As this century draws to a close, these are not merely questions for abstract philosophical debate but, as Roderick Frazier Nash points out in The Rights of Nature, issues of intense interest to theologians, lawyers, legislators and even scientists. Radical environmentalists are already demanding that legal and ethical protection be extended to all of nature, and a few of them have demonstrated a willingness to fight, break the law and even die in support of this belief.
As described by Nash, the circle covered by the ethical rules governing individual and social behavior has expanded slowly and irregularly throughout history. Starting by granting rights to themselves, humans gradually enlarged the circle to include the family, the tribe, the nation and, in theory if not in practice, the entire community of human beings. When Thomas Jefferson wrote that all men were created equal and entitled to certain unalienable rights, it was understood he was talking only about white males. Since the American Revolution, however, the right to ethical treatment has been extended, at least by law and social consensus, to include women and ethnic minorities.
The next page in this history - the extension of ethical and legal rights to animals, plants, and the rest of the natural world - is now being written, Nash believes. For a growing number of people throughout the world but particularly in the United States, the belief is taking root.
The idea that nature has rights and is entitled to ethical consideration is not a new one. Some Eastern religions define humans as only part of a great chain of being. But in the Christian tradition of the West, man was created to master nature, not to be part of it.
However, as environmentalism has evolved as a social movement in recent years, Nash says, the concept of liberating nature from persecution by humanity has gained followers.