CRAIG KAUFFMAN

CRAIG KAUFFMAN

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Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Oregon
Member of the United Nations Knowledge Network on Harmony with Nature

The term Rights of Nature tends to be applied to two different things. One is this underlying legal philosophy that is actually broader than just Rights of Nature, that’s probably better understood as ecological jurisprudence that may or may not be expressed in terms of rights, but because Rights of Nature is getting a lot of attention that term tends to be applied to represent this broader underlying philosophy. Of course, the other way it’s used it to refer to the legal provisions that explicitly recognize Rights for ecosystems.

JON GERTNER

JON GERTNER

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Journalist & Historian on Science, Technology & Nature

I don’t think there is anything in our history that prepares us for what we have to do next. I think we have a lot of promising signs. It seems like the real work is still ahead of us. To me it feels that we’re making this up as we go along, we’ve made a couple good steps, we know the problem really well. We know what to do or at least what is needed, but those questions of policy and politics and how to mobilise governments and align people, at least to me it seems like the world has gotten more contentious, maybe because of the pandemic, rather than more willing to align.

MATS HJELM

MATS HJELM

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Artist, Documentary Filmmaker & Multimedia Installation Creator

Art can be part healing process. There's a lot of research being done. People heal faster a garden rather than a parking lot, for example. The theory is that an opening in the woods with a little bit of water is probably the most healing place. That's the safest because that's what we have built-in as humans as the safe spot. The ocean is not safe, but the little pond. So, what I've done in this particular project with the radiotherapy rooms is that I've taken images from healing wells, partly from Stellenbosch National Park in Capetown, in Rio. I've been filming these water surfaces. I’ve been filming the trees through the water surface basically to create that water pond and the trees around, but from these places that have kind of a healing history.