An environmental group is filing the first lawsuit of its kind on Sept. 26 in the U.S. this week, attempting to force the state of Colorado to recognize the “legal rights” of the Colorado River and the surrounding ecosystem.

Activist organization Deep Green Resistance (DGR) has signed on as the river’s “next friends” in Colorado River v. State of Colorado. The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) is a legal adviser in the case, according to a CELDF press release.

“This action … comes as courts around the world are beginning to hold that nature and ecosystems possess legally enforceable rights,” CELDF’s International Center for the Rights of Nature Director Mari Margil said in a press release from Sept. 21.

“Building on ongoing lawmaking efforts, we believe that this lawsuit will be the first of many which begins to change the status of nature under our legal systems,” Margil added.

DGR is committed to stopping “industrial civilization from burning fossil fuels.” The organization wants society to revert to a “sustainable” culture without the modern form of civilization fueled by limited resources.

“Life on Earth is more important than this insane, temporary culture based on hyper-exploitation of finite resources. This culture needs to be destroyed before it consumes all life on this planet,” the group’s website says. “Humanity is not the same as civilization. Humans have developed many sane and sustainable cultures, themselves at risk from civilization.”

Follow Tim Pearce on Twitter

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.