Earth Rights Statement

In the United States, corporations are protected legally, as persons, but the Earth, which supports them, has no legal rights. We must give the Earth her right to live in our local communities, county, state, and federal laws.

Randy Woodley

Climate Justice and Indigenous Peoples

The battle against Indigenous people is ongoing, but it is currently being intensified. As fossil fuels become less accessible, the importance of Indigenous people’s rights are more crucial now than ever. Indigenous Peoples are often called the invisible minority.

In the US over 55 million acres of land, including the subsurface mineral holdings, are Native lands. This includes about 20% of the country’s fossil fuel reserves, with a worth of approximately 1.5 trillion dollars. According to the Department of Energy, of all the potential energy and mineral resources on Native lands today—90% of those resources are untapped. Native American/Alaska Natives only comprise 2% of the population! Do you see a possible concern for the rights of the small, and under-resourced minority of Indigenous people vs. the power of corporate America?

Ever heard of ANWR, Tar Sands, Mauna Kea, Standing Rock, Thacker Pass, Bear’s Ears, or Line 3? Under the wrong administrations and policies, Indigenous Americans and the Earth’s non-renewable resources, stand in extreme peril. That’s why there are now, major movements among Native Americans to “Keep it in the Ground” and “Build Back Fossil Free.”

Indigenous peoples need help amplifying their voices. Indigenous people are trying and are very active around the world in bodies like the United Nations, but too often Indigenous voices are not given a platform. Still, Indigenous people are innovative. Sometimes the agency of Indigenous people’s goes around the system when they can’t be heard, like what happened in 2004 with Copenhagen’s failure to hear the Indigenous voices who attended so, at an alternative meeting in Cochabamba, Bolivia declared the first Rights of Mother Earth or Pacha Mamma laws. These laws established included nature having:

·      the right to life and to exist;

·      the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration;

·      the right to pure water and clean air;

·      the right to balance and harmony;

·      the right not to be polluted;

·      and the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered.

·      It also enshrined the right of nature to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities.

But most often, large political organizations have ubiquitous corporate interests that work against Indigenous people. One example was the recent COP 26 when, at the last minute, they ditched the Loss and Damage Fund that would have helped so many people whose lives are being destroyed by climate change, including many Indigenous people, around the world.

We need to stop supporting the leading welfare recipients in America, namely, the fossil fuel industries. Coal, oil, and natural gas received $5.9 trillion in subsidies in 2020, that’s 11 million dollars per minute! We also need to stop subsidizing welfare for factory farming of corn, soy, wheat, and hay. Those farmers received over 20 billion worth of welfare in 2020, much of which was grown, not for human consumption, but for cattle. That’s because these farmers don’t know how to farm the right way. Mass, mono-cultural crop farming methods that destroy the soil has been passed down from generation to generation. They only know the destructive, earth-torturing, factory farming, and Western methods that overuse pesticides, herbicides, and genetically altered seeds.

Native environmental organizations and causes receive only nominal support from the usual funding sources like foundations, or from other environmental groups. And for that reason, I am asking everyone to invest in Native organizations with traditional Indigenous values such as The Indigenous Environmental Network, Honor the Earth Foundation, and Eloheh Indigenous Center for Earth Justice. Philanthropists need to invest in Native-led environmental and climate justice work whose ethic includes traditional Indigenous values.

In terms of impact stories: There are two Native Alaskan towns and one Louisiana Native town that have already had to relocate their homes, their loved ones, and their belongings because of climate impact. It takes millions of dollars to re-locate a small town. There will be many more to come and not just Indigenous towns and cities. Indigenous people are almost always the canary in the coal mine. What we suffer first, you will suffer eventually. Soon, the US will be hosting climate refugee camps for US citizens.

But we have to ask why? Why are we in this mess? Some call it the Anthropocene because the age is ending from human involvement. But, it was a particular kind of human involvement that caused this mess. I call it the Euro-Patricine. Over 500 years ago in Europe, mostly Male-led, Euro-centric (White Supremacy) views had despoiled much of Western Europe. Oak forests were in sharp decline, fisheries depleted, rivers polluted, and disease was running rampant. All of Western Europe’s misuse of land fueled colonialism, creating colonial and neo-colonial tentacles that stretched across the world. Now, that same worldview is destroying our land.

The Western worldview WILL NOT sustain our future. The same Western worldview that got us all into this mess CANNOT get us out. If we want a happy future for our children, grandchildren, and the next seven generations we must realize we can no longer afford to think like the West.

We MUST decolonize the Western worldview that is so destructive, full of Platonic dualism, hierarchies (like anthropocentrism and White Supremacy), false categorizations, false binaries, utopianism, and so on, and begin to realize that the earth and the whole community of creation are our relatives. We have a reciprocal relationship with every living organism on our planet. Every tree, every plant, every animal, every fish, every insect, every microbe and bacteria, every fungus, ad Infinitum…They are all, our relatives!

The sad truth is that Mother Earth is sick and we are her cancer. We are the part of her body that has turned on the rest. We don’t need to fear for her long-term well-being, Mother Earth will eventually recover, but we do need to fear for ourselves and for our loved ones. What we are calling chaos and disorder is actually Mother Earth responding naturally to rid herself of us, her cancer. The first year of living lightly on earth during Covid allowed us to send a signal of hope to her that we can change. But we only have so many chances to change. I believe we can change. Admitting the problem is step #1. The foundational problem we must face is: We have been bad relatives!

The question we must now ask ourselves, at every turn, is this, “how can I be a better relative to Mother Earth and the whole community of creation?” When we can answer that question honestly, and take action on it both personally, and structurally, then we will begin, to end, the climate crisis. God help us become better relatives!

At Eloheh Indigenous Center for Earth Justice, we believe the fastest and most direct option for battling climate change is to pass laws protecting Mother Earth. Although we at Eloheh are limited in the scope of what we are able to do, we will continue to educate the public, support structural change and seek in every way possible to protect and defend the Earth from the onslaught of careless non-renewable energy extraction and the continued pollution of Earth’s land, waters, and sky. Granting legal status to the Earth herself is not the only strategy to achieve Earth justice but it is, perhaps, the best and fastest strategy. Towards this effort of structural change, we ask you to join us in supporting and learning from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous organizations that have the legal resources and grassroots ability available to grant the Earth the rights she deserves.

Earth Rights International www.earthrights.org

Earth Justice www.earthjustice.org

Indigenous Environmental Network www.ienearth.org

Earth Rights Institute www.earthrightsinstitute.org

Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature www.therightsofnature.org