Today, the planet is facing what César Rodríguez-Garavito, founding director of the More-Than-Human Life (MOTH) Program, calls a “triple planetary crisis of climate, biodiversity, and pollution.”

With billions of tons of CO2 released into the atmosphere each year as a result of human activity, global temperatures are rising and species are dying off at a rate 1,000 times higher than before the arrival of humans 60 million years ago. To help counter these issues, Rodríguez-Garavito’s MOTH, a legal research and advocacy effort, has set out to extend legal frameworks designed to protect people, such as intellectual and human rights, to the more-than-human web of life.

Since its launch in 2022 as an initiative of the Earth Rights Research and Action Clinic and the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University’s (NYU) School of Law, MOTH has filed a case to establish the creative rights of a forest, investigated the legal and ethical possibilities of translating whale communication using artificial intelligence, and supported the implementation of a landmark court decision granting rights to nature in Ecuador. In addition to spearheading efforts like these, the program offers week-long intensive trainings for mid-career professionals interested in advocating for the more-than-human world, and hosts both an annual public festival at NYU and an annual invitation-only symposium that brings together scientists, philosophers, lawyers, Indigenous leaders, environmental advocates, and journalists from around the world to shape the program’s agenda.

The concept of the more-than-human world originates from the writings of American philosopher David Abram, who coined the term in the mid-1990s to break down divides between humankind and other life on Earth. A broader movement to recognize rights of nature dates back to 1972, when Christopher D. Stone, a law professor at the University of Southern California, wrote an article arguing that “natural objects” should have legal rights. Since 1990, about 500 initiatives recognizing the rights of nature have been undertaken in dozens of countries and international venues, including the United Nations. Rodríguez-Garavito says he opted for the term “more-than-human rights” over “rights of nature” to emphasize that humans and their rights are not separate from nature, but nested within it.

Read the full article about more-than-human rights by Marianne Dhenin at Stanford Social Innovation Review.