Podcasts about green amendment the people's fight

President Biden had to cut a deal with the Republicans to get the debt limit extension passed and avoid an economic catastrophe. But in doing so, he had to water down his climate change initiative…and that's causing a lot of concern among environmentalists. We're going to talk about that today with someone who's in the trenches.Maya K. van Rossum is the Delaware Riverkeeper and leader for the Delaware Riverkeeper Network. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network works throughout the four states of the Delaware River watershed (NY, NJ, PA & DE) and at the national level using advocacy, science and litigation.During van Rossum's 30 years leadin the Network, she and her organization were the lead plaintiffs in a successful case that had the PA Supreme Court breathe legal life into PA's long ignored environmental rights amendment.Now, van Rossum is advancing The Green Amendment movement, seeking to inspire and secure constitutional protection for environmental rights across the nation. On the podcast, she cautions that the budget deal Biden cut with Congressional Republicans will weaken current federal environmental initiatives and jeopardize other critical environmental laws, like the Clean Water Act.van Rossum is author of a book titled “The Green Amendment, The People's Fight For a Clean, Safe & Healthy Environment”.Meanwhile, she's just returned from Montana for a groundbreaking climate trial in which the young plaintiffs argued that Montana officials and agencies must be held accountable for exacerbating the climate crisis and thereby violating their constitutional rights. It marked the first constitutional climate trial in U.S. history.Here are some questions we discussed with Maya:Q. First off, let's talk about that trial in Montana. What's happening and what are the implications?Q. Why were you there?Q. What is a Green Amendment and how does it bring transformational change to environmental protection?Q. Let's talk about the debt ceiling deal and the fallout from that. You've said that it will undermine environmental protection and people's safety. How is that?Q. The deal overhauls the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), rewriting this iconic environmental protection law. What's the problem with that?Q.The debt deal mandates approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. How is that a problem?Q. Tell us about your work with the Riverkeepers and what you do?Q. Let's talk about your book, The Green Amendment: The People's Fight to Secure a Clean, Safe & Healthy Environment, now in it's 2nd edition.This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/4719048/advertisement

As the climate crisis and toxic pollution worsen, environmentalists are using new strategies to challenge the power of the fossil fuel, petro-chemical and other polluting industries. The "Green Amendments" movement would put environmental protection in state and federal, constitutions and make it an unquestionable right. It already exists in three states (Montana, Pennsylvania and New York) and they are working to add it to more state constitutions. In our latest, we talk with Green Amendments founder and Delaware Riverkeeper Maya van Rossum (@MayaKvanRossum) about Green Amendments. Bio// Maya K. van Rossum is the founder of Green Amendments For The Generations, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring passage of Green Amendments in every state constitution across our nation, and also at the federal level when the time is right. She is an environmental attorney, community organizer, and the Delaware Riverkeeper, leading the regional advocacy organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, for over 30 years. . She is author of "The Green Amendment: The People's Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment." -------------------------- Outro// "Be the Rain" by Jean-Luc Le Tenia Links// Green Amendments for the Generations (https://forthegenerations.org/) Green Amendments Will Empower Environmental Protection (https://bit.ly/3Ht9m3B) Delaware Riverkeeper Network (https://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/) Follow Green and Red// G&R Linktree: https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast https://greenandredpodcast.org/ Support the Green and Red Podcast// Become a Patron at https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast Or make a one time donation here: https://bit.ly/DonateGandR **Our friends with Certain Days now have their 2023 calendar available and we bought ten copies. With a $25 (or more) donation to Green and Red, we'll mail you one! Just contact us at greenredpodcast@gmail.com This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969). “Green and Red Blues" by Moody. Editing by Scott.

