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BIPOC movement. Below is a partial list of these organizations:Frank Bibeau on the Rights of Nature
Community Rights Lane County is privileged to announce that Executive Director of the 1855 Treaty Authority and Tribal Attorney, Frank Bibeau will present to the Eugene community on Friday, 
March 8, 7pm. at the Eugene Garden Club, 1645 High Street.
Lincoln County: Siletz River Takes Legal Action to Defend Its Rights
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Maria Sause
541 574 2961; cell 541 961 6385
Newport, Oregon: This afternoon the Siletz River Ecosystem filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit Rex Capri and Wakefield Farms, LLC v. Dana W. Jenkins and Lincoln County, and Lincoln County Community Rights. This is the third ecosystem in the United States to take legal action to protect its rights, secured in this case by Measure 21-177, which was adopted by Lincoln County voters in the May 2017 election.
The two plaintiffs – Rex Capri of Newport and Wakefield Farms of Eddyville – claim that their “right” to spray toxic pesticides aerially is greater than the right of the people of Lincoln County to protect public health, clean water, and the rights of ecosystems and natural communities not to be poisoned from the air.
Lincoln County Community Rights (LCCR) was granted intervention in the case on July 2, 2017, after the county made it clear that their interest lies merely in getting an opinion from the court and not in actively defending the law adopted by voters in May.
“I have lived in Lincoln County for 43 years in a home surrounded by river and forest. I am part of the ecosystems of Lincoln County,” says Carol Van Strum, advocate for the intervention of the Siletz Ecosystem. “The Declaration of Independence itself asserts that the laws of nature pre-empt human law. Like the Lorax, I speak for the rights of waters and forests and wildlife to challenge human violations of natural law.”
For the first time, the Siletz ecosystem and all Lincoln County natural communities and ecosystems have secured the right to be free from toxic trespass from aerially sprayed pesticides, a right that is essential to ecosystems’ on-going health, function and survival. That right is stated in Section 2(a) of Measure 21-177 or the Freedom from Aerially Sprayed Pesticides Ordinance of Lincoln County.
The Siletz watershed has lost 46% of its forest in the last 16 years. Huge clear-cuts resulting from strip logging abound in the area and have all been aerially sprayed with pesticides multiple times. Barren of vegetation, the steep terrain causes mudslides and pesticide run-off into the river and smaller feeder creeks, posing a high risk of contaminating a major source of drinking water for Lincoln County, and additionally destroying crucial habitat for salmon and steelhead.
Over the last year, high courts in New Zealand, India, and Colombia have recognized rights for rivers as a means of creating a higher standard of protection for those ecosystems. In Ecuador, the federal constitution has recognized rights of nature since 2008, and two different legal cases have affirmed that rivers have rights and that human activity violates those rights. Restitution penalties go to restoring the ecosystem.
“Protecting nature’s rights through law came from rural, conservative Pennsylvania”, says Kai Huschke of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, the public interest law firm representing LCCR and the Siletz Ecosystem. “Decades of environmental destruction in Pennsylvania made it a no brainer for folks there to protect what sustains them at the highest level. Today over three dozen communities in the United States, including Lincoln County, have stepped forward to secure nature’s rights.”
Though the lawsuit continues to move forward, there is no indication as to how soon the court will respond to the motion to intervene by the Siletz River Ecosystem.
ABOUT LINCOLN COUNTY COMMUNITY RIGHTS
Lincoln County Community Rights is a public benefit organization that seeks to educate and empower people to exercise their right of local community self-government in matters that pertain to their fundamental rights, their natural environment, their quality of life, their health and their safety. Given the harms that people and ecosystems suffer from the practice of aerial spraying of industrial forest land with pesticides, the group drafted an ordinance to ban aerial pesticide spraying in Lincoln County, Oregon. Measure 21-177 was adopted by voters in May 2017, making Lincoln County the first county in the United States to ban aerial pesticide spraying through the vote of the people.
http://www.lincolncountycommunityrights.org/press-info/
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A Powerful Trio
Community Rights Lane County, Our Community Our Rights and Freedom from Aerial Herbicides Alliance have been very lucky to co-host three amazing women. If you weren’t able to see them in person, we now have video of all three. Follow the links below and enjoy a wealth of knowledge related to the Rights of Nature!
- Winona LaDuke at the EMU Ballroom
- Vandana Shiva at LCC Peace Center
- Mari Margil at the Eugene Garden Club
Lafayette Community Members Introduce Climate Bill of Rights and Protections
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: January 2, 2016
Contacts:
East Boulder County United
Email: [email protected]
Kristin McLean: [email protected] 303 641-8901
Merrily Mazza, [email protected] 720 556-1286
Legal: Thomas Linzey, Esq, Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, 717 498-0054
Lafayette Community Members Introduce Climate Bill of Rights and Protections
What: Lafayette Community Members Introduce Climate Bill of Rights and Protections to City Council, Pledge Environmental Defense of Boulder County
When: Lafayette City Council meeting Tuesday, January 3, approximately 7pm depending on meeting agenda.
Where: 1290 S. Public Road, Lafayette Colorado
The people of Lafayette, Colorado have introduced an ordinance for formal adoption to the Lafayette City Council. The measure titled, “Climate Bill of Rights and Protections” is a law that will codify the right to a healthy climate and community member’s ability to enforce this right through community led, nonviolent direct action. It is based on the First Nation principle of protecting the environment for seven generations.
The measure will be introduced by two Lafayette City Councilors, Councilor Gustavo Reyna and Councilor Merrily Mazza, at the January 3rd meeting.
If the measure is approved Lafayette will become the second community nationally to adopt such a measure. Grant Township Pennsylvania legalized the defense of their community through nonviolent civil disobedience earlier this year when it was faced with threats from a proposed fracking waste injection well.
Pennsylvania Township Legalizes Civil Disobedience
http://celdf.org/2016/05/press-release-pennsylvania-township-legalizes-civil-disobedience/
The Climate Bill of Rights and Protections is part of the larger effort to protect Lafayette and Boulder County from nearly 2000 possible oil and gas wells. Trainings for nonviolent direct action are ongoing and are seeing capacity levels of participants. East Boulder County United has stated that no drilling will be permitted, and the protection of the environment and climate is an inalienable right shared by all.
“As a mother and a citizen of Lafayette, I’m tired of state and local governments and corporations telling me that I have no rights to prevent my community from being poisoned by fracking. I will protect my family from toxic industry coming into my backyard, and I am standing up for health and safety and my right to local self government.”
– Kristin McLean, mother, Lafayette resident
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Impact of our Consumption
When we think about global warming many of us immediately think about cars and industry ruining the planet, but does this tell the whole story? While transportation, including travel by road, sea and air, contributes over 13% of our annual CO2 emissions there is another factor, which we may not initially consider, but which has a bigger impact.
Figures highlighted by Farm Machinery Locator show that there are nearly 8.3 million cows in the UK alone; cattle which provide us with hundreds of thousands of litres of milk and thousands of pounds worth of beef every day. We often assume that agriculture is natural and therefore can’t be damaging to the environment, but that assessment is wrong.
– See more at: https://www.farmmachinerylocator.co.uk/impact-of-our-consumption/#sthash.9qDMD4ts.dpuf
Thanks James Smith for pointing this insightful page out!