Mother Jones – July-August 2019

MATT CHINWORTH

ECONUNDRUMS

KNOTTY BY NATURE

Should ecosystems have legal rights?

by jackie flynn mogensen

FOOD

+

HEALTH

in the summer of 2014, officials in Toledo, Ohio, an-

nounced that the city’s tap water was no longer safe to

drink. A toxic algae bloom caused by fertilizer runoff had

poisoned Lake Erie, the primary water source for the

area’s half-million residents, sickening more than 100

people. Stores emptied of bottled water within hours.

For three days, “it was just total panic,” recalls Markie

Miller. “People were fighting over it.”

Miller joined Toledoans for Safe Water, a group of res-

idents who had been trying to convince officials to clean

up the lake, to no avail. Then, in late 2015, members of

the group attended a presentation put on by the Com-

munity Environmental Legal Defense Fund about ad-

vancing the “rights of nature”—the idea that eco systems,

like humans, have legal rights.

After the presentation, some Toledoans

met in a pub and drafted the Lake Erie Bill

of Rights. This past February, voters chose

to amend the city charter to grant the lake

the right to “exist, flourish, and naturally

evolve.” The amendment allows any resi-

dent to sue governments or businesses that

infringe upon the lake’s rights—for exam-

ple, by polluting it with fertilizer.

Toledo isn’t the only place to recognize

the rights of nature. In 2006, Tamaqua

Borough, Pennsylvania, passed an ordi-

nance to prohibit corporations from dump-

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