Legal Stewards of the Land - MD HB 1053 and SB 824

The law is a most conservative body. For example, it will not let me sue you unless I can prove that what you are doing - or planning to do - directly threatens to harm me. In other words, I need standing, locus standi, in order to legally thwart your plans and stand in your way.

That sounds fair, when it comes to the things I want to wear or the religion I choose to believe in.
But what about when it comes to the earth? Can I sue to prevent you from clear-cutting your property even if I live dozens, or hundreds, of miles away? Can I prevent you from burying toxins on your land when I never go near there? Can I prevent you from building in sensitive areas that can destroy fragile ecosystems that I do not own and might never see?

The question boils down to: who owns the earth and its precious resources like land, air, water and who has the right to protect it?

On the one hand, the earth belongs to all of us. What you do there affects me here, and what I do here affects you there. On the other hand, if we all could sue everyone over every act of development, the courts, and our neighborhoods, would be locked in interminable battles. (Though the lawyers among us might be happy.)

There are currently 44 states in the United States that have found a way around this conundrum. They allow certain individuals and organizations to have standing in the state courts to fight against violations of our environmental laws. Maryland is not yet among them. There is, however, a way now to remedy that:

Senate Bill 824 and House Bill 1053: Community Environmental Protection Act of 2009

These bills are currently in their respective Environmental Matters Committees. If passed by both chambers, these bills will allow certain individuals and organizations to be designated as having legal standing to sue in Maryland courts on behalf of the earth, and you and me.

If indeed we believe what we teach, that humans have the obligation to tend well to the earth; and if we wish to act according to what we know, that all the earth is connected and what we do in one place affects the health of people and the ecosystem hundreds even thousands of miles away, then we need these bills. We are the stewards of the earth, and we therefore need the legal standing to be its legal guardians.

This effort is also a Maryland League of Conservation Voters priority. As they say, "We urge Maryland to follow the current national trend and expand a citizen’s right to a day in court."

Please support these bills. Go to www.mdlcv.org to see how you can help.

On hospitality

With the most dire economic projections suggesting that perhaps 50 million people world-wide may be out of work in the depths of this depression, now might be a good time to talk about hospitality.

To many of us, hospitality is some vague social nicety that encourages us to open our doors to dinner guests and occasional meetings, card games or book clubs. It might mean welcoming family for weekend visits, holiday meals, or family reunions, and if you are in the more observant community, it might mean putting up strangers who are visiting your shul for a family simcha. In fact, those are valuable social niceties that multiply and enrich, in small ways, life's social encounters and strengthen the knitting of society.

But now is when we will learn the true meaning of hospitality, the way it is understood in desert communities, or was practiced among the "overlanders," the intrepid Americans who traveled from Missouri to settle on the west coast in the mid-1800's, or in any society or migrant population when scarcity and dislocation rudely reared up.

To us, hospitality means sharing a bit of our excess. When we expect guests, we prepare and shop for more. When they stay over, we offer a guest room. Our stores are not usually diminished, our portion is not truly burdened, when we extend our hand and home in hospitality. Most often, though not always, we offer hospitality on our schedule. Some of us may feel a little put out, or may sense some invasion of privacy. But these are conceits and blessings of luxury and muchness. For, in fact, most of us can afford the space, the time and the money. to be hospitable. It is a small badge of honor we still cherish. And we know the guests will leave soon.

But in this economic climate, when people are losing their homes and their jobs, hospitality may be pressing instead of optional. Family and friends may need to take guests in. Our guests might be able to pay or they may not. There might be an end date in sight or there may not. And while our guests may be grateful, they may not be gracious. For they may come with emotional baggage filled with loss, embarrassment, guilt and anger.

That is when the true test of hospitality begins. When we are asked to bring others into our sphere, allow them to share our limited supply of food and space and time. It does not mean that our guests have no obligation to give back to us. They may assist in the home-work when they are with us. Or they may not, being overwhelmed at the moment. They may return our kindness to us years from now. Or they may repay our generosity by showing the same to others.

Or perhaps even this picture is too rosy. Perhaps we will not be the hosts pressed into service for our loved ones. Perhaps we will be the supplicants, the reluctant guests needing to live off the generosity of others. It is intriguing that the words guest and host come from the same root, as if to reinforce the fact of their mutuality, reciprocity. That is, not only do I need a guest to make me a host (hence, mutuality) but while today I am the host, tomorrow I may need to be the guest (hence, reciprocity). Such awareness arouses my humility and my patience, no matter which side of the equation I am on at the moment.

We are living in a time that will challenge us all. It will challenge our generosity, our sense of entitlement, our boundaries, our sense of self. It will ask us to think deeply about what is truly ours; how much we truly need; what is best, and rightly, shared. It will ask us to judge ourselves and others more grandly than by our income and what we crudely call "worth". It will ask us to measure life by the truer standards of goodness and joy and satisfaction.

Perhaps, then, in this dark time, we will learn to be guided by the gentler lights of simple joy and the elegance of enoughness that have been outshone by the blinding glare of the rush for more. If so, that would be a lesson we can all take to the bank.

green stimulus

For those of you who do not regularly read Grist (one of the best green news services), here is a rundown of the green items in the proposed stimulus package:

The $789 billion economic-recovery bill looks good in terms of green spending, according to preliminary analysis from the Center for American Progress. The House and Senate reached agreement on the bill on Wednesday and are expected to approve it by the end of the week; President Obama hopes to sign it into law by Presidents' Day.

The bill contains at least $62.2 billion in direct spending on green initiatives and $20 billion in green tax incentives, while funding for nuclear and coal projects was dropped from the final version. Here's the breakdown:


Energy transmission and alternative energy research:

$11 billion for smart grid
$7.5 billion for renewable energy and transmission-line construction
$400 million for the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Project Agency for Energy for the development of alternative energy sources and efficiency
Efficiency:

$4.5 billion for energy-efficiency improvements to federal buildings
$6.3 billion for local government energy-efficiency grants
$2.25 billion for energy-efficiency retrofits for low-income housing
$2.25 billion for the HOME Investment Partners Program to retrofit community low-income housing
$5 billion for the Weatherization Assistance Program for efficiency in low-income households
$510 million for energy-efficiency retrofits for Native American housing programs
$420 million for energy-efficiency improvements at the Department of Defense
$300 million for Department of Defense research on energy efficiency at military installations
$300 million for the appliance rebate program for Energy Star products
Mass transit and advanced automobiles:

$8.4 billion for transit capital assistance programs
$8 billion for Amtrak and intercity passenger rail
$300 million for the purchase of more alternative-fuel and hybrid vehicles for the federal fleet
$300 million in grants and loans for technologies that reduce diesel emissions
Green jobs training:

$500 million for green jobs programs through the Workforce Investment Act

Most "enviros," as the motley collection of green movement advocacy leaders are called, are very pleased.

I will be back with my more personal blogs very soon! Meanwhile, at least there is a green lining in this sad economic climate we find ourselves in.