Community-&Amp;-Nature-Rights

“Contemporary public concern for protecting nature’s ecological equilibrium should lead to the conferral of standing upon environmental objects to sue for their own preservation.” Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, Sierra Club v. Morton (1972) Denver, Colorado–In a first-in-the-nation lawsuit filed in federal court, the Colorado River is asking for judicial recognition of itself as a “person,” with rights of its own to exist and flourish. The lawsuit, filed against the Governor of Colorado, seeks a recognition that the State of Colorado can be held liable for violating those rights held by the River. ...

Local Global Mass Extinction According to an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in July, the planet is in the midst of the sixth mass extinction event. Strikingly, the scientists who wrote the article call this a “biological annihilation.” The destruction of the planet happens bit-by-bit. A new big-box store, a new housing development, a new farm. Day-by-day, the change seems slow. But over a decade, or a lifetime, the scale of the destruction is dramatic. ...

A massive proposed LNG (liquefied natural gas) pipeline and export terminal has been proposed in Coos County, on the southern Oregon coast. These projects, which are expected to cost $7.6 billion (twice as much as the Dakota Access Pipeline), are known as the “Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline” and the “Jordan Cove LNG Export Terminal.” The Pacific Connector pipeline would cross more than 400 waterways in order to deliver fracked gas from Wyoming, Utah, and beyond via a connector to the Ruby Pipeline. The export terminal would require its own power plant, expected to be the most polluting in Oregon. The construction and operation of these facilities would contribute further to the disaster that is industrial civilization. ...

In this episode of teleSUR’s Days of Revolt, Chris Hedges speaks with our friend, the attorney Thomas Linzey, and activist Mark Clatterbuck, about the grassroots movements rising up against the fracking industry, and the legislative and direct action necessary to resist corporate power in the absence of a true democratic system. To learn more about CELDF work in Oregon, visit the Oregon Community Rights Network at http://orcrn.org/. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYRakzUHA8g[/embed] Here is a video of Thomas Linzey’s recent talk in Eugene: ...