The Declaration of Independence was drafted out of necessity during a time when citizens’ rights were being violated by an oppressive government. The need to break free of the status-quo and redirect the cultural attitude towards the relationship between government and citizen led to its being drafted and, ultimately, to its being enacted. Likewise, in the nineteenth century the need arose for women to speak out against an oppressive culture and government that had excluded half of its population from the rights that had been declared almost a century earlier. Today, close to two hundred and fifty years after Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, and more than one hundred and fifty years after Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, the need for a new type of declaration has presented itself. This declaration must speak against the many abuses suffered by those living things on Earth whom cannot speak for themselves.
Declaration of Environmental and Non-Human Rights
When, in the course of world history, it becomes necessary for a majority portion of the world’s population to assume among other living creatures a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to all living creatures, both human and non, requires that the causes that impel them to such a course should be declared.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all natural things in this world are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the freedom to live naturally, the way that God intended them to; that to secure these rights human beings have been given the duty of protecting and nourishing those very things that provide them with a meaningful existence. Whenever any type of living creature becomes destructive of these ends, it is a right of those who suffer from it to have their liberties be voiced, and in doing so have a new institution of protection be insisted on, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such a form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and right to flourish. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that the role of human kind in the world, long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown that most bodies of nature are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to be able to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they were accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is the duty of human beings to change their behavior, and to provide new guard for the future security of the abused. Such has been the suffering of the world’s forests, tundra, jungles, rivers and oceans. Such too has been the suffering of so many of God’s creatures under the oppressive watch of human beings, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to be spoken for, and demanded the equal and natural station to which they are entitled.
The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of human beings toward all other living creatures in this world, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over them. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
They (human beings) have cut down the forests of this world in order to make room for building habitats that are both unnatural to humans and burdensome on the Earth.
They have replaced dense foliage and open prairie with concrete and metal.
They have killed animals, not out of necessity, but rather for sport, and in doing so have endangered and made extinct many of God’s most beautiful creations.
They have polluted the waterways with poisonous chemicals that kill fish and other marine life, in the name of convenience.
They have torn down a majority of the world’s rainforests in order to harvest minerals from the ground that will make them money.
They have forgotten their role as protectors of the world and mistaken it with being owners of the world, and in doing so have thoughtlessly taken over a majority of the Earth’s surface, with little thought to the impact they are making.
They have become near-sighted to the point of blindness with regard to the long-term impact of their lifestyles.
They have silenced the voices of those who speak for the plants and animals of the world, opting instead to indulge in the false pretense that what is out of sight and, therefore, out of mind, must be unworthy of their attention.
They have decided time and time again that immediate financial rewards outweigh the health and happiness of future generations.
They have placed animals, who by their nature roam thousands of miles during their lifetimes, into small, isolated corridors.
They have forgotten that they are a part of the world, and that the world is not theirs to oppress.
They have done more damage to the world, in little more than one hundred year’s time, than had been done in the thousands of years prior.
In every stage of these oppressions, the living plants and animals who cannot speak for themselves have silently suffered, while their plight has been ignored. The stewards of the Earth, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, has acted unfit to be the ruler of God’s creatures.
We, therefore, the representatives of all things living, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of all plants and animals of this world, solemnly publish and declare, That all of God’s creatures, no matter how silent and how small, be provided a measure of protection and respect from mankind that assures the continued and joyous balance that God and Nature intended.
It is only when these simple actions, those of a balanced and loving world, are enacted, that we as humans shall truly rejoice in the beauty of the world of which we have been bestowed. For if it were not for the lush greens, the clear water, the blue sky and the natural process of the animal kingdom, our lives would be that of a false reality. We must at once take action to ensure the protection of the world’s great wonder and beauty for the many generations who have yet to witness it.
(Written by Adam Trapani and based on The Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson)
