Dear lovers of Goa and the planet, Can we achieve the same for the Mhadei, the Western Ghats, our mining areas, our fields that are being gobbled up by that wild pack of real-estate monsters, the Saligao-Calangute plateau that will be devastated by the govt's Waste Treatment Plant?
Warm regards and solidarity. M&M. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Nyla Coelho <[email protected]> Date: 21 February 2014 10:11 Subject: [alt-ed-india] A River in New Zealand Gets a Legal Voice To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], " [email protected]" < [email protected]>, [email protected] Dear all, just thought this article could be a worthwhile topic for discussion with children/educators. I was very touched reading it. Many nations today acknowledge the living systems worldview. I see it as a leap in the evolution of our collective sensibilities. nyla A River in New Zealand Gets a Legal Voice http://www.filmsforaction.org/news/a_river_in_new_zealand_gets_a_legal_voice/ Republished from postcarbon.org<http://www.postcarbon.org/blog-post/1134836-a-river-in-new-zealand-gets#> By Sandra Postel It speaks the language of riffles and babbles, not legal rights and codes, but the Whanganui River, New Zealand's third largest, has received something no other river in the country - and possibly the world - yet has: a legal voice. In a framework agreement signed last week<http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10830586> between the Crown and the Whanganui River iwi (the local Maori people), the river will be recognized as a person when it comes to the law, much the way a company is. In one of New Zealand's longest running court cases, the iwi won for the river the status of an integrated, living whole, *Te Awa Tupua*, with rights and interests. Two guardians, one appointed by the iwi and the other by the Crown, will protect those interests. Coming four years after Ecuador's new constitution granted legal rights to rivers, forests and other natural entities<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/24/equador.conservation>, the New Zealand agreement may give further impetus to the idea that nature has rights that should be legally protected, just as people do. In most legal systems today rivers have no rights at all. In legal parlance, they lack "standing" <http://definitions.uslegal.com/s/standing/> - the ability of a party to bring a lawsuit in court based upon their stake in the outcome. In 1972 legal scholar Christopher D. Stone argued in his famous essay, "Should Trees Have Standing?", <http://www.amazon.com/Should-Standing-Essays-Morals-Environment/dp/0379213818>that rivers and trees and other "objects" of nature do have rights, and these should be protected by granting legal standing to guardians of these voiceless entities of nature, much as the rights of children are protected by legal guardians designated for this purpose. Stone's argument struck a chord with U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. That same year, Justice Douglas wrote a dissent in the case of *Sierra Club v. Morton*, in which he argued for the conferral of standing upon natural entities so that legitimate legal claims could be made for their preservation. The river, Douglas wrote, "is the living symbol of all the life it sustains or nourishes--the fish, aquatic insects, water ouzels, otter, fisher, deer, elk, bear, and all other animals, including man, who are dependent on it or who enjoy it for its sight, its sound, or its life. The river as plaintiff speaks for the ecological unit of life that is part of it." As river after river runs dry<http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/photos/rivers-run-dry/> and as more and more species lose their habitats and homes, the ethical implications of our water decisions beseech us to engage in this conversation. A legal voice for rivers might sound extreme. But, really, what is more extreme than a river deprived of water? Note: Christopher Stone*'s *essay was originally published as a law review article in 45 S. Cal. L. Rev. 450 (1972). *Originally published at **National Geographics Newswatch*<http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/09/04/a-river-in-new-zealand-gets-a-legal-voice/> *Image credit: The Whanganui River in New Zealand. Credit: James Shook, Wikimedia Commons* Get The End of Growth http://www.postcarbon.org/eog | Watch the animation Who Killed Economic Growth?http://bit.ly/whokilledgrowth -- Nyla Coelho __._,_.___ Reply via web post<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alt-ed-india/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJxcWlpYzNuBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzQzNDc0MjgEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDgyMzUzBG1zZ0lkAzEwMzg3BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA3JwbHkEc3RpbWUDMTM5Mjk1NzY2Ng--?act=reply&messageNum=10387> Reply to sender <[email protected]?subject=Re%3A%20A%20River%20in%20New%20Zealand%20Gets%20a%20Legal%20Voice> Reply to group <[email protected]?subject=Re%3A%20A%20River%20in%20New%20Zealand%20Gets%20a%20Legal%20Voice> Start a New Topic<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alt-ed-india/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJlZXBqZ2hnBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzQzNDc0MjgEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDgyMzUzBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA250cGMEc3RpbWUDMTM5Mjk1NzY2Ng--> Messages in this topic<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alt-ed-india/message/10387;_ylc=X3oDMTM2aGYyc2NrBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzQzNDc0MjgEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDgyMzUzBG1zZ0lkAzEwMzg3BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA3Z0cGMEc3RpbWUDMTM5Mjk1NzY2NgR0cGNJZAMxMDM4Nw-->(1) New members FAQs: http://www.alternativeeducationindia.net/faqs.htm To unsubscribe send a blank email to: [email protected] Visit Your Group<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alt-ed-india;_ylc=X3oDMTJlaG1nYWhxBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzQzNDc0MjgEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDgyMzUzBHNlYwN2dGwEc2xrA3ZnaHAEc3RpbWUDMTM5Mjk1NzY2Ng--> - New Members<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alt-ed-india/members;_ylc=X3oDMTJmbGVla3UzBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzQzNDc0MjgEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDgyMzUzBHNlYwN2dGwEc2xrA3ZtYnJzBHN0aW1lAzEzOTI5NTc2NjY-?o=6> 2 [image: Yahoo! 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