Spring is around the corner! You might very well know that yard and home toxics damage the health of you, your family, community and watershed. The Poison Papers have proof how the chemical industry and regulators hide toxicity information from the public.
The big question is “What will it take to connect and empower our communities in the pursuit and enforcement of laws that protect them, Community Rights Laws?”.
SCCR is proud to promote a program by NCAP – Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides: Central Puget Sound Water Stewards.
This community campaign is focused on improving the health of our watersheds and keeping chemical pesticides from entering Puget Sound, by engaging community members on alternative yard care practices. We want you to talk with your neighbors and friends about using less pesticides in their yards! This campaign includes community organizations, cities, counties, watershed management organizations and watershed districts. More information in the post.
On October 15, 16 and 22, 23 at 10 am-12:30 pm, Snohomish County Community Rights (SCCR) will host the 4-day Online Democracy School by Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF).
Democracy School is a stimulating and illuminating virtual course that teaches residents and activists an empowering new approach about how to reframe exhausting and often discouraging single-issue work – such as banning pesticides, halting overdevelopment, protecting water and watersheds, and addressing climate change – in a way that we can confront corporate control and government interference on a powerful front: the people’s right of local self-governance and Nature’s rights.
Educating yourself and your community is one of the most powerful steps toward change you can make. Your active support and engagement are critical and greatly appreciated. A brighter, healthier future for yourself, your children, community and the Earth depend on your active efforts.
On September 16 at 7 pm, please join Edmonds Community Rights (ECR) for the RON-Movie Viewing and Discussion.
We will focus on a concept of Rights of Nature, where it came from, current status, highlights, future developments and a close connection between Rights of Nature (RON) and Community Rights (CR).
Your voice is important to us. Please bring your questions and concerns.
On August 25 at 7 pm, Gold Bar Community Rights (GBCR) will host an online workshop by Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) “Community Rights: Why and How Communities Building Democracy”.
“This past November, Ecuador’s Constitutional Court ruled in favor of the Los Cedros Cloud Forest ecosystem and local communities’ rights over the rights of a foreign mining corporation. Truly a seminal case for legal rights of nature, the court addressed the regulatory permitting process, the precautionary principle, biodiversity, community input into the decision-making process, and how human rights to clean water and a healthy environment are completely tied to the rights of the ecosystem and nature.”
Rights of Nature (RON) is a simple concept and dates at least half a century back. Including in local and national legislations the legal right to exist, flourish and regenerate is a foundation for protection of ecosystems – such as the Salish Sea and its watershed – from abuse, unlimited extraction, destruction, toxic contamination and extinction.
Human communities are parts of ecosystems. Healthier ecosystems mean healthier communities.
Please share: On May 26 at 7 pm, Gold Bar Community Rights (GBCR) will host an online information workshop about pesticide spraying 2022 on local industrial tree plantations in the Skykomish River Watershed and safety for residents and communities.
We will discuss spraying practices, chemicals, documents, drift and what we can do to have a safer and healthier community and ecosystem.
Please share: On June 9 at 6 pm, Snohomish County Community Rights (SCCR) will host an online Rights of Nature (RON) workshop by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) “Emancipating Nature: Securing legal rights for ecosystems”.
The workshop will cover the following:
> What is rights of nature?
> Where did it come from?
> Current status and highlight moments.
> The good, the bad, and the ugly – the need to protect rights of nature principles.
> The horizon for rights of nature laws.
Please share: pregnant women, babies and young children are the most sensitive to toxic chemicals for home, lawn and yard care. So are pets, domestic animals and wild life. Pesticides drift in air and water contaminating entire watersheds and neighborhoods.
We encourage you to use alternative methods for healthier family, community, ecosystem and watershed.
Work on including Rights of Nature in constitutions, national statutes, and local laws has been done internationally for decades. “Rights of Nature Law and Policy” page at the Harmony and Nature United Nations has a comprehensive list of events.
http://www.harmonywithnatureun.org/rightsOfNature
“The law has seen the beginning of an evolution toward recognition of the inherent rights of Nature to exist, thrive and evolve. This evolving legal approach acknowledges that the traditional environmental regulatory systems generally described herein regard nature as property to be used for human benefit, rather than a rights-bearing partner with which humanity has co-evolved.
Rights of Nature is grounded in the recognition that humankind and Nature share a fundamental, non-anthropocentric relationship given our shared existence on this planet, and it creates guidance for actions that respect this relationship.”
This is Rocky the eco-dog. Rocky does not like animal abuse, trash and toxic chemicals.
Rocky was twice at an emergency vet clinic after toxic sprays near his home. Pesticides drift in air and water and contaminate entire watersheds and neighborhoods.
Please reduce, reuse, recycle and use alternative methods for pesticides and other home, yard and lawn chemicals.
Eco-friendly Products and Practices:
Please share: Spring is here! For your yard, garden and home, it is best to use alternative and eco-friendly methods and products. Look at the labels and check ingredients. So that you, your family, community, and watershed are more healthy.
Ecuador’s highest court has ruled that plans to mine for copper and gold in a protected cloud forest are unconstitutional and violate the rights of nature.
In a landmark ruling, the constitutional court of Ecuador decided that mining permits issued in Los Cedros, a protected area in the north-west of the country, would harm the biodiversity of the forest, which is home to spectacled bears, endangered frogs, dozens of rare orchid species and the brown-headed spider monkey, one of the world’s rarest primates.
On November 12, 6 pm at the SCCR quarterly meeting, Dr. Kriss Kevorkian will have a presentation “Environmental Grief, Ecocide and the Rights of Nature”.
Dr. Kevorkian will discuss how her research in environmental grief led her to discover the healing that comes with taking action to save our Mother. This unique form of grief is as much a paradigm shift in mental health as the rights of Nature are in the law.
Snohomish County Community Rights 