L OV E L E T T E R TO T H E E A RT H

Dear Earth,

Sometimes I wonder what our world will look like when all is well; when we no longer pollute your waters, when we no longer butcher your land and when we no longer go to war. I envision a world where the waters run so clear, the land teeming with life and inhabited by people who care. The wonderful thing is, I’m beginning to find it. In corners and in often over-looked places, such a world already exists. When I come across such hidden wonders my heart soars, as I know, more and more, that our world is changing – for the better – every day.

Dear Earth, this is my love letter to you – it comes from my heart and it sings a song of joy, love and compassion for all beings who live here. My dream is for a world of peace and I truly believe this is possible in my lifetime. Indeed, possible within the next 12 years.And to that end I am committed to playing my part in helping make it happen. For me, I envision a world where we place in sacred trust our Earth – where we uphold to the utmost our duty to put people and planet first.

A sacred trust.These are words that resonate with a calling for something bigger than ourselves: of us being in service to the future of humankind and all your nonhuman creatures. I cherish a belief that when we value the sacredness of life we change our view; for me the overriding driver of all that I do is to nourish life. People through the centuries have spoken about our sacred trust and have named it as a primary duty of humanity.Whether or not the word ‘sacred’ means divine or refers to the laws of a doctrine does not matter to me. My religion is Nature itself, and my law is natural law. That is why I am driven to bring into being a whole new body of law on this Earth – Earth law.

My ideal world is a world without any written law. Dear Earth, you have systems that do not rely on written documents and I see that life flourishes when harmony prevails. When an imbalance occurs, sometimes it seems as if all is lost, such as when there is a forest fire, and yet, remarkably, new life emerges. Given the right conditions, life flourishes. Give the right conditions to humanity, and all life can live in harmony. For me that means prioritising peace and saying: “Let’s close the door to all that feeds death and destruction.” Laws I can see play their part in this story; written law can ultimately become a way of being. However, to get to a world without written law first needs bridges, and one of those bridges is new law premised on intrinsic values – not extrinsic values. When we have our bridges and when we all walk across into our new world, where peace is the norm, those bridges will no longer be needed and they will quite naturally fall away.We will be living in a world where harmony determines our new way of being, where each and all, individually and collectively, uphold a different set of values.When our values align with a higher energetic frequency, a frequency that is born out of love, not fear, something wonderful occurs. Our ability to create the new can then flourish.

That is my dream, and it is a dream I will never let go of. It is a dream for Nature, it is a dream for humanity, it is a dream for future generations and it is a dream for peace. My skills are, as a lawyer, for you, Mother Earth. I feel my connection to you and I am listening.

Dear Earth, I thank you for the wonder of life itself. With love for the Earth, Polly

My religion is Nature itself, and my law is natural law

Polar Bear in sea-ice landscape, Svalbard, Norway © Andy Rouse/naturepl.com

Polly Higgins is an international lawyer and environmental activist. She is the founder of the Ecocide campaign. www.eradicatingecocide.com

Issue 275

Resurgence & Ecologist

19