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Short Stuff: Lake Erie's Rights · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Ahoy, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck, and I am a born and raised Toledo
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: win So I am in a very peculiar position to
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: speak about this peculiar meaning special in every way, and
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I get to show off my slack. Yeah you pink boy,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna kick back and just listen. Did you ever
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: get that key to the city? No, I have not,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: and it bothers me every night while I'm trying to sleep.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Weren't you offered or No? There was a Toledo and
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I don't remember his name, but he was a dedicated stuff.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: You should know listener some years back who said I
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: am going to get Josh the key to the city,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: and you too. I believe um. He was working very
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: hard to make it happen, got in touch with some
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: local politicians I think was brushed off, and then you
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: know called it today. So that moment happens where like
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: you and I are standing at the hotel check in
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: and they look at you and they go, are you
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: going any two keys? And you look at me and
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I wouldn't mind a key? Sure, yeah, I
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: guess too. But but this will be on a podium
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: with the mayor. Well, maybe I think that you should
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: have the key and and cut with the giant scissors. Okay,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: and I'll just be there and support you. Well either way.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: I mean I would be more than happy to share
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: the key to the city with you. I mean everything
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: that we've done with stuff you should know we've done together.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: So yeah, but I'm not but you could be an
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: honorary citizen too. Let's move on from this petty dispute. Wait,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: wait a minute, I'm not done yet. All right, we
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: are talking about Toledo today because Toledo, my hometown, did
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: something pretty amazing a few years back, and as far
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: as I can tell, they are still very much working
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: on it. Right. I love this idea and spirit. The
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature a k a.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: GARN is a network of organizations and people from more
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: than a hundred different countries that are are actually pushing
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: for legals, bodies, and systems around the world to recognize
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: nature and ecosystems as having rights. Yes, which you're like, what,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: that's stupid. Consider this. Corporations are considered artificial people under
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: the law. They have a lot of the same rights. Yeah,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: they have a lot of the same rights as you
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: and me. So if corporations can have personal rights, why
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: shouldn't nature. It makes even more sense to me than
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: a corporation having personal rights. And that's kind of the
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: push and the the angle that people are coming from
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: is like, look, this thing is being harmed, and sometimes
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: it can be really difficult to show you have standing
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: which means you are being directly harmed by say, polluting
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: into like erie um. And it would be much easier
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: to like get something done through the courts if this
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: thing that was actually suffering the harm the body of waters,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: say like like yerie had those rights, because then you
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: could see on its behalf in court. Yeah. I love
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: this idea, like where the ecosystem is the actual injured party,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: but when it clearly is. But yeah, because it is
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Ecuador has done this or that they were the first
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: country to recognize rights of nature in their actual constitution
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: in two thousand eight. Uh and it is quote it
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: means nature has quote the right to exist, persist, to
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: maintain and regenerate its vital cycles. It seems like a
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: no brainer. No, it really unforced. Nature has the right
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: to do that. Ye oh, Bolivia as well in two
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: thousand ten with their Universal Declaration of the Rights of
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Mother Earth was adopted there, so that this is actually
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: happening at places in the world. Yeah, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Toledo,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Ohio basically are the leaders in this, and so the
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: the whole thing with Toledo started um after I think
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: in August of two thousand fourteen, there was a terrible
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: incident where there was a cyanobacteria algae bloom and Ciana
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: bacteria is very much toxic to humans, and it got
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: into the water intake crib uh in Lake Erie that
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: supplies Toledo with its um stock for the water that
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: it sends through its taps too people's homes, and for
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: three days, the people of Toledo could not bathe, they
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: had no water to drink, they couldn't cook, they had
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: no water all of a sudden for three days until
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: the water company could figure out what to do about this.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: People are having across state lines to get bottled water.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: It was a nightmare. It was a mess, and that
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: really prompted some people to get involved and be like, Okay,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: enough is enough. That's those algae blooms are not supposed
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: to be happening there the result of irresponsible fertilizing practices
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: by local industrialized agricultural groups that are polluting the lake
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: through runoff, and we're all suffering from this. We need
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: to figure out what to do that's right. And we'll
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: take a break right now and talk about a great
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: toledo In an American named Marky Miller right after this. Well,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: now we're on the road driving in your truck. Want
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: to learn a thing or two from Josh dam Chuck
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: stuff you should know, all right, all right, Josh Clark
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: one great Toledo win. Markey Miller another great toledo In. Yeah,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: I think between me and Markey Miller, Markey Miller should
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: probably get the key to the city. Jamie far great
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: to lead. And Jamie Farr was really from Toledo, right, Yeah,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: he really was. It wasn't just part of Klinger's character.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: He really was. He always talked about Tony Pacos, which
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: is still around. I love it. So mar Key Miller
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: is a long time to Ledowin, who after this water
