The Green Amendment
Securing Our Right to a Healthy Environment
Maya K. van Rossum
The Constitutional Change We Need to Protect Our Priceless Natural Resources
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.
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.
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.
"Constitutional protection of natural and human communities may be our best hope for survival."
"A rallying cry not only for conservationists and wildlife biologists, but for pediatricians, teachers, psychologists, architects, city planners—everyone who is concerned about the welfare of all species, including human beings. Please read this important book."
"The Green Amendment asks us to imagine a world in which the right to pure water and healthy air exist on par with due process and free speech--and then shows us how to make it so."
"If we were writing our Constitution for the first time today, wise leaders would surely insert protections for our environment."
". . . you will be inspired by the notion, transformed into a call for a constitutional amendment, that we, the people, have always had more power than we thought."
About The Author
Maya K. van Rossum is an attorney and veteran environmentalist. As the Delaware Riverkeeper since 1996, she serves as an advocate championing the rights of all the communities—human and non-human—that depend upon the river.
van Rossum was one of the original petitioners in the landmark 2013 case Robinson Township, Delaware Riverkeeper et. al. v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which breathed legal life into the state’s long ignored Environmental Rights Amendment. In the wake of that victory, van Rossum created the Green Amendment For The Generations organization and sparked a nationwide movement.
In 2002, van Rossum founded the River Resources Law Clinic, which accepts legal interns from multiple law schools looking for a hands-on opportunity to use their skills to protect and defend our environment.
van Rossum grew up in the Delaware River watershed and lives there today with her family.
Press
- The Tom Sumner Program: Interview with Maya van Rossum
- WHYY: A Green Amendment: the right to a healthy environment
- WNYC Midday: How Environmental Laws Can Protect People, Not Polluters
- Greenwire: This scrappy enviro can take punch — literally
- ThinkProgress: The radical movement to make environmental protections a constitutional right
- Kirkus Reviews: The Green Amendment
- SiriusXM: The Morning Briefing with Tim Farley
- Bustle: In 'The Green Amendment,' Activist Maya K. Van Rossum Argues That A Healthy Environment Is An Inalienable Right
