{"id":17851,"date":"2025-11-06T19:10:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T20:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=17851"},"modified":"2025-11-06T20:56:59","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T20:56:59","slug":"rights-of-nature-and-the-wrongs-inflicted-on-wisconsinites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=17851","title":{"rendered":"Rights of nature and the wrongs inflicted on Wisconsinites"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/rights-of-nature-and-the-wrongs-inflicted-on-wisconsinites\/<\/a><\/p>\n

If your lightbulbs are connected to the power plant that\u2019s connected to the lake, you\u2019ll pay<\/em><\/h4>\n

Went over to Devil\u2019s Lake last weekend to look at leaves, did you? Good choice. Lovely place.<\/p>\n

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Did you get the lake\u2019s permission?<\/p>\n

No, I\u2019m not kidding. Neither are the Assembly Democrats who last month announced they\u2019ll introduce a bill<\/a> to grant Devil\u2019s Lake State Park legal rights, as if it weren\u2019t a set of inanimate rocks, water, trees and lichens. They\u2019d treat it as if it were instead a sort of person with interests all its own apart from those of the people of Wisconsin, who own it.<\/p>\n

Utterly straight-faced, Rep. Vincent Miresse (D-Stevens Point) and colleagues \u2014 including two Milwaukeeans in the Assembly\u2019s Socialist Caucus<\/a>, Ryan Clancy and Darrin Madison \u2014 would grant the park \u201cthe right to naturally exist, flourish, regenerate, and evolve.\u201d They say the lake has a right to \u201cabundant, pure, clean, unpolluted water,\u201d to \u201cnatural biodiversity,\u201d to \u201cfull restoration,\u201d among other things.<\/p>\n

The proposal<\/a> doesn\u2019t say that Devil\u2019s Lake should be unpolluted because humans will enjoy that, or that biodiversity is good for people. It says the lake has rights whether or not that benefits humans.<\/p>\n

Unveiling the measure, Miresse sang the kumbaya of old-time ecology, saying we\u2019re part of \u201cliving systems.\u201d But not too special a part: The announcement included a homily from a green activist who intoned<\/a> that \u201cnature is not property. It\u2019s our relative.\u201d<\/p>\n

We were warned<\/a>. The Milwaukee County Board in 2023 passed a resolution<\/a> saying that nature has rights. Green Bay\u2019s pondering<\/a> one because an alderman, seeing plans for new houses near a geological feature, said, \u201cWhat about the escarpment?\u201d There are nonprofits promoting resolutions nationwide.<\/p>\n

You may not be interested in such sentimentality, but to paraphrase Trotsky, its enforcers are interested in you. The Democrats\u2019 proposal not only grants these rights to Devil\u2019s Lake, it declares that \u201cno business may engage in activities that infringe upon the rights.\u201d If they do, it\u2019s a $1,000 fine \u201cfor each violation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attorney general can enforce this, but so can anyone else: \u201cAny individual may file a legal action \u2026 in the name of Devil\u2019s Lake State Park as the real party in interest\u201d to enforce the lake\u2019s rights, Democrats propose.<\/p>\n

And once a self-appointed guardian attacks, says the proposal, the person accused \u201cbears the burden of proving that no violation exists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, just don\u2019t pollute, right?<\/p>\n

Except the proposal doesn\u2019t say what might impair the lake\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

If you drive through the park and emit exhaust, however little, is the convenience store that sold you the gas an accessory to hurting the lake\u2019s right to flourish?<\/p>\n

That store used electricity. Did any of it come from the coal-fired power plant nearby \u2014 the one said to be impairing the lake\u2019s right to \u201ca healthy natural environment\u201d? That\u2019s a thousand bucks. Per day? Per kilowatt? The proposal doesn\u2019t say.<\/p>\n

How about farmers\u2019 nearby tractors? How about exhaust from jets flying above? From cars on I-90 nearby? That\u2019s up to lawsuit-minded citizens.<\/p>\n

If you deadname the water \u2014 the legislative language painstakingly notes the lake\u2019s proper Ho Chunk name is Tee Wak\u0105c\u0105k \u2014 might you hinder its evolution?<\/p>\n

The premise of ecology is that everything in the environment is connected. The logic of the proposal is to empower anyone who doesn\u2019t like modern farming, power plants or cars to drag into court, on behalf of a lake\u2019s rights, anything in that chain of connection.<\/p>\n

Which is everything.<\/p>\n

Were this somehow to become law, the way to avoid trouble wouldn\u2019t be, as with current environmental rules, to not exceed some publicly agreed-on standard. Rather, we\u2019d all have to think as the green revolutionaries do: \u201cDoes my hamburger<\/a> encourage livestock farming that could impinge on biodiversity, which Devil\u2019s Lake\u2026 uh, Tee Wak\u0105c\u0105k has a right to?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only would the law shift the burden of proof onto the accused, it would fine you $1,000 if you didn\u2019t raise your green-revolutionary consciousness<\/a> \u2014 to, as Al Gore put it, make the environment your \u201ccentral organizing principle<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it would utterly discard the sensible thinking that permitted rising American prosperity to co-exist with an improving environment: the understanding that natural resources exist for humans\u2019 use and that we\u2019re served best when they\u2019re used prudently, conservatively<\/em>.<\/p>\n

By contrast, a resource\u2019s \u201cright to exist\u201d is a right to not be used at all.<\/p>\n

Dismiss it as fringe games from an out-of-power party, but it shows what at least some Democrats mean to do when given a majority, which redistricting may well give them. Miresse said they started with Devil\u2019s Lake State Park only because it\u2019s a well-known, defined spot. The proposal \u201cshows us the path forward \u2014 it is a start,\u201d said<\/a> Madison.<\/p>\n

Where that path goes, no one can tell, because it\u2019d be defined by anyone who drags you into court on the grounds that you\u2019re outranked by a scenic pothole.<\/p>\n

Patrick McIlheran is the Director of Policy at the Badger Institute.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Any<\/em>\u202f<\/em>use or reproduction of Badger Institute articles or photographs requires prior written<\/em>\u202f<\/em>permission.<\/em>\u202f<\/em>To request permission to post articles on a website or print copies for distribution, contact Badger Institute Marketing Director Matt Erdman at<\/em>\u202f<\/em>matt@badgerinstitute.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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