Should arguments for degrowth be anthropocentric or ecocentric? And what does this mean in practice? There is an interesting discussion going on, starting with two recent court rulings in New Zealand and India about rivers being granted personal rights. We present an article by Ashish Kothari, Mari Margil and Shrishtee Bajpai, first published for The Guardian. Several geographically-distant but related events signalled a dramatic mind shift in humanity’s troubled relationship with nature last month. First, the New Zealand parliament passed the Te Awa Tupua Act, giving the Whanganui River and ecosystem a legal standing in its own right, guaranteeing its “health and well-being”. Shortly after, a court in India ruled that the Ganges and Yamuna rivers and their related ecosystems have “the status of a legal person, with all corresponding rights, duties and liabilities ... in order to preserve and conserve them”. The history of the rivers makes these proclamations remarkable. The Ganges has long been considered sacred and millions of people depend on it for sustenance, yet it has been polluted, mined, diverted and degraded to a shocking extent. The Whanganui has witnessed a century-old struggle between the indigenous Iwi people and the New Zealand government over its treatment. Notably, the Iwi consider themselves and the Whanganui as an indivisible whole, expressed in the common saying: “I am the river, and the river is me.” Rivers are the arteries of the earth, and lifelines for humanity and millions of other animals and plants. It’s no wonder they have been venerated, considered as ancestors or mothers, and held up as sacred symbols. But we have also desecrated them in every conceivable way. Can giving them the legal rights of a human help resolve this awful contradiction? Perhaps, if we are able to think beyond the material limits of how we relate to nature, we can encourage political and economic measures to create a deeper and more ethical relationship. New Zealand and India have recognised the intrinsic rights of rivers, beyond their use for humans. Both recognise rivers as having spiritual, physical and metaphysical characteristics. These crucial extensions of law are based on ethical principles rarely recognised since the industrial age, but this is how indigenous peoples have long treated nature.
Soziale Bewegungen sind zentrale Akteure gesellschaftlicher Transformationsprozesse. Durch ihre Arbeit sind viele der gesellschaftlichen Veränderungen der letzten Jahrzehnte erst möglich geworden. Für soziale Bewegungen ist es jedoch eine Herausforderung, interne Strukturen nach den partizipatorischen, demokratischen, transparenten, gleichberechtigen und inklusiven Anforderungen zu gestalten, d...
Wer schon einmal vom guten und hierarchiefreien Leben für alle entsprechend individuellen Bedürfnissen und Fähigkeiten in gegenseitiger Wertschätzung und Kooperation geträumt hat, kann jetzt dazu beitragen, dass dieser Traum konkret wird: Vom 21. bis 25. Juni treffen sich im Kulturkosmus Müritz in Lärz, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, rund 1000 Menschen, um "Miteinander offen vertrauensvoll und ema...
Camila Moreno, expert on "green" energy in Brazil, gives some demonstrative examples of so called green and clean energy projects and their impact in the Global South. Her input is part of the panel A worldwide energy revolution? which took place at the Degrowth Conference in Leipzig in September 2014. Would you like to continue on the topic? Discussions and actions for Climate Justice and D...