Is a River Alive? With Robert Macfarlane

Whether it’s the Amazon or Amstel, our language, laws, and economies still treat rivers as resources – channels to be dredged, diverted, and controlled. In his latest book, Is a river alive?, Robert Macfarlane asks whether rivers are not objects, but beings with life, agency, and rights. How would it change us to live not above the river, but alongside it?

With Is a river alive?, Macfarlane writes his most political book yet. Recognizing rivers as living entities, he argues, is essential to restoring our damaged ecosystems. It calls for a radical reimagining of law, language, and land – a shift from dominion to kinship.

This conversation takes place in the Dutch delta, where the Rhine, Meuse, and Scheldt meet the sea. In collaboration with the Embassy of the North Sea and the Confluence of European Water Bodies, we examine how the Rights of Nature movement could reshape Europe’s laws and policies. What can the Netherlands – a country built on water – learn from this shift?

In cooperation with Embassy of the North Sea and Uitgeverij Athenaeum.

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