I had to check the date on this Guardian article, just to be sure it wasn’t an April Fools’ Day posting:
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”.
I don’t know where the government is planning on moving all the Bolivians, because just by occupying the country, they’ll be violating these new rights on a moment-to-moment basis.
I don’t know where the government is planning on moving all the Bolivians…
My guess is that the ultimate destination for many Bolivians will be rather long and shallow trenches.
Comment by Lickmuffin — April 12, 2011 @ 12:43
Perhaps, but not in Bolivia, as that would violate at least two of the enumerated rights:
1) “the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration” (digging in the ground is an alteration)
2) “the right not to be polluted” (human remains almost certainly count as pollution for folks who come up with these notions)
Comment by Nicholas — April 12, 2011 @ 14:34
Shallow trenches would also count as “mega-infrastructure”.
Comment by Lickmuffin — April 12, 2011 @ 15:49