Defending the rights of nature: A new approach to save the planet

“We need to do something different,” says Thomas Linzey, Senior Legal Counsel at the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights. He works globally and nationally to advance the “rights of nature,” stepping into the shoes of ecosystems to litigate, advance, and adopt laws to prevent issues such as toxic dumping and fracking.

“The law has to go through a transformation,” Linzey says. “That evolution has to be shifting from nature as a thing, to nature as an animated entity capable of holding rights.”