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: fiasco got fed up and started trying to get some answers,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: went to the town hall meetings, said all the things
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: as a citizen that you can do and they like,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: how can we, you know, make sure this doesn't happen again,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: And they basically said, let's move forward about mitigation, but
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: we don't really want to talk about what caused this
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: in the first place, Like let's just kind of brush
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: that under the rug. And Markey Miller said, no, not
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: good enough yet yet. And so Markey Miller in her
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: late twenties started attending these meetings with and getting kind
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: of people kind of riled up on her side. And uh,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: they named themselves the Toledo Wins for Safe Water. And
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: this eventually led to what's known as drawing up the
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Lake Eerie Bill of Rights. Handful of people saying that
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: they're fed up and this lake, this exquisite, great lake,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: actually needs to be protected with its own bill of rights. Yes, um,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: And what one of the said things about Lake Erie
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: is like it used to be really bad off, like
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: it was not a thing that you want to swim in,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: which coincidentally was the time when I was swimming in
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Lake Erie as a kid. But I remember catching fish
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: and like some guy going past out to the lake
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: on his boat and my dad and I fishing on
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: this channel and him being like, do not eat that
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: like just throw it back. And I remember being like,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: what is this guy talking about? My dad's like, yeah,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: we really shouldn't eat the fish out of here. Raster stripe. Right,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: it was still alive in my mouth. Um. But but
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: but lake Erie got cleaned up. It was a success story.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: And then now it's getting repolluted again. So that makes
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: it even more tragic, and it makes that campaign for
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: the Lake Area Bill of Rights like even more vital.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: And it wasn't just Markey Miller and the Toledo Wins
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: for Safe Water who were all about protecting Lake Erie.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: They had to get a bunch of signatures to get
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: a to get on a petition to have a bill
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: introduced to be put up to a vote on how
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: to protect Lake Eries rights. And they got I think
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: double the amount needed of signatures to get the petition
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: on the ballot. Easy, peasy, lemon squeeze. Everybody's on board.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Everybody wants to support uh lake Erie and get it
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: cleaned up and give it its own Like let's let's
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: get a lawsuit going on behalf of Lake Erie. Like
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: how cool is that? Yeah, So they get double the
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: signatures and they knew that was step one and getting
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: it actually to a vote would be tough. And I
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: believe they we're up against you know who. You would
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: think they would be up against these big industrial companies
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: that said no, actually, that'd be really bad for us.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: If we couldn't pollute the lake, would be bad for
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: our business. There was a three hundred thousand dollar anti
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Lee Boar campaign. Um. Even though it passed by in
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: they came out with a victory, a very sad and
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: short lived victory because about twelve hours later, uh an
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: agricultural company, filed a lawsuit against the city and said
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: this law is detrimental to our business. We got to
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: pollute that lake, you guys right. Um. There was a guy,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: the judge in the case, Judge Jack Suhari, basically said, like,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: this is terrible. This is a terrible law that Toledo passed.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: Like it makes sense in its spirit, and like I
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: respected for that, but it was really poorly written. And
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: basically what he said was two fold. One, it's way
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: too vague to be constitutional. He said that you could conceivably,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: under the law, be prosecuted for fishing in Lake Erie. Um.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: A second one is that Toledo extended its protections across
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Lake Erie. Lake Erie is shared by a bunch of
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: different cities from Toledo to Cleveland to Buffalo, New York
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: to Erie, Pennsylvania. They're all on Lake Erie. And this
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: this this the law cross state boundaries and state jurisdictions,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: like like Toledo was the You could you could dump
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: something in Buffalo, New York, and you could be sued
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: in Toledo, Ohio for it because of this law. So
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: it was an overreach, but it was a good first step.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: And I think it shows that the public is like
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: on board with this. It's just that they they we
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: need to figure out how the law needs to be
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: written to to make it survive court challenges. Right. And
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: also and I think, uh, I think Miller is right
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: in in her contention that, like she said, quote, you
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: have to redefine what it means to win. Like, I
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: don't think they thought, well, this is it, We're done.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: They knew it would be short lived, they knew it
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: would probably be overturned. But what it did was make
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: the news. And it's one more step closer to change exactly.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: And so there are UM there are more UM Rights
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: of Nature movement UM movements. I guess that are kind
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: of popping up around the country and around the world, um,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: in places like Hawaii and Florida, like you would expect
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: in Washington State. UM. And it's a I think it's
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: a great way to to I think that's a good
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: direction to be progressing. I think it's a it's I
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: think it's the future. Agreed. Well, cool, Well, there's not
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: much more to say about it right now, but who knows,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: we'll be talking about it hopefully in a few years.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: When is the law of the land across the globe.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: And by the way, we found this article originally on
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: how stuff works and you can go read it there
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: if you like. And with that short stuff is out.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know is a production of I Heart Radio.
• 11:53
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• 11:58
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