THE EUROPEAN RIGHTS OF NATURE TRIBUNAL, IN DEFENSE OF AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS' first case - Mer de Glace kicks off our online series of 5 hearings, each to be held on the last Saturday of the month, starting in January.

The Tribunal will hear and try five critical aquatic ecosystem cases brought by frontline, impacted communities and experts from across Europe.

The Tribunal will be presided over by a panel of experienced Rights of Nature judges from around the world.

This first case in the series is focusing on The Mer de Glace (literally “the sea of ice”), a French glacier, located on the Mont-Blanc massif. It is 30 km² wide, 12km long and 300 meters thick, making it the largest glacier in France and the third-largest in the Alps.

This ice giant is however highly threatened: climate change is causing it to thaw rapidly.

Each year, the glacier shortens by 30 to 40 meters and loses 4 to 5 meters of its downstream thickness. Since 1850, the Mer de Glace has withdrawn by 2km. Scientists predict it could withdraw by another 1.2 km by 2040.

If glaciers were to disappear, the consequences would be disastrous and unprecedented for biodiversity (including human beings and non-human beings). Along with the oceans’ thermal expansion, the thawing of the glaciers and of the Antarctic and Greenland ice caps is the main cause for the global sea-level rise.

There is an undeniable link of interdependence between humans, non-humans and glaciers.

At this hearing, the case team will ask the Tribunal to acknowledge that in order to guarantee the rights of human and non-human beings, we must recognize and uphold the rights of Mother Earth and of the natural elements forming it, notably the Mer de Glace

By recognizing the glaciers rights to exist and regenerate, we also protect the fundamental rights of human and non-human beings.

For more information, click HERE.