(Airdate 12/5/22) Maya K. van Rossum is the Founder of Green Amendments For the Generations, a non-profit organization inspiring a nationwide movement to secure constitutional recognition and protection of environmental rights in every state and ultimately at the federal level. van Rossum is also the Delaware Riverkeeper, leading the watershed based organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, for over 30 years in its efforts to protect the health of the Delaware River. She is author of, The Green Amendment: The People's Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment. www.forthegenerations.org

I had a conversation with Maya van Rossum, the author of "The Green Amendment-The People's Fight for a Clean, Safe and Healthy Environment" to talk about how we can be empowered to fight for our rights and use the power of our constitutional rights. Show Links: The Green Amendment Press Release: https://bit.ly/greenamendmentpr Green Amendments for the Generations Website: https://forthegenerations.org/ Delaware Riverkeeper Network: https://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/ Link to Buy The Green Amendment Book: https://amzn.to/3WUGerr

“What is a Green Amendment? It is language that recognizes the rights of all people to clean water and clean air, a stable climate, and healthy environments, and obligates the government to protect those rights and the natural resources of the state for the benefit of all the people in the state, or if it was a federal green amendment in the United States, and they become obliged to protect those environmental rights and those natural resources for the benefit of both present and future generations, that's functionally what it does. But to help people understand what it accomplishes, a green amendment actually obligates the government to recognize and protect our environmental rights in the same, most powerful way we recognize and protect the other fundamental freedoms we hold dear. Things like the right to free speech, freedom of religion, civil rights, and private property rights. We all know how powerfully they are protected from government overreach and infringement. Well, when we have Green Amendments, now the environment and our environmental rights are added to that list of highest constitutional freedoms and protections."Maya K. van Rossum is the founder of Green Amendments For The Generations, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring passage of Green Amendments in every state constitution across our nation, and also at the federal level when the time is right. She is an environmental attorney, community organizer, and the Delaware Riverkeeper, leading the regional advocacy organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, for over 30 years. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network works throughout the four states of the Delaware River watershed (NY, NJ, PA & DE) and at the national level using advocacy, science and litigation to protect the Delaware River and its tributaries. She is the Author of The Green Amendment: The People's Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment.www.ForTheGenerations.orgwww.delawareriverkeeper.orghttps://forthegenerations.org/the-green-amendment/https://twitter.com/MayaKvanRossumwww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.org

Maya K. van Rossum is the founder of Green Amendments For The Generations, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring passage of Green Amendments in every state constitution across our nation, and also at the federal level when the time is right. She is an environmental attorney, community organizer, and the Delaware Riverkeeper, leading the regional advocacy organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, for over 30 years. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network works throughout the four states of the Delaware River watershed (NY, NJ, PA & DE) and at the national level using advocacy, science and litigation to protect the Delaware River and its tributaries. She is the Author of The Green Amendment: The People's Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment."So the first thing I learned is that you need to live what you believe. Whether it's environmental justice, social justice, environmental protection, do whatever you can, live your best life to try to advance that good objective goal and belief. We can all do better in our own personal lives. And that's really important. I think the other thing that I learned, my parents did it in a different way than I do it, but they did it every day - when they saw, just like when I see injustice, no matter how large or how small, they spoke up, and they did something about it. When, you know, it came to my opa, he stood up against the Nazis and did not allow them to take his sons to have to work in service to the Nazi movement.And so did my Tante Truus. My great aunt is recognized with saving on the order of 10,000 children, Jewish children, from the Nazis. With my mom, she had so many beliefs in the importance of living a good life. And so she always carried that forward. Even if it was seeing somebody behaving inappropriately in the supermarket, butting in line, or being unkind to the check register person unnecessarily, my mom was always the first to speak up and say, "Hey, don't do that!" And so I just learned from them by watching them, by being supported by them, that again, you live what you believe and when you see injustice in the world, you do what you can to address it, whether it's large or whether it's small."www.ForTheGenerations.orgwww.delawareriverkeeper.orghttps://forthegenerations.org/the-green-amendment/https://twitter.com/MayaKvanRossumwww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.org

