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.
By Monica Picavea Brazil is an amazing country, full of natural richness and blessed with many beauties. It has, however, a terrible sin on his shoulders: the thought that everything has to be done in a different, shorter, and faster way - in a way that takes advantage of everything. This is also why Brazil is currently undergoing a huge economic and political crisis, particularly reflected by...
Eine Sendung des unabhängigen Nachrichtenmagazins Kontext TV zur Degrowth-Konferenz: Quelle: www.kontext-tv.de Von freier Software zu "Open Source Hardware": Die Peer-to-Peer-Ökonomie als Alternative zu Markt und Staat 09.12.2014 In den vergangenen 20 Jahren ist im Bereich der freien Software-Entwicklung ein internationales Netzwerk entstanden, das patentfr...
Das Degrowth-Magazin der Schweiz heißt Moins! und erscheint sechsmal im Jahr. Die August-Ausgabe haben sie extra für die Degrowth-Konferenz auf Deutsch übersetzen lassen! Hoffentlich werden Sie die Exemplare für die Degrowth-Konferenz per Post schicken, auch wenn sie selbst mit einer Velocarawane aus der Schweiz anreisen. Für den Stream towards Degrowth haben Sie uns bereits einen [...]