If rivers can be granted legal rights (see my Blog #2) what about other natural features and ecosystems such as forests? It’s an idea first suggested nearly fifty years ago by Christopher Stone, an American law professor in his classic essay ‘Should Trees have Standing?’ If revisited perhaps it could help us revalue forests and all their inhabitants. It might
Read moreSeals are known to be attracted by the sea around windfarms; researchers found that tagged individuals in the North Sea traced out ‘a striking grid pattern’ in their daily movements, swimming directly from one wind turbine to the next – hunting for fish. As with other physical structures in the sea, from mangrove roots to coral reefs, wind farms appear
Read moreEdward Milner June 9, 2022 A recent news item in the UK publicised the claim that the construction of 120,000 new homes was delayed because of a ruling by Natural England (the Government’s biodiversity agency) because pollution to local wetlands would result unless major changes were made to the builders’ plans. For a moment I was quietly astonished; environmental protection
Read moreEdward Milner May 12, 2022 The Magpie River in northern Quebec has been granted full legal rights of a person. You might think this was an amusing peculiarity in a remote corner of the vast Canadian north, having little relevance to the rest of the world. I suggest you would be wrong. In fact, the Magpie joins the Klamath in
Read moreApril 14, 2022 As the latest IPCC report takes the headlines, the equally urgent biodiversity crisis is once again pushed down the agenda below the Ukraine War, the cost of living crisis, and global heating due to uncontrolled carbon emissions. UN Biodiversity Conference – now, finally due to take place in Kunming China in a few weeks’ time – constantly
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PLANETARY HEALTH WEEKLY 