Rooting rebellion in nature

http://theecologist.org/2019/may/24/rooting-rebellion-nature
Date Written:  2019-05-24
Publisher:  The Ecologist
Year Published:  2019
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX23642

Reflections on the legacy of philosopher and ‘geologian’ Thomas Berry, ten years after his death.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

The dominant legal system is rooted in a profound misconception of law as something humans can invent from scratch. Whereas, for most of human history we have understood that we are born into a lawful, self-regulating and living system we call Earth, Mother Earth, Pachamana, Gaia.

We are inextricably part of a web of life and as such the laws we must comply with, that we must live by, are the laws that govern life on Earth.

By complying with Nature’s laws and codifying them in the institutions through which we govern our lives and societies, we contribute to the dynamic equilibrium upon which the health and the wellbeing of all depends.

This way of being and organising society, and the Earth-centred institutions it gives rise to, is what we call Earth Jurisprudence.

Earth jurisprudence recognises that we are born into a lawful Universe, of which our planet is a part; that Earth is the ‘Primary Text’, the source of the laws that govern all of life, including our own. This is the reality of life on Earth, whether we recognise it or not.