INTRODUCTION:

As new technologies open dimensions of nature such as the air spectrum to human use, cascades of biological and cultural changes are set into motion that rarely receive public notice or due consideration. All too often, unacceptable dead body counts or irreversible losses must occur before the public wakes up and acts.
The Public Trust Doctrine is a philosophy and body of law with roots in the earliest beginnings of western civilization that provides us with a powerful, proactive alternative.
Throughout history, the Public Trust Doctrine has recognized that certain elements of nature—such as air and water—are so essential to life that they ought to be held in and governed as a "public trust."
State government agencies designated as trustees of water or air, for example, cannot give away the public's heritage or allow it to be trafficked in the same way as ordinary property. Additionally, the doctrine provides the legal framework for the public to reclaim its water or air if trustees should act inappropriately by mistreating or giving away these public domains.
In legal terms, the public interest in the corpus (body or subject) of the trust exceeds private interests. Mere economic use of trust resources is very deliberately omitted from protection. The doctrine recognizes that the the longterm health of an ecological system—and human communities living within it—cannot be tied to values set by market pricing.
In a wireless age, the Public Trust Doctrine offers an adaptive legal framework for recognizing, defending, and supervising the ecology of the air for longterm public benefit. It forces us to ask questions about the interests of current and future generations that are based in the physical and biological conditions created by and within the electromagnetic spectrum.
What do we know about introducing unprecedented levels of electromagnetic fields (emf) into the air around us? How does the Public Trust Doctrine enable appropriate institutional response and public action?
Read: "The Public Trust Doctrine" and "The Public Trust in Action." Related: Soundscapes, EMF Science, EMF Research and Politics, and Eco-Phenomenology.

"The Public Trust Doctrine"

Essay: HTML / PDF
Ask:Your questions here.

MICHAEL WARBURTON, JD is Executive Director of the Public Trust Alliance, a non-profit specializing in public trust advocacy. He was educated at UC Berkeley, with a BS in Political Economy of Natural Resources and a JD from Boalt Hall Law School. Much of his early life was spent mountain climbing in Alaska, the Andes, Soviet Central Asia, and the Himalayas. In Nepal 1980, his life was saved by sherpas who carried him nearly 100 miles. In gratitude, he returned to help in remote villages and, subsequently, co-authored an orthodox-shattering book on environmental problem-solving: Uncertainty on a Himalayan Scale (with anthropologist Michael Thompson); republished 2007.

IFI NETWORK INVITATIONSRecommended Electromagnetic Detectors

Educators & Students: How does your study of the Public Trust Doctrine (PTD) advance understanding of public interests in the ecology of the air? Who are the protectors of the public trust (trustee agencies) in your state? What questions and hypotheses do you propose for researching electromagnetic fields (EMF) in your home, classroom, and community?
Physics/Biology/Ecology Students & Researchers: What systemic changes are occuring with changing levels of EMF? What disjunctures exist between physics, biology, and ecology in our understanding of EMF and bio-effects?
Environmental Sociology/Human Ecology/Political Ecology: What ecological/developmental/political changes are associated with technological uses of the air spectrum? How do these changes reveal longterm public interests? Which theories and methodologies are useful; and why?
Law: How is the Public Trust Doctrine tied to Environmental Justice? Does the defense of longterm public claims bring traditionally disenfranchised communities into mainstream society? What uses of the Public Trust Doctrine do you see for public planning and policy-making in your city, county, state? How can assemblies of current "stakeholders" protect public interests of future generations? How does PTD's shift of burden of proof bring science toward greater understanding of public interests?
Philosophy: How does the Public Trust Doctrine advance distinctions between prudence and ethics?
Open Category: Propose ideas for projects that advance public awareness and uses of the Public Trust Doctrine.