The Moon

Learn more about recognizing the Rights of the Moon in the above webinar hosted by CDER.

Recognizing Rights of the Moon

Today, there are plans for human exploration and exploitation on the Moon and Mars, raising significant concerns for the potential impacts on the lunar and Martian environment.

Environmental Impacts Off-Earth

Human activity has already impacted the natural environment off-Earth - including heating of our atmosphere with devastating climate change impacts here on-Earth, growing orbital debris in Earth’s orbit (more below), and impacts on the Moon itself (more below).

Orbital debris is threatening to curtail our ability to use key orbits around Earth, and there are no current effective measures for active debris removal. To date we have relied on atmospheric drag to remove debris through re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere where it burns up (and sometimes crashes onto the Earth itself). However, a growing body of research shows that this is depositing ozone-depleting alumina particles in Earth’s upper atmosphere.

Pollution of the Moon’s exosphere and surface is also significant. From 1969 to 1972, a NASA study found that the U.S.’s Apollo missions emitted more than 60 tons of exhaust gases into the lunar environment, with the Soviet Luna missions producing a similar level. The very low mass of the lunar exosphere makes it exquisitely sensitive to human impacts.

The European Space Agency recently proposed standardizing lunar time, creating a time zone, or time zones, for the Moon.  Considered by some to be merely symbolic, history demonstrates that where contemporary humans have imposed time, they have also imposed control, development, extractivism, and ultimately, destruction. Read our article on what this means for the Moon and the need to protect the rights of the Moon - Imposing lunar time zones, a giant leap toward colonizing the Moon - co-authored by CDER’s Mari Margil, Dr. Michelle Maloney, and Dr. Alice Gorman.

Applying the Rights of Nature to the Moon - Declaration of the Rights of the Moon

Amid growing concerns for human impacts off-Earth, CDER partnered with Dr. Michelle Maloney, Dr. Alice Gorman, Ceridwen Dovey, and Thomas Gooch to draft the Declaration of the Rights of the Moon. You can read the full Declaration below, and also sign onto the Declaration to show your support for recognizing and protecting the rights of the Moon.

CDER also hosted a webinar with drafters of the Declaration, which you can watch in the above link.

The Declaration of the Rights of the Moon

Earth’s Moon

We the people of Earth -

Acknowledging the unique, intact, interconnected lunar environments and landscapes which exist on the Moon;

Acknowledging the ancient, primordial relationship between Earth and the Moon;

Mindful of how much is still unknown about the co-origins of Earth and the Moon;

Aware that the Moon is critically important to the healthy functioning of the Earth System, and is a vital sustaining component of all life on Earth;

Aware that the Moon holds deep cultural and spiritual meaning for human beings;

Acknowledging that the cycles of the Moon have enabled life itself to evolve on Earth;

Mindful of the immeasurable value the Moon holds as a repository of deep time and connection among all beings who have ever lived on Earth, since its features have remained almost unchanged since time immemorial;

Conscious that wealthy nations and corporations are developing technologies that may make it possible to return to, live on, mine and otherwise alter the Moon;

Aware of humanity’s impact on the Earth - causing ecosystem collapse, a new era of mass species extinction and global climate change - and seeking to avoid destruction and change to the natural systems and ecosystems of the Moon,

Declare that -

1. The Moon – which consists of but is not limited to: its surface and subsurface landscapes including mountains and craters, rocks and boulders, regolith, dust, mantle, core, minerals, gases, water, ice, boundary exosphere, surrounding lunar orbits, cislunar space – is a sovereign natural entity in its own right and, in accordance with established international space law, no nation, entity, or individual of Earth may assert ownership or territorial sovereignty of the Moon.

2. The Moon possesses fundamental rights, which arise from its existence in the universe, including:

   • (a) the right to exist, persist and continue its vital cycles unaltered, unharmed and unpolluted by human beings;

   • (b) the right to maintain ecological integrity;

   • (c) the right to be defined as a self-sustaining, intelligent, cohesive, intact lunar ecosystem, beyond current human comprehension;

   • (d) the right to independently maintain its own life-sustaining relationship with the Earth’s environments and living creatures; and

   • (e) the right to remain a forever peaceful celestial entity, unmarred by human conflict or warfare.