Bolivia enshrines natural world's rights with equal status for Mother Earth

[ensho]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/apr/10/bolivia-enshrines-natural-worlds-rights


Law of Mother Earth expected to prompt radical new conservation and social measures in South American nation


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Bolivia is set to pass the world's first laws granting all nature equal rights to humans. The Law of Mother Earth, now agreed by politicians and grassroots social groups, redefines the country's rich mineral deposits as "blessings" and is expected to lead to radical new conservation and social measures to reduce pollution and control industry.

The country, which has been pilloried by the US and Britain in the UN climate talks for demanding steep carbon emission cuts, will establish 11 new rights for nature. They include: the right to life and to exist; the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration; the right to pure water and clean air; the right to balance; the right not to be polluted; and the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered.

Controversially, it will also enshrine the right of nature "to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities".

"It makes world history. Earth is the mother of all", said Vice-President Alvaro García Linera. "It establishes a new relationship between man and nature, the harmony of which must be preserved as a guarantee of its regeneration."

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what a sane and civilized country - sending them much love in appreciation

[Snoutport]

1. bravo!

i like the earth too!

[drokhole]

2. + a billion!!!!!

[WatsonT]

3. So I take it then they're giving up agriculture

the single most destructive force we can unleash on the planets surface.

[Gregorian]

4. As the jets taking people on their vacations roar overhead.

Damn, it's like the last whimper of sanity on the planet. At least someone cares out there. Living in California I wonder what good the madness is. Ipods.