UN document would give 'Mother Earth' same rights as humans

[bullmoose88]

http://www.canada.com/news/world/document+would+give+Mother+Earth+same+rights+humans/4597840/story.html

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[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

And we all know how much clout Bolivia has at the UN.

[Bacon King]

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That's an all-star support cast right there, it'll definitely pass!!!

[bullmoose88]

And we all know how much clout Bolivia has at the UN.

Is there a forum priest who can exorcise Libertas' possession over you?

:-p

And yeah, a hearty LOL at Bolivia and the rest of the all-stars.

[Antonio the Sixth]

LOL

"All bugs, trees and other natural things are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

"Every trees and other natural things are entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a natural thing belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty."

"Every tree, bug and other natural thing have the right to life, liberty and security of person."

"No tree, bug and other natural thing shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms."

"No tree, bug and other natural thing shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

etc...

[Associate Justice PiT]

     So if my house gets termites, I should just let them eat it away to dust because fumigating it would violate the rights of the termites? What about marmosets that bite holes into trees to eat the gum therein; do we arrest them & charge them with torturing the trees? For that matter, do we outlaw fruit groves on account of the trees being forced into involuntary servitude? I could go on, but the point is obvious.

     This is essentially the environmentalist equivalent of Marx's anarcho-communist vision; pure ideological claptrap without a shred of grounding in the real world. That the UN delegations of even six countries would be willing to support anything to this effect is quite depressing.

[bgwah]

     So if my house gets termites, I should just let them eat it away to dust because fumigating it would violate the rights of the termites? What about marmosets that bite holes into trees to eat the gum therein; do we arrest them & charge them with torturing the trees? For that matter, do we outlaw fruit groves on account of the trees being forced into involuntary servitude? I could go on, but the point is obvious.

     This is essentially the environmentalist equivalent of Marx's anarcho-communist vision; pure ideological claptrap without a shred of grounding in the real world. That the UN delegations of even six countries would be willing to support anything to this effect is quite depressing.

Did you read it? It says you can still kill animals, mine, etc. I'm not really sure what the big deal is.

Or was killing tens of millions of Native Americans and taking over two continents not enough? Do we have to make fun of their religion now?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     So if my house gets termites, I should just let them eat it away to dust because fumigating it would violate the rights of the termites? What about marmosets that bite holes into trees to eat the gum therein; do we arrest them & charge them with torturing the trees? For that matter, do we outlaw fruit groves on account of the trees being forced into involuntary servitude? I could go on, but the point is obvious.

     This is essentially the environmentalist equivalent of Marx's anarcho-communist vision; pure ideological claptrap without a shred of grounding in the real world. That the UN delegations of even six countries would be willing to support anything to this effect is quite depressing.

Did you read it? It says you can still kill animals, mine, etc. I'm not really sure what the big deal is.

Or was killing tens of millions of Native Americans and taking over two continents not enough? Do we have to make fun of their religion now?

     I was a bit unfocused in my polemic there, & partially responding to the domestic law in Bolivia. As silly as granting the Earth rights sounds to me, I'll admit that it's not nearly as bad as granting rights to bugs.

     As for the killing of the Native Americans, I don't see what that has to do with anything. I did not kill them myself, & while it being a religious matter does offer some perspective, I do not intend to check my comments over the past wrongs of European/American conquerors. As horrific as the Holocaust was, I reserve the right to criticize the policies of Israel wherever I take issue with them.

[Bacon King]

Okay, I've actually looked up the specifics here.

For the record, neither the Bolivian national law nor this proposed treaty actually grant personhood to individual trees, termites, etc. Rather, both texts declare a set of group rights for the entire collective of the Earth's environment, as a single entity, with the concept of "personhood for Mother Nature" used mostly just as a shorthand for these rights.

So no, in Bolivia you wouldn't get charged with murder for chopping down a tree.

[Јas]

I think the thread should be renamed 'Bolivian proposal' rather than 'UN document' by the by. The current title gives a potentially misleading impression, akin to suggesting that any proposal by say a US Congressman could be reasonably labelled as a US Government proposal.

Not sure the rest of the title is quite correct either, per BK's post....


Some remarks by the Bolivian Foreign Minister to the Guardian.

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[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

obviously written by Al Gore

[Ban my account ffs!]

I think a better way to go about it would be to focus on making our relationship with the earth more symbiotic.  I think we can do this by focusing on breathable air and clean drinking water for us while employing sustainable resource use/extraction.  This will undoubtedly lead to better conditions for the planet as well without having silly concepts like "earth rights".

But hey... a novel concept like clean air and water for human health just isn't good enough, damn it!

[bullmoose88]

I think the thread should be renamed 'Bolivian proposal' rather than 'UN document' by the by. The current title gives a potentially misleading impression, akin to suggesting that any proposal by say a US Congressman could be reasonably labelled as a US Government proposal.

Except I'm merely preserving the title of the article as published on canada.com

Any editorializing or errors made by the headline are theirs...not mine.

[Antonio the Sixth]

obviously written by Al Gore

Of course...

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I doubt that this will pass.