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Nature Rights vs. Natural Rights

Nature Rights vs. Natural Rights

Last updated on: October 23, 2019 at 6:00 am by Gene Veith

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Nature Rights vs. Natural Rights 2019-10-20T17:44:54-04:00 Gene Veith

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We keep extending the concept of “rights”–from human rights to animal rights and now to nature rights. The concept that nature itself and natural entities–such as rivers, oceans, trees, mountains–have rights is becoming more and more prominent in the environmental movement. This is not just as an ideology but as a strategy for lawmaking, since whatever has rights is entitled to legal protection.

Two years ago we blogged about this idea. It may seem strange to think that trees and rivers have rights, just as human beings do. But the idea is making inroads around the world. Among other examples, the entire nation of Ecuador has officially embraced the concept, and Sweden is considering enshrining the rights of nature in its constitution. In the United States, some 40 jurisdictions have written the rights of nature into law, including cities such as Pittsburg and Toledo and various county governments.

Now the Florida Democratic Party has made the rights of nature part of its platform, which calls for “recognizing and protecting the inherent rights of nature, as we have done for corporations.”

So what are the rights of nature? The Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature explains:

Rights of Nature is the recognition and honoring that Nature has rights. It is the recognition that our ecosystems – including trees, oceans, animals, mountains – have rights just as human beings have rights. Rights of Nature is about balancing what is good for human beings against what is good for other species, what is good for the planet as a world. It is the holistic recognition that all life, all ecosystems on our planet are deeply intertwined.

Rather than treating nature as property under the law, rights of nature acknowledges that nature in all its life forms has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles.

And we – the people – have the legal authority and responsibility to enforce these rights on behalf of ecosystems. The ecosystem itself can be named as the injured party, with its own legal standing rights, in cases alleging rights violations.

Here is how that would apply to rivers, according to a proposal to revise the charter of Florida’s Orange County:

“The Wekiva River Ecosystem and the Econlockhatchee River Ecosystem possess rights, including but not limited to, rights to naturally exist, flourish, regenerate, evolve and restoration; the right to carry out their natural function; the right to abundant, pure, unpolluted water, the right to natural groundwater recharge and surface water recharge; the right to natural water flow; the right to a healthy, natural, biodiverse environment; and the right to be free of activities or practices, as well as obstructions, that interfere with or infringe upon these rights.”

Furthermore, giving teeth to the provision, “Any government entity or nonnatural person that violates any provision of this section shall be liable for any damages caused to an ecosystem named in this section as a result of the violation.”

Wesley J. Smith believes these principles will make their way into the national Democratic platform and warns about their legal ramifications:

Make no mistake: “Nature rights” isn’t about stopping pollution. Rather, it allows anyone to sue to protect nature’s supposed right to ” exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution.” That’s akin to a right to life. (Apparently, human fetuses aren’t considered part of nature.) That means any use of the natural world that disturbs what would otherwise exist in the wild is subject to legal attack.

I am intrigued by the parenthetical aside. Pro-abortion advocates generally claim–against all scientific evidence–that the developing child in the womb is not yet a human being. But surely whatever is developing is part of a natural process. As part of nature, the fetus must have “the right to exist.” Also to “persist” and “flourish.”

That the rights of nature must apply to the rights of human beings raises another point. Despite the Orange County reference to “nonnatural person,” human beings are part of nature.

The notion that “nature” applies only to rivers, trees, mountains, and wildlife, but not people, implies that human beings are not part of the natural order. That mindset arguably causes the environmental exploitation and degradation that environmentalists decry. And yet environmentalists often contribute to this same way of thinking.

But human beings are physical entities, just as rivers and mountains are, and we are biological beings, just as trees and wildlife are. We are subject to the same laws of physics, chemistry, and biology. We are part of nature. To switch to theological language, we are part of creation.

Thus the issue is not just “nature rights,” but, in the term used by classical thinkers, “natural rights.” The basis of which, according to the Declaration of Independence, is our creation, and they are endowed by our Creator. And “natural rights” also implies “natural law.”

Consider, for example, the Orange County insistence that the river ecosystems have “the right to carry out their natural function.” Sexuality is a biological phenomenon that has a “natural function.” Sex and gender are not subjective or self-chosen identities; rather, they have to do with our bodies. Their natural function is reproduction; that is, generating new life.

This fact of nature has a bearing on our current moral controversies–abortion, homosexuality, extramarital sex, transgenderism–as well as on cultural issues such as those surrounding marriage, parenting, and the family. But culture itself is tied to our natural existence. We need food, shelter, and protection in order to survive. Thus we have an economic system, a division of labor, property laws, and governments to protect our lives, our “flourishing,” and our natural rights.

Thinking in terms of “natural law” does apply to how we treat our environment, including nature in the wilderness sense. God created rivers, mountains, animals, air, and water. Though He has given human beings dominion, that also entails stewardship. What God has created, He evidently wants to exist. We are obliged to conserve His creation. Clean air, clean water, the preservation of beauty–these are all in accord with natural law, both in our own survival interests and in our obligation to their and our Creator.

We tend to think in terms of individuals and culture. But looming behind both of them is nature. Perhaps “nature rights”–while problematic in themselves–can help us recover “natural rights.”

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

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