Tom, it’s called the Community Bill of Rights/Rights of Nature and over 200 communities across our country have begun this movement with the help of CELDF. See: https://celdf.org for more information.
Their mission:
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) is building a movement for Community Rights and the Rights of Nature to advance democratic, economic, social, and environmental rights – building upward from the grassroots to the state, federal, and international level.
Our mission is to build sustainable communities by assisting people to assert their right to local self-government and the rights of nature.
Opinon: Be a ‘climate lobbyist’
EDITOR: Why do we have to wait for 2020 to let Mother Nature in our elections (“Imagine if Mother Nature gets a vote in 2020,” Sunday)? I’m tired of having to pull out that Martian-looking respirator, or stay inside, on all these unhealthy, smoky air days. And, of course, there are much larger areas of California suffering more direct effects of the fires. Even the big, glossy insert from PG&E gave a hint: “California confronted 7,117 wildfires in 2017 compared to an average of 4,835 wildfires in the previous 5 years.”
Come on candidates, media and all you voters. Let’s put Mother Nature on the ballot now. Let’s stop killing our atmosphere and oceans. Make human survival an election issue. Let’s not play dumb or helpless on this. It’s amazing how this most critical issue of all is hardly talked about. Speak up, and let your representatives know that they need to speak up. Become a climate lobbyist.
TOM HELM
Santa Rosa