The Green Amendment by Maya K. van Rossum

 

Summary (Amazon): For decades, activists have relied on federal and state legislation to fight for a cleaner environment. And for decades, they’ve been fighting a losing battle. The sad truth is, our laws are designed to accommodate pollution rather than prevent it. It’s no wonder people feel powerless when it comes to preserving the quality of their water, air, public parks, and special natural spaces.

But there is a solution, argues veteran environmentalist Maya K. van Rossum: bypass the laws and turn to the ultimate authority—our state and federal constitutions.

In 2013, van Rossum and her team won a watershed legal victory that not only protected Pennsylvania communities from ruthless frackers but affirmed the constitutional right of people in the state to a clean and healthy environment. Following this victory, van Rossum inaugurated the Green Amendment movement, dedicated to empowering every American community to mobilize for constitutional change.

Now, with The Green Amendment, van Rossum lays out an inspiring new agenda for environmental advocacy, one that will finally empower people, level the playing field, and provide real hope for communities everywhere. Readers will discover:

• how legislative environmentalism has failed communities across America,
• the transformational difference environmental constitutionalism can make,
• the economic imperative of environmental constitutionalism, and
• how to take action in their communities.

We all have the right to pure water, clean air, and a healthy environment. It’s time to claim that right—for our own sake and that of future generations.

Author's Site: http://www.mayavanrossum.green/

Reviews:

Kirkus: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/maya-k-van-rossum/green-amendment/

Maryland considering adopting a Green Amendment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99jXgqNCJis

Quotes: 
"Water is more important than gas."

"Over a ten year period, when comparing an equal weight of the two gases (carbon dioxide and methane), methane is 100 times more powerful in trapping heat in the Earth's atmosphere."

"In 2011, the prestigious journal Climatic Change published their paper (R.W. Howarth, R. Santoro and A. Ingraffea, "Methane and the Greenhouse Gas Footprint of Natural Gas from Shale Formations.") and its startling conclusion: natural gas, harvested from shale, was worse for the climate than coal."

"You have a right to pure water, clean air and a healthy environment. This right is inherent and indefeasible. It belongs to you."

PA State's Constitution Environmental Rights Amendment: 

"The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people."  https://conservationadvocate.org/pennsylvanias-environmental-rights-amendment/

Interviews: 

WNYC: Radio Interview: https://www.wnyc.org/story/how-environmental-laws-can-protect-people-not-polluters/

Delaware Riverkeepers: http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/

For the Generations website: http://forthegenerations.org/

DISCUSSION MEETING PLACE LOCATION FOR THIS MONTH: Bucks County Audubon Society Visitor Center at Honey Hollow Environmental Center at 2877 Creamery Road, New Hope 18938, starting at 6:15 p.m.

Discussion Questions: 

1. Despite states having environmental right amendments, such as here in PA, why do we continue to have to battle oil, gas and chemical companies for clean water, etc.? (p. 15, 82-)

2. Discuss some of the critical environmental issues, highlighted by the author and many of which are local to PA and the area, including stories about fracking, pipeline construction and infrastructure, water contamination and excessive real estate development (PennEast pipeline, p. 122, DuPont, p. 134, Bishop’s Tube in Chester, p. 174, PFOS water contamination in Warrington, Warminster, p. 154, etc.).

3. What are some of the statistics that surprised you, such as perhaps, methane’s impact on the climate(p. 88), mineral rights, water use for fracking (p. 73, 79), % of Americans wanting the environment protected (p. 217), etc.

4. Discuss a state versus a federal constitutional environmental amendment, their role and significances. (p. 12)

5. Discuss the different players, who make powerful decisions about our resources each day: DRBC, FERC, EPA, NEUP(108). There are many acronyms and what do they all mean?

6. Laws don’t ban pollution or development, but because of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, a permit is now needed to do so. (p. 42) Discuss the different chemicals that are dumped into our environment legally or illegally: PFOA, PFOS (153), PCB (141), TCE (175).

7. In the final chapter, the author discusses how states can create or strengthen environmental provisions for their state constitutions. Pennsylvania already possesses environmental provisions, but is of varying strength and rigor. What are some actions needed to strengthen our provision here in PA? (See page 9-10, 62, Chapter 2) This is what it states as of 1971, Article 1, Section 27–the Environmental Rights Amendment:

“The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.”

8. What are some actions, that each of us can take, to help secure our rights to a clean environment?

Please feel free to bring your own questions to our discussion on April 26 at 6:15 p.m. at the Bucks County Audubon Society’s Honey Hollow Environmental Center and/or also to ask Maya after her presentation and book signing on May 5, 1:00 p.m. at the Doylestown Bookshop.

(http://news.kgnu.org)