A lawsuit in Florida attempts to defend the rights of some wetlands.

I may well agree that the construction of that housing should be stopped. Aside from the threat to the wetlands, it sounds like the construction is too close to sea level and likely to be flooded in a few decades. I suspect that someone is being swindled. No one should build anything in lowland areas of Florida.

However, the idea that the wetlands "have rights" seems like a kludge. Philosophically, only a being that can have desires and make choices can have rights. I would rather achieve the same result — blocking bad development — in a conceptually coherent way.