"So the first thing I learned is that you need to live what you believe. Whether it's environmental justice, social justice, environmental protection, do whatever you can, live your best life to try to advance that good objective goal and belief. We can all do better in our own personal lives. And that's really important. I think the other thing that I learned, my parents did it in a different way than I do it, but they did it every day - when they saw, just like when I see injustice, no matter how large or how small, they spoke up, and they did something about it. When, you know, it came to my opa, he stood up against the Nazis and did not allow them to take his sons to have to work in service to the Nazi movement.And so did my Tante Truus. My great aunt is recognized with saving on the order of 10,000 children, Jewish children, from the Nazis. With my mom, she had so many beliefs in the importance of living a good life. And so she always carried that forward. Even if it was seeing somebody behaving inappropriately in the supermarket, butting in line, or being unkind to the check register person unnecessarily, my mom was always the first to speak up and say, "Hey, don't do that!" And so I just learned from them by watching them, by being supported by them, that again, you live what you believe and when you see injustice in the world, you do what you can to address it, whether it's large or whether it's small."Maya K. van Rossum is the founder of Green Amendments For The Generations, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring passage of Green Amendments in every state constitution across our nation, and also at the federal level when the time is right. She is an environmental attorney, community organizer, and the Delaware Riverkeeper, leading the regional advocacy organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, for over 30 years. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network works throughout the four states of the Delaware River watershed (NY, NJ, PA & DE) and at the national level using advocacy, science and litigation to protect the Delaware River and its tributaries. She is the Author of The Green Amendment: The People's Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment.www.ForTheGenerations.orgwww.delawareriverkeeper.orghttps://forthegenerations.org/the-green-amendment/https://twitter.com/MayaKvanRossumwww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.org

Maya K. van Rossum is the founder of Green Amendments For The Generations, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring passage of Green Amendments in every state constitution across our nation, and also at the federal level when the time is right. She is an environmental attorney, community organizer, and the Delaware Riverkeeper, leading the regional advocacy organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, for over 30 years. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network works throughout the four states of the Delaware River watershed (NY, NJ, PA & DE) and at the national level using advocacy, science and litigation to protect the Delaware River and its tributaries. She is the Author of The Green Amendment: The People's Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment."I am hopeful because I see so many people who care and who care deeply and who are really embracing this Green Amendment movement. It's amazing how powerfully it resonates with people because, while they can't get their heads around what does the Clean Water Act say? Or the Clean Air Act say? Or this law or that law, they can get their heads around I have a right to clean water and clean air, and I'm going to advocate for it. And so that's a beautiful, powerful thing. And it's really so empowering to see how people advocate for the environment in general, but also advocate for this Green Amendment movement because the message is so accessible. I also just had this real belief, if I can't be positive and hopeful, what's my option? To become depressed and sit down and shut up? Well, if I sit down and shut up, that's one less voice for the earth. That's one less voice for nature.That's one less voice for victimized people who are being sacrificed to industry. So I don't really feel like I have the luxury of wallowing in defeat or despair and sitting down and shutting up. I feel that I have a duty and an obligation to speak for the Earth. And while fundamentally the Green Amendment movement and constitutional Green Amendments are about the Rights of the People, I believe that by framing our Green Amendments in the way traditional constitutional rights are framed where it is the right of the people, we give so much power to nature because we really are giving the people the power they need to protect our natural resources, to speak in defense of our critters and our wild places and our wild spaces and for future generations to rise up in the most powerful way for our climate. I believe 100% in the Rights of Nature."www.ForTheGenerations.orgwww.delawareriverkeeper.orghttps://forthegenerations.org/the-green-amendment/https://twitter.com/MayaKvanRossumwww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.org

