Protecting the Rights of Planet Earth

“All human beings”, according to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “…are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” This one statement forms the rationale by which the United Nations deemed it necessary to define the structure of rights which all participants in society are owed by the international community.

At the core of our understanding of human rights is the assumption that these rights are framed in the context of “human flourishing”. This extends human rights from the basic provisions of personhood (insofar as one has a right to life, security of person, free expression, participation and worship) but towards the principle that human beings should live in a way which allows them to maximise their potential, “To flourish”, says Barbara Fredrickson of the University of Michigan, “…means to live within an optimal range of human functioning, one that connotes goodness, generativity, growth, and resilience.” This ‘optimal range’ is a grey area, and in practice, we see the interpretation is usually based on ethical frameworks (a mixture of beliefs, preferences, sentiments, and so on). As James Griffin points out, in his seminal text “On Human Rights”, “Many ethical beliefs are shaped by a person’s understanding, often misunderstanding, of the empirical world: of the consequences of our acts, of what the objects of our desires really are like, and so on..” Griffin continues by giving the example of how, in some societies, theft is regarded as a serious crime, and in others, the concept of private property does not even exist. The fact remains that human flourishing comes at an immense cost. Capitalism (borne out of the rational desire to improve quality of life) comes at the cost of over two billion people in the world living in poverty, and over a billion left hungry, from the ‘externality’ of capital creating an immense inequality of wealth and resource distribution. Through aid and legislation, however, the international community tries to recognise and remove these externalities; hopefully providing a fairer deal for all.

Our environment itself suffers immensely through our relentless pursuit of ‘flourishing’. If we ponder the enormous age and complexity of our biosphere (including the earth, oceans, forests, plant and animal life, and our atmosphere) we cannot help but respond with wonder and awe- two emotions which command a commensurate amount of respect. Our actions, however, do not reflect this. Society runs ethical mathematics, perceiving the benefits (for example, reliable access to energy) of actions (such as mining, drilling, farming) to be greater than the intrinsic value of the environments they affect (oceans, forests, etc). this reveals a uniquely one sided view where we, as a species (and often as economic groups) act out of self-interest, largely outside any consideration for the wider space in which we exist. At a macro-level, though, it is clear, that our want of ‘flourishing’ comes at a cost we simply cannot accept (crippling poverty, and the destruction of the very environment that sustains us). With the exception of some (openly) biased pieces of legislation, there is little coherent consideration given to ‘who’ protects the earth’s interests, and rights to flourish.

In this exclusive interview we talk to Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace (an independent global campaigning organisation that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace- acting as a voice for the earth). We discuss, in detail, the profound issues affecting our earth, including energy and climate change, food security, oceans, forests, international trade, economics, the structure of society, technology and more.

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  1. sunrec posted this