To the editor:

British Petroleum was only supplying an insatiable need. Our needs for immaculate lawns, trips across town and back, commutes, trips to the mountains, the shore — wait, not the shore. Instead of pointing fingers at others, each one of us needs to sit with the understanding that he or she had a hand in this horrific spill.

Catholic theologian and self-described Earth scholar Thomas Berry wrote an alternative declaration of rights that honors all beings rather than just humans. As we weigh our individual needs for fuel, we might well consider his wise words:

“Every component of the Earth community has three rights: the right to be, the right to habitat, and the right to fulfill its role in the ever-renewing processes of the Earth community. … Human rights do not cancel out the rights of other modes of being to exist in their natural state. … The planet Earth is a single community whose members are bound together with interdependent relationships. No living being nourishes itself. Each component of the Earth community is dependent on every other member of the community for the nourishment and assistance it needs for its own survival.” (To read Rights of the Earth in full, visit http://www.earthjurisprudence.org/content/background.html.)

Kelly Barth,

Lawrence