"I am hopeful because I see so many people who care and who care deeply and who are really embracing this Green Amendment movement. It's amazing how powerfully it resonates with people because, while they can't get their heads around what does the Clean Water Act say? Or the Clean Air Act say? Or this law or that law, they can get their heads around I have a right to clean water and clean air, and I'm going to advocate for it. And so that's a beautiful, powerful thing. And it's really so empowering to see how people advocate for the environment in general, but also advocate for this Green Amendment movement because the message is so accessible. I also just had this real belief, if I can't be positive and hopeful, what's my option? To become depressed and sit down and shut up? Well, if I sit down and shut up, that's one less voice for the earth. That's one less voice for nature.That's one less voice for victimized people who are being sacrificed to industry. So I don't really feel like I have the luxury of wallowing in defeat or despair and sitting down and shutting up. I feel that I have a duty and an obligation to speak for the Earth. And while fundamentally the Green Amendment movement and constitutional Green Amendments are about the Rights of the People, I believe that by framing our Green Amendments in the way traditional constitutional rights are framed where it is the right of the people, we give so much power to nature because we really are giving the people the power they need to protect our natural resources, to speak in defense of our critters and our wild places and our wild spaces and for future generations to rise up in the most powerful way for our climate. I believe 100% in the Rights of Nature."Maya K. van Rossum is the founder of Green Amendments For The Generations, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring passage of Green Amendments in every state constitution across our nation, and also at the federal level when the time is right. She is an environmental attorney, community organizer, and the Delaware Riverkeeper, leading the regional advocacy organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, for over 30 years. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network works throughout the four states of the Delaware River watershed (NY, NJ, PA & DE) and at the national level using advocacy, science and litigation to protect the Delaware River and its tributaries. She is the Author of The Green Amendment: The People's Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment.www.ForTheGenerations.orgwww.delawareriverkeeper.orghttps://forthegenerations.org/the-green-amendment/https://twitter.com/MayaKvanRossumwww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.org

Maya K. van Rossum is the founder of Green Amendments For The Generations, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring passage of Green Amendments in every state constitution across our nation, and also at the federal level when the time is right. She is an environmental attorney, community organizer, and the Delaware Riverkeeper, leading the regional advocacy organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, for over 30 years. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network works throughout the four states of the Delaware River watershed (NY, NJ, PA & DE) and at the national level using advocacy, science and litigation to protect the Delaware River and its tributaries. She is the Author of The Green Amendment: The People's Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment."It's very, very important that people are fully informed about what is the current situation when it comes to the environment and environmental impacts within their community. And what does the science say about a proposal that's coming down the pike? It's also very important that they understand the laws that are implicated? What are the agencies that have a role in deciding whether or not they will be exposed to whatever the proposal is that's coming down the pike?But I think also something that's very important, whether people have a Green Amendment or not, is really for them to take into their hearts and their minds this understanding and belief that the right to a clean, safe, and healthy environment is truly an inalienable right that belongs to all people by virtue of the fact that we are here on this Earth.It's not something that government has given to us. Government doesn't give us the right to clean water and clean air. We're born with that. The question is what do we do to protect those environmental rights from harm by industry, by developers, and by unscrupulous lawmakers? One of the things that we do is we try to pass and enforce good laws. The problem is the way all the laws are written nationwide is they really, at the state level and on the federal level, they really start from a place that pollution and degradation is acceptable. And so we need to just manage it, and they manage it by issuing permits that very literally legalize the environmental harm that's about to happen."www.ForTheGenerations.orgwww.delawareriverkeeper.orghttps://forthegenerations.org/the-green-amendment/https://twitter.com/MayaKvanRossumwww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.org

Maya K. van Rossum is the founder of Green Amendments For The Generations, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring passage of Green Amendments in every state constitution across our nation, and also at the federal level when the time is right. She is an environmental attorney, community organizer, and the Delaware Riverkeeper, leading the regional advocacy organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, for over 30 years. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network works throughout the four states of the Delaware River watershed (NY, NJ, PA & DE) and at the national level using advocacy, science and litigation to protect the Delaware River and its tributaries. She is the Author of The Green Amendment: The People's Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment."So the first thing I learned is that you need to live what you believe. Whether it's environmental justice, social justice, environmental protection, do whatever you can, live your best life to try to advance that good objective goal and belief. We can all do better in our own personal lives. And that's really important. I think the other thing that I learned, my parents did it in a different way than I do it, but they did it every day - when they saw, just like when I see injustice, no matter how large or how small, they spoke up, and they did something about it. When, you know, it came to my opa, he stood up against the Nazis and did not allow them to take his sons to have to work in service to the Nazi movement.And so did my Tante Truus. My great aunt is recognized with saving on the order of 10,000 children, Jewish children, from the Nazis. With my mom, she had so many beliefs in the importance of living a good life. And so she always carried that forward. Even if it was seeing somebody behaving inappropriately in the supermarket, butting in line, or being unkind to the check register person unnecessarily, my mom was always the first to speak up and say, "Hey, don't do that!" And so I just learned from them by watching them, by being supported by them, that again, you live what you believe and when you see injustice in the world, you do what you can to address it, whether it's large or whether it's small."www.ForTheGenerations.orgwww.delawareriverkeeper.orghttps://forthegenerations.org/the-green-amendment/https://twitter.com/MayaKvanRossumwww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.org

