We all have the right to clean air

By Tom Politeo

As witnesses to the maladies caused by industrial blight and free-wheeling global trade, we hold these truths to be self evident.
All people have the right to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and make their homes in neighborhoods that are secure from environmental blight, pollutants, hazards, and catastrophes. We have the responsibility, to ourselves and future generations, to leave the earth as healthy, robust, and biologically diverse as we received it.
These rights and responsibilities belong equally to all people regardless of race, ethnicity, wealth, status, sex, creed or location.

The environmental movement is rooted in the appreciation and science of nature and in human rights and responsibilities as they relate to the natural world. Of these, our rights to live in a clean environment are often overlooked or viewed as privileges rather than rights.
It is an abrogation of basic human rights when we expect one neighborhood to shoulder the environmental burden for industrial facilities that “benefit” the region or nation. It is no different than asking a neighborhood to give up its right to free speech for the benefit of the nation.
The fundamental human right to breathe clean air is as basic as our right to free speech, and it cannot be put on the bargaining table for the greater good. Once there, it ceases to be a human right. It becomes nothing more than a human privilege—one which only the privileged and fortunate can afford.
But the bargaining table is exactly where industrial interests have put environmental rights. It is in their economic interest to do so, and they distort reality to have us believe their economic interest coincides with the greater good of the nation.
In the harbor area for example, polluters (including government bureaucrats) have called on citizens to “shoulder the burden for the benefit of the nation and world trade.” This shameless spin is repeated near shipping centers around the country.
Now we are faced with sobering news that Southern California air may cause more cases of cancer and asthma in 25 years than it does now. We are faced with new challenges to the safety of our neighborhoods with hazards like super-sized liquefied natural gas plants. The Bush administration may enable more power plants to burn coal and release mercury into the air. International treaties and trade organizations, like NAFTA and the WTO, threaten to further erode our environmental rights.
When we stand up for our environmental rights, we help make the world safer to live in and we help develop a more democratic and egalitarian society.
It is time for a never seen before firmness in the environmental movement. We must be heard. Our environmental rights must be so clear and universally accepted that no one dare mention trading environmental rights for corporate profits, national convenience, or international policy. It is up to us.

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