-colonialists! Go take a cold shower or slam a window on it!

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