“What is a Green Amendment? It is language that recognizes the rights of all people to clean water and clean air, a stable climate, and healthy environments, and obligates the government to protect those rights and the natural resources of the state for the benefit of all the people in the state, or if it was a federal green amendment in the United States, and they become obliged to protect those environmental rights and those natural resources for the benefit of both present and future generations, that's functionally what it does. But to help people understand what it accomplishes, a green amendment actually obligates the government to recognize and protect our environmental rights in the same, most powerful way we recognize and protect the other fundamental freedoms we hold dear. Things like the right to free speech, freedom of religion, civil rights, and private property rights. We all know how powerfully they are protected from government overreach and infringement. Well, when we have Green Amendments, now the environment and our environmental rights are added to that list of highest constitutional freedoms and protections."Maya K. van Rossum is the founder of Green Amendments For The Generations, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring passage of Green Amendments in every state constitution across our nation, and also at the federal level when the time is right. She is an environmental attorney, community organizer, and the Delaware Riverkeeper, leading the regional advocacy organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, for over 30 years. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network works throughout the four states of the Delaware River watershed (NY, NJ, PA & DE) and at the national level using advocacy, science and litigation to protect the Delaware River and its tributaries. She is the Author of The Green Amendment: The People's Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment.www.ForTheGenerations.orgwww.delawareriverkeeper.orghttps://forthegenerations.org/the-green-amendment/https://twitter.com/MayaKvanRossumwww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.org

"So the first thing I learned is that you need to live what you believe. Whether it's environmental justice, social justice, environmental protection, do whatever you can, live your best life to try to advance that good objective goal and belief. We can all do better in our own personal lives. And that's really important. I think the other thing that I learned, my parents did it in a different way than I do it, but they did it every day - when they saw, just like when I see injustice, no matter how large or how small, they spoke up, and they did something about it. When, you know, it came to my opa, he stood up against the Nazis and did not allow them to take his sons to have to work in service to the Nazi movement.And so did my Tante Truus. My great aunt is recognized with saving on the order of 10,000 children, Jewish children, from the Nazis. With my mom, she had so many beliefs in the importance of living a good life. And so she always carried that forward. Even if it was seeing somebody behaving inappropriately in the supermarket, butting in line, or being unkind to the check register person unnecessarily, my mom was always the first to speak up and say, "Hey, don't do that!" And so I just learned from them by watching them, by being supported by them, that again, you live what you believe and when you see injustice in the world, you do what you can to address it, whether it's large or whether it's small."Maya K. van Rossum is the founder of Green Amendments For The Generations, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring passage of Green Amendments in every state constitution across our nation, and also at the federal level when the time is right. She is an environmental attorney, community organizer, and the Delaware Riverkeeper, leading the regional advocacy organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, for over 30 years. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network works throughout the four states of the Delaware River watershed (NY, NJ, PA & DE) and at the national level using advocacy, science and litigation to protect the Delaware River and its tributaries. She is the Author of The Green Amendment: The People's Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment.www.ForTheGenerations.orgwww.delawareriverkeeper.orghttps://forthegenerations.org/the-green-amendment/https://twitter.com/MayaKvanRossumwww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.org

