Title of Article:
“Legal Rights for Lake Erie? Voters in Ohio City Will Decide” (The New York Times)
Citation:
Williams, Timothy. “Legal Rights for Lake Erie? Voters in Ohio City Will Decide.” The New York Times, 17 February 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/02/17/us/lake-erie-legal-rights.html.
Main Ideas:
- Who: Voters in Toledo, Ohio
- What: Voters will decide if legal rights of existing, flourishing, and evolving belong to Lake Erie
- Why: Environmental issues like algae blooms and farm runoff pose threats to Lake Erie that disrupt the ecosystem and prevent citizens from receiving clean water
- When: Special city election on February 26, 2019
- Where: Toledo, Ohio
- How: Voters will answer the ballot question on granting legal rights to Lake Erie at the special city election
Impact:
- The ballot question is a result from efforts showing that current environmental protection laws are insufficient in protecting nature and ecosystems.
- The proposed bill would allow people to sue polluters of the lake based on its legal right “to exist, flourish, and naturally evolve.”
- While paving the way for other elements of nature to gain legal rights, the bill would also harm the local economy by closing local farms and costing the city money to defend the bill in court without the guarantee that it will survive legal review.
Relevance to course:
- This article discusses the granting of legal rights to elements of nature, which we recently discussed in class.
- The article also mentions the interconnectedness of different aspects behind the proposed bill, such as the need for greater environmental protection along with the potential negative effects on the local economy.
Questions raised:
- Will the proposed bill be passed by the citizens on the special election?
- If it is passed, will it survive legal review?
- What is the timeframe of undergoing legal review?
- How will this impact Toledo’s local economy?
- How will this impact other areas of the country if the bill is passed?