Tribune Content Agency: ‘A living planet’: Robert Koehler features Mari Margil in a nationally syndicated focused piece on Rights of Nature-12/4/2020
The Constitution has changed over the centuries: first, it was only white males with rights, then slaves, indigenous people and women were taken under the umbrella. Now, we may be looking at a world where the planet may be afforded protections and rights. Enter the Rights of Nature movement, that is having a presence in a multitude of countries, including unlikely locations such as the U.S. Midwest.
Our own Mari Margil introduces the Rights of Nature as a concept in this article by Robert Koehler, and expounds on “the murky realm of personhood” (Koehler, 2020) that we have entered into in large part due to the influence of the U.S. Supreme Court affording rights to corporations, opening the door to other collectives and objects. In this article alone: Sweden, California, England, New Zealand and Lake Erie all had their own bills or amendments in place. That rate of progress is virtually unheard of on a global scale. This also goes without including the advocacy of tribes people and municipalities in other locations.
Robert Koehler does a fantastic job of giving a platform and a voice to the movement. He deftly shares the mission for legal protections of our waterways, forests and natural phenomena in a swift yet sustainable manner. A case is made that a living planet and a living people should be co-existing and co-evolve with one another, and Mari Margil is a prominent voice in this opinion piece.