Our society enshrines the rights of individuals and corporations into laws and statutes. With them, we ensure a reasonable, safe pursuit of happiness. While these serve to protect people and businesses, there’s an underlying assumption. We all assume that Earth will always be there to provide nourishment and resources. Perhaps assuming is not sufficient for us.

The United Nations may be following the example of Bolivia in assigning rights to “Mother Earth”. Their example grants the Earth specific rights including right to life, water and clean air and the right to be free from pollution.

This could be tough to legislate. Almost every action by a person comes with pollution. Farmers have wheat chaff to toss. Smelters have slag to put somewhere. Nuclear reactors need a repository for their fuel. While the proposed legislation would be laudable, it would be impracticable. But, this doesn’t mean that we can pursue happiness independently of the Earth’s ecosystem So how will our civilization ensure that the laws of nature continue?

By learning from our mistakes, we grow. Japan Airlines recently declared bankruptcy and was absolved of $28billion of debt. So did the General Motors ($172B) and Chrysler ($8B) companies. Even nation states such as Greece ($13T) have gone this way. Bankruptcy as an accounting exercise will effectively exorcise the bad and allow a pristine organization to be reborn, absolved of all previous mistakes.

How would this work for our civilization on Earth. Can we cleanse ourselves of our mistakes? When we drive a species to extinction, there’s no coming back for it. When we consume all the non-renewable resources, their benefit is gone forever. When we reshape the land by damming rivers or constructing concrete towers, we obviate billions of years of adaptation, trial and error. Returning to the original conditions is impossible as we can’t reinvent a species or it is unpalatable as we won’t return open pit mines to their original condition. Clearly our civilization has no chance for a pristine rebirth.

With our civilization being unable to exercise a bankruptcy option then we can only continue from our existing condition, whatever it may be. We learn to live with our mistakes or we learn to make no mistakes. Is consuming beyond our planet’s provisioning a mistake (see Global Footprint)? Is genetically altering all wild plants and animals for suitability in farms a mistake? With no contingency option, our civilization needs to connect their actions today to their possibilities for tomorrow. A bankrupt civilization will not be saved by a benevolent benefactor; it will only pass into history.