Legal Rights for Rivers: A Shift in Advocacy

The Colorado River has been carved up and relentlessly fought over for decades. But has anyone ever asked what the river wants? Until recently, that answer was ‘no.’

There’s a growing movement, rooted in Indigenous values, to give nature — rivers, fish, crops and trees — the same rights as people (and corporations). It’s known as Rights of Nature. In our last episode of the season we travel to the other side of the world, visit a mountain town making history and learn from salmon in the Pacific Northwest, as we figure out if personhood is feasible for the Colorado River and what that would mean for the river and those who depend on it.