David R. Boyd > Quotes

“This legal development is as potentially transformative as British judge Lord Mansfield’s decision in 1772 that James Somerset, an enslaved African, was by law a free man who could not be owned by another person. That British case was the death knell for slavery, although it took decades for the abhorrent practice to be largely eliminated, and shadows persist to this day. Could the Te Urewera and Whanganui River laws be the death knell for the human conceit that nature is nothing but mere property, to be used and exploited for our exclusive benefit?”
― David R. Boyd, The Rights of Nature: A Legal Revolution That Could Save the World

“Ecuador’s 2008 constitution also includes extremely detailed provisions about the environmental laws, policies, and programs needed to fulfill these ambitious goals. For example, the constitution prohibits genetically modified organisms (GMOs) from being used in agriculture, clarifies that access to safe drinking water is a fundamental human right, and emphasizes the importance of sustainable modes of transportation, going so far as to mandate that bicycle lanes be given priority in urban areas.”
― David R. Boyd, The Rights of Nature: A Legal Revolution That Could Save the World

“For example, in 2004, following a lengthy dispute about discharging sewage wastewater into the Whanganui River, New Zealand’s Environment Court ruled that “one needs to understand the culture of the Whanganui River iwi [tribe] to realize how deeply engrained the saying ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au [I am the river, and the river is me] is to those who have connections to the river. Their spirituality is their ‘connectedness’ to the river. To take away part of the river is to take away part of the iwi. To desecrate the water is to desecrate the iwi. To pollute the water is to pollute the people.”
― David R. Boyd, The Rights of Nature: A Legal Revolution That Could Save the World