r-10654City Council Meeting January 24, 2012 Santa Monica, California
RESOLUTION NUMBER 10654 (CCS)
(City Council Series)
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL
OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA DECLARING THE CITY'S COMMITMENT TO
SUSTAINABLE RIGHTS
WHEREAS, the City of Santa Monica recognizes the following rights of the
people of Santa Monica: the right to clean, affordable and accessible water from
sustainable water sources for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes; the
right to a sustainable energy future based on sustainable renewable energy sources;
the right to a sustainable natural climate unaltered by fossil fuel emissions; the right to
sustainable, comprehensive waste disposal systems that do not degrade the
environment; the right to clean indoor and outdoor air, clean water and clean soil that
pose a negligible health risk to the public; and the right to a sustainable food system
that provides healthy, locally grown food to the community; and
WHEREAS, the City of Santa Monica recognizes the rights of natural
communities and ecosystems within Santa Monica to exist, thrive and evolve; and
WHEREAS, because the City of Santa Monica recognizes that its future welfare
depends upon the welfare of the natural environment, the City has long been committed
to protecting, preserving and restoring the environment; and
WHEREAS, the City's Sustainable City Plan declares that a healthy environment
is integral to the City's long -term economic and societal interests and that, accordingly,
the City's decision - making will be guided by the mandate to maximize environmental
benefits and reduce or eliminate negative environmental impacts; and
WHEREAS, the Sustainable City Plan also establishes that, because local
environmental issues cannot be separated from their broader context, the City's
programs and policies should be developed as models that can be emulated by other
communities; and
WHEREAS, in furtherance of these commitments and goals, the City must
regularly evaluate whether its plans, laws, and programs are sufficient to meet the
growing environmental crisis; and
WHEREAS, it has become apparent that existing local, national and international
policies and laws in general have proven to be fundamentally inadequate to ensure
environmental sustainability, and that the growing environmental crisis necessitates re-
examination of the underlying societal and legal assumptions about our relationships
with the environment; and
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WHEREAS, in the last fifty years, national and state governments have
attempted to address the mounting crisis by adopting specific environmental protection
laws, such as the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, National Environmental Policy Act
and California Environmental Quality Act, that limit pollution and resource consumption;
but those laws also have proven inadequate to provide long -term protection of our rights
to clean air, water, and soil, and sustainable food systems, and the rights of natural
ecosystems; and
WHEREAS, our current legal system classifies the natural world as human
property, which may be used by its human owners for their own, private economic
benefit, generally with minimal regard for the health of the environment; and
WHEREAS, with the exponential growth of the human population and increasing
per capita resource consumption rates, human consumption of the Earth's natural
resources has intensified to the point that the planet lacks the capacity to sustain man's
current way of life and is responding in ways destructive to most organisms on the
planet; and
WHEREAS, to address the crisis, the world -wide, national and local
environmental communities are urging governments to adopt a new paradigm based
upon recognition that people have fundamental environmental rights, as do natural
communities and ecosystems, that the. health of the world's populations and
ecosystems depends on the full protection of these rights, and that asserted corporate
rights cannot take precedence over these rights to human and environmental health and
well- being; and
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WHEREAS, there are numerous examples of policy statements and laws based
on this new paradigm that recognize the rights of the natural world to exist, thrive and
evolve; and
WHEREAS, Ecuador amended its constitution to include the rights of nature in
2008, with the first successful case applying that right concluding in March 2011; and
WHEREAS, in December 2010, the City of Pittsburgh became the first major city
in the United States to adopt a Community Bill of Rights that bans corporations from
drilling natural gas within its city limits and elevates the rights of people, the community,
and nature over corporate rights; and
WHEREAS, the City of Spokane placed a similar measure on its ballot that would
have, among other things, amended the City Charter to establish the right of the
Spokane River and Aquifer to exist and flourish, and to empower both individuals and
the City to sue to enforce these rights; and
WHEREAS, other municipalities in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maine, Maryland, New
Hampshire, and New York have adopted similar measures recognizing the rights of
people and natural communities and including language that would subordinate the
rights of corporations to local sustainability efforts; and
WHEREAS, Santa Monica's own Task Force on the Environment has studied
this growing movement and recommended that the City support it as a means of
effectuating the commitments and goals already established by the Sustainable City
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Plan, and of recognizing the inherent rights of the people and natural communities of
the City of Santa Monica.
NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA
DOES RESOLVE AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The City of Santa Monica recognizes the following rights of the
people of Santa Monica: the right to clean, affordable and accessible water from
sustainable water sources for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes; the
right to a sustainable energy future based on sustainable renewable energy sources;
the right to a sustainable natural climate unaltered by fossil fuel emissions; the right to
sustainable, comprehensive waste disposal systems that do not degrade the
environment; the right to clean indoor and outdoor air, clean water and clean soil that
pose a negligible health risk to the public; and the right to a sustainable food system
that provides healthy, locally grown food to the community.
SECTION 2. The City of Santa Monica supports local recognition of the
fundamental rights of natural communities and ecosystems to exist, thrive and evolve.
SECTION 3. The City of Santa Monica supports effectuating these rights by
modifying local law and policy as needed to better protect and sustain, for current and
future generations, the natural environment upon which we all depend.
SECTION 4. The City Council of the City of Santa Monica directs staff to return
during 2012, in conjunction with the update of the Sustainable City Plan, with proposals
for policy, process and legal changes, including a possible ordinance that would protect
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the inherent rights of the people and natural communities of this City to clean air, water
and soil, and to a sustainable climate, as described in this Resolution.
SECTION 53he City Clerk shall certify to the adoption of this Resolution, and
thenceforth and thereafter the same shall be in full force and effect.
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
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Adopted and approved this 24th day of January, 2012.
Richard Bloom, Mayor
I, Denise Anderson - Warren, Acting City Clerk of the City of Santa Monica, do
hereby certify that the foregoing Resolution No. 10654 (CCS) was duly adopted at a
meeting of the Santa Monica City Council held on the 24th day of January, 2012, by the
following vote:
Ayes: Councilmembers:
Noes: Councilmembers:
Holbrook, McKeown, O'Day, Shriver
Mayor Pro Tern Davis, Mayor Bloom
None
Absent: Councilmembers: O'Connor
ATTEST:
Denise Anderson - Warren, Acting City Clerk