I keep warning that the “nature rights” movement is taking off and nobody takes notice. Santa Monica has now enacted a resolution declaring, in essence, that “nature” has a right to life. From the Santa Monica Lookout story:
Santa Monica’s City Council voted on Tuesday to recognize the rights of natural communities to exist. The resolution, drafted by the Task Force on the Environment, calls for Santa Monica to “recognize the rights of people, natural communities, and ecosystems to exist, regenerate and flourish,” according to City Staff.
Note that the resolution, like similar ones passed elsewhere by USA municipalities, elevates the “rights” of natural communities and ecosystems to co-equal status with those of people. These resolutions also grants the right to sue to enforce nature rights to everyone and anyone. The city could promote a restrictive development policy, if that was the goal, without diminishing the rights of man to the level of the local clams and sand crabs.
But it is too late for that anyway. I was raised and lived in LA until I was 42. I know Santa Monica very well. The city is already developed to the hilt and is decidely high end. I guess to protect the rights the sand dabs and resident mackerel, they’ll tear up the huge beach parking lot, destroy the pier, and uproot beautiful Palisades Park so the “natural communities” can reestablish the bluff above the Pacific to its pre-development state. Right! And watch land values and revenues drop like a stone thrown in the ocean. What hypocrites.
