The Rights of Nature: Saving the Planet or Harmful to Humanity?
Date of Event
10-19-2021
Description
The Gonzaga University Center for Climate, Society, and the Environment presents, a moderated debate with Thomas Linzey and Wesley J. Smith on "The Rights of Nature: Saving the Planet or Harmful to Humanity?" hosted by Brian G. Henning, Director of the Gonzaga Center for Climate, Society, and the Environment, Professor of Philosophy and Environmental Studies.
Proponents of the rights of nature argue that the environmental regulatory system – which treats nature as merely property to be owned – has failed to protect nature and our own life support systems, and that a radical change in the law is needed which re-positions humanity in the role of a guardian or trustee of the best interests of those natural systems.
Opponents of this approach see recognizing the rights of nature as inappropriate and ultimately demeaning to the special dignity of the human person – undermining a rights-based system of law which makes humans exceptional.
The leading proponent and opponent will come together to debate this important issue.
Thomas Linzey is an attorney and senior legal counsel for the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER). He is widely recognized as the founder of the contemporary “community rights” and “rights of nature” movements, which have resulted in the adoption of several hundred municipal laws across the United States. Linzey’s work has been featured in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Mother Jones, and the Nation magazine, and he was named, in 2007, as one of Forbes’ magazines’ “Top Ten Revolutionaries.” In 2018, Linzey was named by American Environmental Leaders as one of the top 400 environmentalists of the last 200 years. He is the author of several books, and has been featured in Leonardo DiCaprio and Tree Media’s films 11th Hour and We the People 2.0.
Wesley J. Smith is an attorney, and serves as Chair and Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism. Since 1985, he has published thousands of articles, columns, and opinion pieces on issues pertaining to the moral importance of human life, addressing the entire spectrum of bioethical issues relating to conscience, patient protection, eugenics, suicide, transhumanism, medical ethics, and law and policy. His writing has appeared in Newsweek, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Forbes, among others, and he has appeared on more than a thousand television and radio talk/interview programs, including ABC Nightline, Good Morning America, Larry King Live, CNN Anderson Cooper 360, CNN World Report. He has testified as an expert witness in front of federal and state legislative committees, and is an international lecturer and public speaker.
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Sponsored By
Gonzaga University Center for Climate, Society, and the Environment
Recommended Citation
Linzey, Thomas and Smith, Wesley J., "The Rights of Nature: Saving the Planet or Harmful to Humanity?" (2021). Climate, Water, and the Environment Events. 14.
https://repository.gonzaga.edu/climateevents/14
Video Transcript
Climate_The Rights of Nature_Event Details.pdf (240 kB)
Event Flyer
Copyright Information
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