In this powerful and far-reaching indictment of George W. Bush’s White House, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the country’s most prominent environmental attorney, charges that this administration has taken corporate cronyism to such unprecedented heights that it now threatens our health, our national security, and democracy as we know it… –from the book jacket.
Robert Kennedy Jr. says we the people have the right to protect our commons.
See also: Sarah van Gelder. TruthOut. May 27, 2010. “Protecting our Water Commons: Interview with Robert Kennedy Jr.”
van Gelder: How important is the public trust doctrine in enforcing the idea that the waters are a commons and that ordinary people have a right to it?
Kennedy: There are two ancient laws that underlie all modern environmental laws: One is the nuisance doctrine that essentially says you can use your property any way you want, but if you pollute and it escapes your property and goes onto somebody else’s property, you’re violating the law.
The other is the public trust doctrine, which says you can’t do anything that is going to diminish the commons, which includes any property that is not susceptible to private property ownership, like air, water, the fisheries, wetlands, wildlife, the wandering animals, rivers, streams, shorelines, aquifers, underground rivers, etc. Everybody has the right to use the commons, but nobody can use them in a way that diminishes their use and enjoyment by others.
This is ancient law that goes back to Roman times when every citizen—rich or poor, humble or noble, African or European—had a right to cross the beach, throw in a net, and take out a share of the fish. And the emperor himself couldn’t stop them.
The first thing that happens in a tyranny is the privatization of the public trust by powerful entities…
See also: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Feb. 19, 2004. The Nation. “The Junk Science of George W. Bush”.
See also: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Mobilizes on Mountaintop Removal
See also: Mountaintop Removal Redux: Bobby vs. Blankenship II
See also: New Starpower in the Fracking Fight
See also: Barlow, Maude. 2009. Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water. The New Press, June 1.
See also: Ivins, Molly. Bushwhacked : Life in George W. Bush’s America. 2003. 1st ed. New York: Random House.
See also: Shnayerson, Michael. Coal River. 2008. 1st ed. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, January 8.
See: Flow – The War Between Public Health and Private Interests
See: Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water
