Having held conversations about Human Rights in several previous Think Again programs, we now propose to widen our purview, wondering whether other species and things might have 'rights' as well...

'Western Enlightenment' thinking has located the 'me' and the human - the 'Anthropos' - right in the centre of all there is, everything and everybody else... the 'other'... Jacques talks about a more recent 'awakening' to the rights of nature, especially in light of the destruction humans continue to inflict on all other species-persons and things in the ecology they are part of.
He invites listeners to start dipping into 'posthuman' thinking, trying to 'think' humans out of the centre of everything, reflecting on the fact that we are so relationally connected with what we destroy mindlessly that we may make life on mother earth quite impossible for humans.

Refs:

Burdon, Peter (ed.) (2011) Exploring Wild Law: The Philosophy of Earth Jurisprudence Kent Town (Adelaide - SA): Wakefield Press

Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA) www.earthlaws.org.au

New Economy Network Australia (NENA) https://www.neweconomy.org.au/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/16/new-zealand-river-granted-same-legal-rights-as-human-being

Kimmerer, Robin Wall (2013) Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants Minneapolis: Milkweed Publications

Stone, C (1972) “Should Trees Have Standing – Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects” in 45 S. Cal Law Rev. 450

Stone, C (2010) Should Trees Have Standing? Law, Morality, and the Environment. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Braidotti, R (2014) The Posthuman Cambridge: Polity Press

Ghosh, Amitav (2017) The Great Derangement; Climate Change and the Unthinkable Chicago: University of Chicago Press