Community Development and Applied Economics (CDAE) doctoral student Juliana Neira, a student in Sustainable Development Policy Economics, and Governance, and Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources doctoral student Nina Smolyar, spoke at the United Nation’s Interactive Dialogue on Harmony with Nature on April 24, 2023, commemorating Earth Day.
For over 12 years, this event has brought together a growing network of ecological lawyers and advocates pushing for a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Nature. They build upon cases from around the world, where they have fought to grant ecosystems and species a legal personhood, and thus, be defended in courts against pollution and exploitation. Neira and Smolyar spoke about agroecology and degrowth as just alternatives, bounded by planetary boundaries in the transition to an Earth-centered paradigm.