This is part 3 of a larger blog post, you can read the introduction here.

Earth (Source : NASA via Wiki)
Earth (Source : NASA via Wiki)

In one of the discussions on the sofa at the summit the idea of creating a Bill of Rights for the planet came up.   I’m very wary of writing something down and calling it a ‘right’.   Without going into too much detail, correct me if I’m wrong, but owning a gun is a ‘right’ in the USA isn’t it?   Regardless of the side you are on in that ongoing debate you can see that words written down as ‘rights’ have to be very carefully written and the intentions of the person(s) who wrote it have to be understood too.

The idea of a Bill of Rights also feels quite an American concept to a British person like myself, and it feels quite wrong, as I think rights are not as static as we might of first thought.   However I think there is utility in talking about the rights and responsibilities of ourselves and the planet we live on.   It fits nicely in to this idea of a long term plan assessed over generations of humans not just a single generation.  I think we need to start thinking bigger as a species and beyond our limited lifespans, as we become more powerful and more able to control the destiny of our planet earth.

This will be subject to a more detailed blog post topic for me in the coming weeks.   I have a simple idea and I think a Bill of Rights for the planet does not have to be as complicated as this one :  wikipedia – Sustainable Design In fact I think it can be boiled down to a single statement or phrase that everyone can agree on regardless of a political  religious, cultural or other affiliation.   Whether it can be the binding root of all laws and activities we do on this planet of ours is another matter….

Next Part 4 Conversations and short attentions spans