Encountering little political resistance, the “nature rights” movement continues its march toward legal and institutional respectability. Now, the Council of Paris has asked the French Parliament to grant legal personhood and “rights” to the river Seine. From the RTL Today story:

French authorities want to give legal rights to the River Seine to better defend the world-famous waterway in court and protect its fragile ecosystem, part of a global movement to grant legal personhood to nature.

In a resolution adopted on Wednesday, the Paris City Council called on parliament to pass a law granting the Seine legal personhood to enable “an independent guardian authority to defend its rights in court”.

“The Seine must be able to defend itself, as a subject of law and not as an object, because it will always be under attack,” said Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo…

The Paris Council based its decision on the conclusions of a citizens’ convention on the future of the Seine held between March and May. Fifty citizens chosen at random proposed granting the Seine fundamental rights such as “the right to exist, to flow and to regenerate”.

The thing is, the Seine can be very well protected without granting it faux personhood. Indeed, according to the story, fish stock in the river grew from four species in 1970 to around 40 today — and all without granting a geological feature legal rights.

Granting “rights” to rivers would cause tremendous harm. For example, the “right to flow” would seem to prohibit any damming, flood control projects, and diversion of natural waterways — regardless of the human benefit or purpose. And the river’s “right to regenerate” could bar humans from using the river’s water for irrigation and create other impediments to human welfare.

Even nonessential activities could be blocked by pretending that the Seine is a person. From the story:

French authorities spent $1.5 billion ahead of the 2024 Olympics to clean up the Seine, the 777-kilometre (482-mile) river that flows through Paris past the Louvre, Notre Dame cathedral and other iconic landmarks.

However, it is threatened by pollution, rising water temperatures and the use of pesticides in agriculture.

The opening of the river to the public for swimming this summer could present “additional risks”, warned the convention.

The nature rights movement seeks to materially impede important human uses of the natural world. Its supporters are prevailing precisely because those who could stop the movement in its tracks still foolishly think, “It will never happen here.”

Postscript: A newly published book pushing nature rights generally, and river rights specifically, is receiving a flood of positive publicity. I will be commenting on Is a River Alive?, by Robert Macfarlane, in due course.