Hi folks,

Sorry for lack of petition updates— the best way to stay informed is to join our mailing list at www.ProtectThePorkies.com or follow along on social media (Facebook and Instagram).

Firstly, the good news: after being unanimously approved by the Michigan Strategic Fund and passing through the Michigan House Appropriations committee, the $50 million grant to Copperwood was BLOCKED in the Michigan Senate and was not included in the 2025 budget! Our sources tell us it is not anticipated to rise again, but we will remain vigilant.

This is a major victory— at a minimum, our records indicate that around 2,000 people reached out to Senators, surely making their decision much easier. Thanks everyone for your support!

But the fight is not over, and we need to begin zooming out to take a look at the bigger picture. 

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You are invited to a special virtual event in which we hope to have the participation of guests from throughout the Great Lakes chain. On Tuesday, July 30th @ 6pm CT / 7pm ET, Ben Price, author of the Great Lakes Bill of Rights currently under consideration by New York legislature, will deliver a presentation on the bill, followed by an open discussion. In addition to his work on the Great Lakes Bill of Rights, Ben Price organized the first community on Earth to recognize legal rights for Nature in 2006. The event is intended both to educate and inspire action in our own neck of the woods. This is an opportunity for advocates from all parts of the Great Lakes system to gather and build momentum for fundamental change. 

ProtectThePorkies Town Hall: THE GREAT LAKES BILL OF RIGHTS
Tuesday, July 30th @ 6pm CT / 7pm ET
REGISTER TODAY

(you may also use this link to join the meeting, but you will not receive a reminder unless you register)

Perhaps you are asking, But how does this pertain to our campaign? Well, consider that Copperwood would be the closest metallic sulfide mine to Lake Superior in history. We know that literally all metallic sulfide mines contaminate, and there is the very real threat of a catastrophic rupture in the waste facility. Such an operation never should’ve been entertained in a water-rich environment this close to the largest source of surface freshwater on Planet Earth, let alone issued permits and allowed to destroy wetlands and permanently reroute streams. The fact that an atrocity like Copperwood has nearly all its pre-construction permits and is held back only due to lack of funding is proof that the current paradigm of environmental protection is a failure. 

It has been said that permitting and regulations do not stop contamination and destruction — they normalize it,  serving to regulate environmental protectors more than they regulate the companies profiting from environmental harms. Thus, the ProtectThePorkies campaign welcomes fresh ideas: should ecosystems be treated as property to be regulated or as persons with rights? 

If this sounds insane to you, remember history: rights originally belonged only to white property-owning males, and in each new admission of rights — to the propertyless, to slaves (who were only 3/5th persons before that...), to women, and others — the proposal was declared absurd by opponents. Are we to commit the error of assuming that our society has reached the pinnacle of justice? Or might there remain more parties deserving of rights?

Meanwhile, though lakes and forests are considered objects, entities like corporations, trusts, joint ventures and municipalities have been classified as legal persons for over a century. As a result, Walmart, Chevron and Highland Copper have legal standing in court, but Lake Superior does not — is this fair, not to mention logically consistent, given that an infinity of Life depends on Lake Superior, while the same cannot be said of Walmart? Increasingly, many believe that the case for ecosystems having rights is at least as good as that of corporations (if not vastly superior...), and the time is long overdue to correct this injustice.

So join us on July 30th @ 6pm CT / 7pm ET for a spirited discussion!

About our speaker, Ben Price:

Long before his work on the Great Lake Bill of Rights, Ben G. Price, education director with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), has been a pioneer in the Rights of Nature Movement. In 2006 he organized the first community on Earth to recognize legal rights for Nature when he helped Tamaqua, Borough in Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal region to challenge so-called “personhood” rights for corporate property by assisting in the drafting of the first law with enforceable rights for ecosystems. Two years later the people of Ecuador ratified the first national constitution on Earth recognizing Nature’s rights, informed and inspired by Tamaqua’s example. In 2010, Price was called into Pittsburgh, PA, where he organized in the City’s none districts and met with their respective City Council representatives to draft and enact a ban on hydraulic fracking and recognize the rights of local ecosystems to exist, flourish, and evolve. Since then, more than forty U.S. communities have enacted laws recognizing legal rights for ecosystems. Today, the Rights of Nature Movement is a global phenomenon challenging colonial legal doctrines and striving for the emancipation of the natural world from bondage as legal property. Price’s book “How Wealth Rules the World: Saving Our Communities and Freedoms from the Dictatorship of Property” was published in 2019.

We hope to see you there.

Sincerely,
Tom Grotewohl
www.ProtectThePorkies.com

PLEASE NOTE— Should the Zoom meeting be full, the event will also be livestreamed on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectThePorkies/