I live in an ESHA and I’m proud of it. It’s not a four-letter word to me but a symbol that declares “I honor the Earth and its denizens and I’m willing to sacrifice some of my personal rights to protect the sanctity of the land and all the creatures that depend on it.” This should be our first land/ethical consideration in Malibu. My property isn’t ON an ESHA, it’s IN it. It is a part of the Malibu ECO system that I bought here and have lived in for almost 20 years. It is my responsibility to protect it, not harm it or diminish it. It’s time to declare that justice extends to the protection and honoring of our Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Areas: the ocean and fish, terrestrial creatures, soil and natural plants, open space and mountains: the very web of life.
Who are we to arrogantly declare that we have property rights first and above other important considerations? No one in Malibu really “owns” his or her land anyway. We stole it from the Chumash Indians a long time ago. We have dug up and paved over their burial grounds and vilified their sacred earth in the name of ego, development, profit and the cancer of population growth. Native People lived in harmony and balance with the Earth. We can still learn from the so-called primitives. ESHA will help instruct us.
My close friend and colleague, Roderick Frazier Nash (former head of the Environmental Studies Department at UC Santa Barbara), makes a powerful statement in his seminal book, “The Rights of Nature.” He declares that emerging today is the belief that justice and ethics should expand from a preoccupation with humans to a concern and respect for the total natural community. Can we do so in time? The Eco-clock is ticking while the human race is overwhelming the resources of our Earth Home. Property rights or the rights of nature? It is Earth in a dance with the chaos of Mankind.
We have time to analyze and confront the Coastal Commission’s Land Use Plan for Malibu, much of which includes extremely important resource protections. Admittedly, it is often filled with long-winded legalese (I would prefer to read a nature novel by Peter Dixon). The final decision for its implementation will be drawn up in September. Between now and then there will be public hearings here when our voices can be raised in support of it, or for additions or oppositions to some of its provisions.
Ronn Hayes