Ireland Could Become the Next Nation to Recognize the Rights of Nature and a Human Right to a Clean Environment
Katie Surma, a reporter for Inside Climate News focusing on environmental law and justice, writes about global shifts to embrace the Rights of Nature movement. In 2023, six of Earth’s nine planetary boundaries were breached, placing the planet on brink of a sixth extinction. The design of our political, economic, legal, and environmental processes that put humans first are the same systems that have brought us to the verge of collapse. As a result, Ireland declared a national biodiversity emergency in 2019, as over 70% of petlands and 50% of freshwater sources are damaged or deteriorating. In December of 2023, a legislative committee proposed that the Irish government add Rights of Nature to the constitution through an amendment that would recognize nature as having a right to exist, thrive, and be restored, and that humans have a right to a clean environment. The shift would prevent unsuitable human behaviors to create more ecosystem balance, and restore an Indigenous principle that humans are not separate from the rest of the land. Ireland is not alone in this feat—Aruba, Panama, Ecuador, and even some cities in the United States have passed laws recognizing the inherent Rights of Nature. For centuries, Indigenous peoples have lived in their environments without damaging or endangering it. Implementing Rights of Nature is a first step in returning to that.
