Proposed State Constitutional Amendments
Current statewide
efforts of FL5.org are underway to amend the Florida State Constitution
to grant legally recognized rights to Florida’s waterways and the right to
clean water to Floridians. The drive to collect 900,000 signed petitions for
each of the five proposed Right to Clean Water/Rights of Nature amendments
seeks particularly to put them on the 2022 ballot.
The amendments,
which are described on the FL5.org website, are designed to recognize
that people and Florida’s waterways have the right to clean water; increased
protection for Florida’s iconic animal species, specifically the Florida black
bear, Florida panther, manatee, key deer, Florida scrub jay, bald eagle,
red-cockaded woodpecker, bottlenose dolphin, right whale and marine turtles;
ban captive wildlife hunting; increase protection for wetlands; and prohibit
construction or expansion of toll roads on conservation and rural lands. Says
Florida Rights of Nature Network (FRONN) Director Chuck O’Neal, “The mission is
daunting, but doable. We need every Floridian with a voter registration card to
download and print the petition, sign, date and mail it within 30 days of
signing.”
FRONN is
associated with the Rights of Nature (RON) worldwide movement seeking to
legally recognize the entitlement of ecosystems to exist, flourish and evolve
naturally; the inalienable rights of human beings to clean air, clean water and
healthy ecosystems; and the constitutional authority of local governments to
declare and defend these rights.
The current
regulatory system regards natural property as a simple commodity. Granting
legal rights to nature provides it and its human guardians the standing to
defend the natural world in court. "Rights provide the highest level of
protection under law,” remarks O’Neal. At present, Florida’s waterways only
have legal rights in Orange County, where on November 3, FRONN’s campaign for a
Right to Clean Water Charter Amendment ended in bipartisan success with 89
percent of voter approval.
Download
petitions at FL5.org. Print. Sign. Mail to FL5.org, 555 Winderley Pl., Ste.
300, Maitland, FL 32751.
