Right now I'm standing on top of Lake Erie.
Well, I'm actually on a boat that's on La-
you know how that works.
Recently the residents of Toledo, Ohio voted
to make Lake Erie a person.
What does that even mean?
All right, can we go back? I think I'm gonna puke.
Local activist Markie Miller
is one of the human people responsible for getting
the Lake Erie personhood initiative passed.
Our premise was to change the notion
that nature is merely property,
and that if you own the permit,
that you get to destroy it, to harm it.
So by giving Lake Erie its own set of rights,
we have a better way of enforcing protections.
How far can this go?
A lake is a person?
What's next, is a swimming pool a person?
Is a dog a person?
Is a child a person?
Do you see how slippery this slope is?
Well, much like, you know, a child,
we often have someone else speak on their behalf.
And I think that tends to be
our relationship with Lake Erie,
that we become trusties of this lake.
You can be honest here, I'm from Michigan.
Anyone that's been down here knows the people here,
they kind of march to their own drummer.
-Sure. -Is this a sex thing?
Definitely not at all.
KOSTA: So making a lake into a person
is clearly a weird sex thing.
But Markie and her fellow conservationists
have even more selfish motivations.
The toxic water situation in Ohio
that prompted the governor to declare a state of emergency.
TV REPORTER: Lake Erie, a major source of drinking water,
serves 400,000 people.
We lost access to our drinking water for three days.
-It impacted 500,000 people. -Mm-hmm.
They couldn't bathe, they couldn't touch the water.
-Mmm. -You couldn't do your laundry, wash your dishes.
-Uh, water became -Keep going. Uh-huh.
a really scarce commodity.
-It wasn't available. -Ah! Oh, goddam, that's good.
We realized how vulnerable we were.
-And how precious the resource was, -(grunts)
that it could be taken away just like that.
-It is something that we enjoy, isn't it, as humans? -Yes.
-Yeah. -Do you mind if I just...?
KOSTA: But is turning your lake into a person
really the best way to protect it?
Apparently so, according to
the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund,
which has successfully turned nature into persons
in places as exotic as Ecuador,
New Zealand and Pennsylvania.
Well, we describe it more as the right to live,
to flourish, exist, be healthy.
But, yeah, in our legal world we use personhood rights.
I mean what, what is a person, Tish?
Is this lake a person?
It's living.
-It's living, okay. -Yes. Let's go back.
What about that river?
Yeah, it's living and there's life all around it,
and in it and it's living.
Is this a person?
-Oh, my God, Jesus, sorry. That was-- -(laughing)
Why was that there? Why was that in there?
What do you say to your critics that say
this is absolutely batshit (bleep) crazy?
I don't find this crazy at all,
because corporations have had personhood rights,
so they're not even a living entity,
and yet nature that we depend on
is not considered having the same rights
that we do or that corporations do.
KOSTA: And there's tons of opposition
to giving Lake Erie the rights of a person,
from farms, the state government,
fishermen with IBS...
basically, anyone else trying
to get rid of their toxic dumps.
Found out that BP was basically the sole funder
of the campaign against the Lake Erie Bill of Rights.
-They spent-- BP, yep. -BP?
Black people. You know, I always knew.
-Is that...? -British Petroleum.
British Petroleum-- can we cut that?
Can we cut that part out?
British Petroleum.
They do have a refinery not far out from Toledo,
but I think that it was more about, you know,
not wanting this idea of rights of nature to-to take off.
-But, you know, we do live here. -Mm-hmm.
And we're not going to sit back and be poisoned.
You know, Markie, I have to admit, when I came here,
I thought, I thought it was bullshit, Markie.
I kind of thought you were this crazy woman
who decided to make Lake Erie a person.
But here you are on the battlegrounds, every day,
fighting against big agriculture,
fighting against the State of Ohio,
fighting for this beautiful body of water.
The real hero here-- yeah, you a little bit--
but even more so than that,
I'm the one who's showcasing you.
So if anything, I'm the hero.
And that's why I love this story.
So maybe a person can make a difference.
And maybe a lake can become a person.
And maybe it can even get married to the handsome,
sensitive correspondent who saved it.
I do.
Because true love is pure,
it is deep, it is clear,
it's perfect and it tastes sweet.
(gagging, groaning)
Blech.
Why didn't you tell me
there's something wrong with this water?
(cheers and applause)