This Guest Column by Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch originally appeared in TCPalm on October 26, 2017. The article is viewable below, following a critique of it (in bold italics) by our own Paul Cienfuegos…

We in the Community Rights movement would disagree with the author’s claim that the US or Florida Constitutions “protect our essential rights”. The US Constitution is primarily a document protecting the rights of those who hold property or wish to engage in commerce. The Florida Constitution isn’t much better. Under either constitution, it’s still fundamentally illegal for any of Florida’s municipal governments to pass an ordinance that prohibits various corporate sectors (commercial, industrial, or agricultural) from harming the community’s human and other inhabitants.
 
Yes, it would be a worthwhile step forward to add to the Florida Constitution language that affirms “Floridian’s right to a clean and healthful environment”. But what would be even more effective is to add language that affirms enforceable rights of nature for Florida’s diverse ecosystems. Legally enforceable Rights for Nature is long overdue, and is becoming ever more common in various US towns and cities, and is even embedded in Ecuador’s new federal constitution. How crazy that we’re supposed to respect constitutional rights for business corporations, while actual living beings possess no similar protections. For more information about this fast growing international movement, visit the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature.

Just like the U.S. Constitution, the Florida Constitution protects our essential rights as Florida citizens, such as religious freedom and due process of law. Some may argue that our rights as Floridians are sufficiently covered under the existing Florida Constitution. However, I think the definition of our “rights” as citizens is evolving.

That’s especially true in Florida, which is known across the world for beautiful beaches and natural springs; the quality of our environment is inextricable from our quality of life and identity as Floridians. As a Republican and former mayor of Sewall’s Point in Martin County, I don’t think this is a partisan issue. Rather, environmental degradation is the great dilemma of our time. MORE…