[CRNMC] FW: Community Rights and Wrongs by Randi Covin

[Shannon Biggs]

Hi all, 

I see there is a LTE in the Willits paper. Please please please media team I
suggest you coordinate a response any takers or Peter, perhaps you want to
respond since it was your letter she refers to? I’m happy to edit a letter
if anyone is willing to write it I have suggested some talking points below.
Don’t let this LTE stand un-answered!
See you all this weekend!

Community Rights and Wrongs
To the Editor:
In last week’s paper, Peter Norris wrote about the
Community Rights Network of Mendocino County
(CRNMC) and its signature gathering campaign. CRNMC
has proposed a local ordinance to ban fracking and create
a “Community Bill of Rights,” bestowing legal rights on
“[a]ll residents, natural communities and ecosystems in
Mendocino County ... to water, air and soil that is untainted
by toxins, carcinogens, particulates, nucleotides, and
hydrocarbons introduced into the environment through
unconventional extraction of hydrocarbons.”
I think we can agree that it is good to have clean water,
soil and air. I am a lifelong moderate environmentalist,
and I support reasonable environmental regulations.
Fracking can not be regulated safely.
 But almost all human activity has some effect on the natural
environment. I believe environmental concerns must be
balanced against other human needs – for homes, heat,
fuel, roads, jobs, computers and food, for instance.
Which are all pretty much meaningless if the ecosystem means you can’t live
there. IN PA, where fracking has been destroying communities’ ecosystems
since 2009, some towns can no longer drink their water, and in fact the
saying goes that fracking arrived to PA and brought with it herds of water
buffalos to every community. (Water buffaloes are the water tanks covered in
white that thousands of individuals must use now that their private wells
have been contaminated).
 
I am wary of environmental campaigns that seek to elevate
the “rights” of trees, plants and wildlife over the rights of
humans. We humans are part of nature, and we have a
right to live, too.
 
The ordinance does not suggest that elements of the environment are above
people – but rather recognizes our dependence on a healthy ecosystem. It
does not speak to the rights of individual  “trees plans or wildlife” as the
author suggests, but rather offers our community additional protection from
fracking by saying that if we find fracking waste in the land or soil from
fracking outside the county, we can sue on behalf of the health of the
community and ecosystem. Individual trees rocks, or any species do not have
representation in this ordinance, it is the ability for the ecosystems to
continue their vital cycles (upon which all residents depend) that is
protected. That’s pretty solid scientifically—in order for us to thrive, we
must live in a healthy ecosystem. But even more than that, this ordinance
doesn’t outlaw ANYTHING but fracking.
 
 
I am very wary of the proposed Community Rights ordinance for Mendocino
County because it would allow
any resident of the county to sue any government or private
entity for perceived environmental impacts on any “natural
community” – which includes any “wildlife, flora, fauna, soil
and air-dwelling and aquatic organisms....”
 
Again, this is not true. the ordinance only bans fracking, fracking waste
disposal, or water theft for fracking.
 
The proposed 
ordinance would also provide for recovery of expert and
attorneys fees and litigation costs by any resident who
sues on behalf of a tree or a frog harmed by someone.
 
Not true. 
 
 
I am afraid of fracking. I have read enough about it to know
it seems horribly dangerous to the environment, to wildlife
and to humans. I would sign a petition to enact an anti-
fracking ordinance in Mendocino County. But I am also
afraid of overzealous environmental activists who might
use the proposed ordinance to disrupt local life and cost us
all a whole lot of money.
 
Partners CELDF and GX have pledged to provide legal support to defend the
ordinance. The only threat to disrupting local life related to this
ordinance is FRACKING.   This ordinance puts the community in charge of the
decision about fracking which as been left to fracking corporations and the
state legislature, who have yet to protect communities form fracking. The
time has come to stand up for ourselves and write new laws that ensure that
decisions about fracking are made ONLY by the people who must bear the brunt
of fracking’s harms.
 
Before signing CRNMC’s petition, I urge everyone to read
the proposed ordinance on their website (www.crnmc.org)
and try to imagine the worst possible effects if even one
unreasonable resident of Mendocino County wishes to
sue the county or private parties for some small perceived
harm to nature
We also urge people to learn about the ordinance for themselves, and
understand that while the ordinance contains a bill of rights (Much like the
US Bill of rights), the prohibition is specific to fracking, like the US
Bill of Rights says we have a right to bear arms, but states and localities
prohibit say, individuals from rolling down the street in an armoured tank.
We stand as a community for our right to determine our quality of life and
to protect our local water from becoming a sacrifice zone for corporate
profit. We have an obligation in fac, to protect our community. We hope you
will learn about the ordinance and vote yes! for our local right to ban
fracking! 


------ Forwarded Message
From: Peter Norris <petersnorris at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2014 13:41:29 -0700
To: Shannon Biggs <shannon at globalexchange.org>
Subject: Fwd: Community Rights and Wrongs by Randi Covin


Dear Shannon,
  Here is the link to the op-ed page.
​  Scroll down to page 2.  ​

http://www.willitsweekly.com/documents/WillitsWeekly_06052014_Pages.pdf

  I'm excited about this weekend.

  In Gratitude, Peter


Peter Scott Norris 707.456.9968 <tel:707.456.9968>
The thought manifests as the word; The word manifests as the deed; The deed
develops into habit, And habit hardens into character. So watch the thought
and its ways with care, And let it spring from love born out of concern for
all beings.



------ End of Forwarded Message

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