santa monica

=RoN<h4 style="font-size: small; margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.6; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">United States[</h4>At the local level dozens of ordinances with rights of nature provisions have been passed as of 2019 throughout the United States, and in tribal lands located within the U.S. boundaries.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_nature#cite_note-Kauffman&Sheehan_2019-100" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[99]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_nature#cite_note-Brown_2019-136" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[135]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_nature#cite_note-Pax_2019-137" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[136]</a> Most were passed in reaction to a specific threat to local well-being, such as threats posed by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrofracking" class="mw-redirect" title="Hydrofracking" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">hydrofracking</a>, groundwater extraction, gravel mining, and fossil fuel extraction. For example, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh" title="Pittsburgh" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">Pittsburgh</a>, Pennsylvania passed an anti-fracking law that included the following provision to buttress protections: "Natural communities and ecosystems... possess inalienable and fundamental rights to exist and flourish." The ordinance continues that "Residents... shall possess legal standing to enforce those rights."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_nature#cite_note-Perkins_2017-138" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[137]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_nature#cite_note-Tanasescu_2016-139" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[138]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_nature#cite_note-Sheehan_2015-41" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[40]</a><div class="thumb tright" style="font-size: small; clear: right; float: right; margin: 0.5em 0px 1.3em 1.4em; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="thumbinner" style="min-width: 100px; border: 1px solid rgb(200, 204, 209); padding: 3px; background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); text-align: center; overflow: hidden; width: 222px;">
<div class="thumbcaption" style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 3px; text-align: left;"><div class="magnify" style="float: right; margin-left: 3px; margin-right: 0px;"></div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Monica_State_Beach" title="Santa Monica State Beach" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">Santa Monica State Beach</a> - in 2013 the city adopted a "Sustainability Rights Ordinance",<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_nature#cite_note-Santa_Monica_Ordinance_2013-140" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[139]</a> recognizing the "fundamental and inalienable rights"<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_nature#cite_note-Santa_Monica_Ordinance_2013-140" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[139]</a> of "natural communities and ecosystems"<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_nature#cite_note-Santa_Monica_Ordinance_2013-140" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[139]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_nature#cite_note-Sheehan_Winter_2019-22" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[21]</a></div></div></div>Residents in Santa Monica, California proactively sought to recognize nature's rights in local law after the U.S. Supreme Court's expansion of corporate rights in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FEC" title="Citizens United v. FEC" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">Citizens United v. FEC</a>. In 2013 the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Monica_City_Council" title="Santa Monica City Council" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">Santa Monica City Council</a> adopted a "Sustainability Rights Ordinance",<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_nature#cite_note-Santa_Monica_Ordinance_2013-140" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[139]</a> recognizing the "fundamental and inalienable rights"<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_nature#cite_note-Santa_Monica_Ordinance_2013-140" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[139]</a> of "natural communities and ecosystems"<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_nature#cite_note-Santa_Monica_Ordinance_2013-140" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[139]</a> in the city to "exist and flourish".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_nature#cite_note-Santa_Monica_Ordinance_2013-140" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[139]</a> The ordinance emphasized that "[c]orporate entities... do not enjoy special privileges or powers under the law that subordinate the community's rights to their private interests".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_nature#cite_note-Santa_Monica_Ordinance_2013-140" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[139]</a> It specifically defined "natural communities and ecosystems" to include "groundwater aquifers, atmospheric systems, marine waters, and native species".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_nature#cite_note-Santa_Monica_Ordinance_2013-140" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[139]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_nature#cite_note-Sheehan_Winter_2019-22" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[21]</a> Santa Monica updated its Sustainable City Plan in 2014 to reinforce its codified commitment to nature's rights. In 2018, the city council adopted a Sustainable Groundwater Management Ordinance that specifically referenced the inherent rights of the local aquifer to flourish.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_nature#cite_note-Sheehan_Winter_2019-22" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[21]</a><div>=</div>