This article by David Webber was published in The Missourian on, March 8th, 2019.

The Lake Erie Bill of Rights, adopted by voters in Toledo, Ohio, last month, establishes the right of citizens to sue polluters of Lake Erie for damages to the lake itself. It establishes “legal rights for nature.”

At first blush, this sounds wacky, but the more one thinks about it, the idea makes sense. Adoption of this statewide, nationwide and worldwide would be a rather orderly way to protect our common resources by closing one on the chief loopholes in the free enterprise system that has resulted in large-scale environmental destruction.

Lake Erie has been suffering from algae blooms — massive growth of oxygen-hungry plants fueled by fertilizer runoff from hundreds of farms, some small family farms, some large agribusinesses. People who live near or fish in Lake Erie see the loss of lake vitality.

Farmers don’t mean harm; they are just farming. But they are also generating “spillovers” or “externalities” because they cannot capture the runoff from their land and remove the fertilizer whose sole purpose is to stimulate plant growth, regardless if it is on crop land or in Lake Erie.

“Legal rights for nature” does not mean Lake Erie must hire lawyers. It means a citizen could ask a court to recognize him, her or them as the legal guardian for Lake Erie, just as adults often are the legal guardians of children under 18 or their aging parents.

Since the beginning of time, humans have often used public space and public resources as their own. Back in the olden days, citizens allowed their sheep and cattle to graze on public land, took fish from a public stream and collected mushrooms from public land. MORE…