EcoWatch, in partnership with Waterkeeper Alliance, works to unite the voice of the grassroots environmental movement and mobilize millions of people to engage in democracy to protect human health and the environment.
This website is the only media source to focus exclusively on the news from more than 1,000 environmental organizations worldwide. In addition, the site showcases original content in its Insights column from leading national voices in the environmental movement, including EcoWatch’s advisory board members—Wendy Abrams, Ed Begley, Jr., Lester Brown, Laurie David, Paul Hawken, Randy Hayes, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Phil Radford, Laura Turner Seydel and Harvey Wasserman.
This website is a dedicated and neutral platform for grassroots environmental organizations that helps transform the ability of individuals to learn about environmental issues and take action. This news service provides timely access to relevant information that will motivate individuals to become engaged in their community, adopt sustainable practices and support strong environmental policy.
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The fundamental responsibility of government is to protect the commons—resources that are not readily reduced to private property but by their nature belong to the community—on behalf of all the people. And, the best measure of how a democracy functions is how it distributes the goods of the land. Does it keep the public trust assets, the commons, in the hands of all the people, rich and poor alike, or does it allow them to be privatized and concentrated in the hands of a few wealthy or influential individuals?
If we want to meet our obligation as a generation, a nation, as a civilization to provide our children with the same opportunities for dignity and enrichment as our parents gave us, we must start by protecting our infrastructure, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the wildlife, the public lands that enrich us, that connect us to our past, to our history, that provide context to our communities, that are the source ultimately of our values, our virtues and our character as a people.
The commons are held in trust by the government for the people. They help define us as a community. They underpin our economy and culture and are the source of economic vitality. The first sign of tyranny is government’s complicity in privatizing the commons for private gain. Since the public trust is our community’s life support system, its theft is arguably the gravest threat to human rights.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
