Rights of Nature as a tool for transformational change, with Pella Thiel
“Perhaps what I’m trying to do is to subjectify the world, because look at where objectifying it has gotten us.” Ursula K LeGuin
Welcome to the CEMUS opening lecture on September the 2nd, 18.15 – 20.00 in Hambergsalen, Geocentrum. Come early to ensure a seat!
The ecological crisis we find ourselves is really an existential crisis, calling upon us to question what is important and what it means to be human. We know what is not working, but where do we go from here? The movement for understanding nature as subject with legal rights is sweeping the world at the moment, involving courts, judges, scholars, indigenous voices and civil society. In a culture which has a basic understanding of human exceptionalism, the idea is fascinating, as it is understandable by current frameworks and institutions and at the same time challenging everything they are based on. It has ancient roots, yet leads society in new directions which are urgently needed.
Pella Thiel works with relational, systemic activism, change processes and leadership för a society in harmony with nature.
She is a co-founder and board member of the Swedish Transition Network, End Ecocide Sweden, Save the Rainforest Sweden and the swedish Network for Rights of Nature. She coordinated the first two Rights of Nature Conferences in Sweden. She has edited two books on nature interpretation and is currently working on a book on rights of nature. Pella has an MSc in Ecology from Stockholm University with the thesis on rainforest restoration in Ecuador. She enjoys pigs, her greenhouse (which has been under construction for four years) and having her hands in the soil at the smallholding in the archipelago of Stockholm where she lives. She is part of the eco-psychology/activist NGO Lodyn, UN Harmony with Nature initiative and the Common cause international network.