Lakes, swamps, and rivers have all been declared to have personhood and rights enforced by real persons to hinder any and all activities by other real persons no matter how benign or beneficial to real humans. Now a Spanish lagoon has joined the crowd of geographical features gaining legal rights.
“Led by a philosophy professor, activists launched a petition to adopt a new and radical legal strategy: granting the 135-square-kilometer lagoon the rights of personhood. Nearly 640,000 Spanish citizens signed it, and on 21 September, Spain’s Senate approved a bill enshrining the lagoon’s new rights.
“The new law doesn’t regard the lagoon and its watershed as fully human. But the ecosystem now has a legal right to exist, evolve naturally, and be restored. And like a person, it has legal guardians, including a scientific committee, which will give its defenders a new voice.”
Notice how humans are not considered part of nature. Telling how they view humans as an outsider, an eco-rapist, or a virus. Could humans sue the lagoon?
And why was personhood granted?
“The environmental problem in the area that brought this about involves the flow of fertilizers into the water, which has a deleterious impact on mussels and other sea life. That is a problem, to be sure, but it could be addressed with proper regulations — which exist but are apparently not properly enforced.
“So, fix that! Moreover, the lagoon didn’t have to be granted rights for a scientific committee to be appointed to recommend proper environmental practices. Indeed, that very approach could have been done with a proper understanding that granting personhood to a geological feature is both misanthropic and could prevent a properly nuanced approach to environmental regulations that also takes into account human needs.”
Is this really about being good stewards of nature… or a form of animism?
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