A Sovereign Nature

Nature Sovereignty, to me, means treating collectives of species and terrain with dignity, along with reconciling our late human abstractions to include other beings in our systems of global decision-making and cooperation.

The historic use of the word sovereign betrays some of it’s divisive national past, as Immanuel Wallerstein expressed:

Sovereignty is a hypothetical trade, in which two potentially (or really) conflicting sides, respecting de facto realities of power, exchange such recognitions as their least costly strategy.

This kind of dualist sovereignty is not what we should aim for. In international law under the 'Limits of national jurisdiction and sovereignty' the areas of earth that are outside the limits of sovereignty are defined as ‘Common heritage of Humanity’.

While market pressure may be a short term fix, in an ideal world we would transcend historic recognitions of sovereignty, to consider Nature as heritage beyond capitalism and financialization, where we safeguard and appreciate the biodiversity and abundance of nature for all future generations. And consider Nature as people, where we protect the earth not as valuable property, but as intimately alive as we are.