LETTERS: PACT ALLOWS ENVIRONMENTAL LAWSUITS

To the editor:

In the interest of ongoing public awareness, society needs to realize that the environment is not in peril, and environmentalism has become the greatest peril of all.

Today, many are concerned over gross abuses of power by the EPA, IRS, BLM, Fish and Wildlife and other bureaucracies. But wait till you hear what Clinton and Gore, prodded by green groups, have in the works for us next.

A new United Nations Covenant on Environment and Development, being readied since 1989, would make provisions of Agenda 21, adopted in Rio, international law, allowing anyone or any nation to sue any person, nation or corporation for environmental damages in a United Nations international court.

For example, a small island nation could sue America for what it claims are damages from flooding and rising sea levels due to El Nino and global warming caused by our industrial emissions.

Or United Nations inspector could arrest you for collecting feathers which drop in your yard from migrating birds protected by international treaty. You can forget trial by jury. A United Nations tribunal would hear your case and sentence you, possibly in Europe or South America.

The Natural Streams Act, which turns out to be the tip of the iceberg, stated that any passerby could sue any property owner for any reason, aesthetic or otherwise. The environmentalists have expanded the definition of passerby to mean that anybody in the world would be able to sue you. Forewarned if forearmed.

ED STEWART

Middlebrook