Despite our fleeting human existence in the lifetime of planet Earth, it is clear our impact has been woefully burdensome.  Entire human societies, our global economic system and indeed our structures of law, have been built from a colonial mindset that places humans not just apart from, but actually, above nature. But what is climate change but Nature telling us we have lived beyond the limits of nature’s law? And whether it is fear, folly, arrogance or sin, we have continued to cling to a destructive worldview.

 

The law is an important expression of society’s values, and how we use power to implement those values. It reflects and makes real our idea of the world. As human culture has evolved to treat nature as a “thing” outside and apart from us, human property to be owned and destroyed at will, our laws developed to codify that understanding. Our legal systems are aimed at controlling and dominating nature. But history shows us again and again that culture changes law, and law in turn, broadly changes culture. In 2008 Ecuador became the first nation to constitutionally recognize nature’s rights to “exist, flourish and evolve.” And from small communities all over the world to the UN, Global Exchange is working to shift the paradigm: Can we envisage for ourselves a future based not on exploiting nature but instead recognizing that nature has inherent rights to exist, thrive, and flourish? How different would our human societies, economies, and structures of law look as part of a connected, earth-centered community? And, how do we get there?