Invisible Hand: The Rights Of Nature Movement / Melissa Troutman + Joshua Pribanic

Melissa Troutman and Joshua Pribanic, co-directors of the documentary Invisible Hand, join me to discuss the Rights of Nature movement beautifully documented in their film. I ask them to define the philosophy and legal framework communities across the US (and the world) are implementing to battle against corporate-led environmental destruction in their localities.

Rights of Nature are the beginning of a new legal paradigm in western culture. The idea argues that nature holds inalienable rights, and that vital parts of Nature — a river or watershed or ecosystem — shall be granted personhood in the court of law and be provided with legal standing to defend itself. (http://bit.ly/37BPMA3)

Granting legal rights to natural entities and systems — in which we are inextricably connected to — is one of several tactics that can be employed to forge a path toward protecting the natural world from environmentally destructive corporate practices in communities across the world. 

Bios:

Melissa A. Troutman is an American investigative journalist, photographer, artist and filmmaker who co-founded Public Herald (est. 2011), a nonprofit for investigative journalism where she currently serves as Executive Director. Troutman has gained international attention for her coverage of fracking in Pennsylvania. She’s writer, editor, director, producer of TRIPLE DIVIDE and TRIPLE DIVIDE [REDACTED], which uncovered corruption in the handling of water contamination in rural Pennsylvania.

Joshua B. Pribanic is an American investigative journalist, photographer, artist and award-winning filmmaker who co-founded Public Herald (est. 2011), a nonprofit for investigative journalism, and co-directed the recently acclaimed documentary TRIPLE DIVIDE and TRIPLE DIVIDE [REDACTED]. He currently operates as the Editor-in-Chief for Public Herald. For his production and directing of the documentary feature TRIPLE DIVIDE (released March 2013), Pribanic gained international attention for his reporting on fracking shale gas in the United States. 

Episode Notes:

Learn more about and watch Invisible Hand

Support their work through Public Herald

The song featured is “Theme from Invisible Hand” by Heavy Color from the Invisible Hand soundtrack