Gas drilling is not a harmless activity. Read all of the latest available facts. There are enough to fill volumes. The issue goes deep - to the very essence of our American values, to our so-called "inalienable rights." But whose rights?

The question is, do individual property owners have the right to allow their land to be used in ways that pollute our shared air and soil, subject our water to chemical contamination, industrialize our landscape, kill off our wildlife, subject us to excessive noise and light, disrupt our daily activities, compromise our health, decrease our property values and diminish our quality of life?

Some people believe that their property rights give them absolute control over what’s “theirs.” They think that they can do anything with their land, even if those actions hurt others.

Private property rights are being used and abused to harm our environment. However, traditional property rights do not include uses that unreasonably adversely impact the property rights of another private party (the right of quiet enjoyment) or uses that unreasonably interfere with public property rights, including uses that denigrate public health, safety, peace or convenience.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote "The first person who, having enclosed a plot of land, took it into his head to say "this is mine" and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society. What crimes, wars, murders, what miseries and horrors would the human race have been spared, had someone pulled up the stakes, filled in the ditch and cried out to his fellow men: 'Do not listen to this impostor. You are lost if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong to all and the earth to no one!" -read entire article

• endangered species • evironmental concerns • cultural and historic resources

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