Is A River Alive?

Is A River Alive? By Robert Macfarlane

"We are searching for the boats we forgot to build" - Barry Lopez

For many of us, the life force of a river is undeniable. In Is a River Alive?, Robert Macfarlane challenges us to engage with a more profound question: What if a river's life is not just a feeling or metaphor, but a legal and philosophical reality? He argues that to call a river alive isn't an anthropomorphic claim, to make it “human", but to "deepen and widen the category of 'life' itself."

The book explores the Rights of Nature movement, a growing global legal and philosophical movement that seeks to change the status of nature from “property” (available only as a resource to be owned, used, and degraded for human benefit) to a rights-bearing entity. The movement is often championed by Indigenous peoples, who have long lived in harmony with the Earth and see humans as part of a larger, interconnected system. 

Macfarlane's exploration takes him on three distinct journeys, each one a vivid case study in the fight for nature's rights:

First, he travels to the Los Cedros cloud forests in Ecuador, home to the Río Los Cedros. In 2008, Ecuador became the first country in the world to enshrine the Rights of Nature in its national constitution. In 2022, the Ecuadorian Supreme Court ruled in favor of protecting the rights of the Los Cedros, halting a mining project. 

Next, the author travels to Chennai, India, to bear witness to the plight of three dying rivers in the city - the Kosasthalaiyar , the Cooum, and the Adyar. These waterways, officially declared “unfit for any kind of life,” stand as a grim testament to systemic abuse and pollution, yet Macfarlane finds hope in the individuals still fighting for their revival.

Finally, he embarks on a grueling, hundred-mile kayak and hiking journey down the Mutehekau Shipu (Magpie River) in Quebec. In 2021, the Mutehekau Shipu was granted legal personhood through resolutions adopted by the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit, as a safeguard against hydroelectric projects. This deeply personal, almost spiritual, experience on the river, allows Macfarlane to move beyond the initial question of whether a river is alive, and on to the more profound and difficult question of what the river is saying.

This is a masterful blend of travelogue, natural history, and philosophical inquiry.