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.
Die Anmeldung für das MOVE UTOPIA Zusammen!Treffen! für eine Welt nach Bedürfnissen und Fähigkeiten vom 21.-25.Juni 2017 in Lärz (Mecklenburg) ist ab sofort geöffnet. Wir veröffentlichen ein Interview der Zeitschrift arranca! mit zwei Organisator*innen des Treffens, bei dem der Zusammenhang zwischen MOVE UTOPIA und der Degrowth-Bewegung im Mittelpunkt steht. Im Juni findet das MOVE UTOP...
Die UTOPIKON ist jetzt vorbei und der Beweis ist erbracht: es ist absolut möglich, eine "echte" Konferenz mit Keynotes, Workshops, Verpflegung und allem, was dazugehört, geldfrei, vegan, ökologisch und solidarisch zu organisieren. Gleichzeitig hat die Konferenz auch noch unglaublich viel Spaß gemacht: selber etwas zu erleben, von dem es geheißen hatte, das das ja eigentlich gar nicht geht, ha...
Interview mit Tobi Rosswog von living utopia Wir freuen uns sehr, dass die Utopie-Ökonomie-Konferenz UTOPIKON, die 4-6 November in Berlin stattfindet, Teil unseres Stream Towards Degrowth ist. Mit dem Stream wollen wir zeigen, dass die Suche nach alternativen Gesellschaftsentwürfen jenseits des Wachstumsparadigmas bei vielen Menschen auf große Begeisterung stößt, und dass es bereits eine bunte...