“What is a Green Amendment? It is language that recognizes the rights of all people to clean water and clean air, a stable climate, and healthy environments, and obligates the government to protect those rights and the natural resources of the state for the benefit of all the people in the state, or if it was a federal green amendment in the United States, and they become obliged to protect those environmental rights and those natural resources for the benefit of both present and future generations, that's functionally what it does. But to help people understand what it accomplishes, a green amendment actually obligates the government to recognize and protect our environmental rights in the same, most powerful way we recognize and protect the other fundamental freedoms we hold dear. Things like the right to free speech, freedom of religion, civil rights, and private property rights. We all know how powerfully they are protected from government overreach and infringement. Well, when we have Green Amendments, now the environment and our environmental rights are added to that list of highest constitutional freedoms and protections."Maya K. van Rossum is the founder of Green Amendments For The Generations, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring passage of Green Amendments in every state constitution across our nation, and also at the federal level when the time is right. She is an environmental attorney, community organizer, and the Delaware Riverkeeper, leading the regional advocacy organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, for over 30 years. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network works throughout the four states of the Delaware River watershed (NY, NJ, PA & DE) and at the national level using advocacy, science and litigation to protect the Delaware River and its tributaries. She is the Author of The Green Amendment: The People's Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment.www.ForTheGenerations.orgwww.delawareriverkeeper.orghttps://forthegenerations.org/the-green-amendment/https://twitter.com/MayaKvanRossumwww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.org

Maya K. van Rossum is the founder of Green Amendments For The Generations, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring passage of Green Amendments in every state constitution across our nation, and also at the federal level when the time is right. She is an environmental attorney, community organizer, and the Delaware Riverkeeper, leading the regional advocacy organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, for over 30 years. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network works throughout the four states of the Delaware River watershed (NY, NJ, PA & DE) and at the national level using advocacy, science and litigation to protect the Delaware River and its tributaries. She is the Author of The Green Amendment: The People's Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment.“What is a Green Amendment? It is language that recognizes the rights of all people to clean water and clean air, a stable climate, and healthy environments, and obligates the government to protect those rights and the natural resources of the state for the benefit of all the people in the state, or if it was a federal green amendment in the United States, and they become obliged to protect those environmental rights and those natural resources for the benefit of both present and future generations, that's functionally what it does. But to help people understand what it accomplishes, a green amendment actually obligates the government to recognize and protect our environmental rights in the same, most powerful way we recognize and protect the other fundamental freedoms we hold dear. Things like the right to free speech, freedom of religion, civil rights, and private property rights. We all know how powerfully they are protected from government overreach and infringement. Well, when we have Green Amendments, now the environment and our environmental rights are added to that list of highest constitutional freedoms and protections."www.ForTheGenerations.orgwww.delawareriverkeeper.orghttps://forthegenerations.org/the-green-amendment/https://twitter.com/MayaKvanRossumwww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.org

“What is a Green Amendment? It is language that recognizes the rights of all people to clean water and clean air, a stable climate, and healthy environments, and obligates the government to protect those rights and the natural resources of the state for the benefit of all the people in the state, or if it was a federal green amendment in the United States, and they become obliged to protect those environmental rights and those natural resources for the benefit of both present and future generations, that's functionally what it does. But to help people understand what it accomplishes, a green amendment actually obligates the government to recognize and protect our environmental rights in the same, most powerful way we recognize and protect the other fundamental freedoms we hold dear. Things like the right to free speech, freedom of religion, civil rights, and private property rights. We all know how powerfully they are protected from government overreach and infringement. Well, when we have Green Amendments, now the environment and our environmental rights are added to that list of highest constitutional freedoms and protections."Maya K. van Rossum is the founder of Green Amendments For The Generations, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring passage of Green Amendments in every state constitution across our nation, and also at the federal level when the time is right. She is an environmental attorney, community organizer, and the Delaware Riverkeeper, leading the regional advocacy organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, for over 30 years. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network works throughout the four states of the Delaware River watershed (NY, NJ, PA & DE) and at the national level using advocacy, science and litigation to protect the Delaware River and its tributaries. She is the Author of The Green Amendment: The People's Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment.www.ForTheGenerations.orgwww.delawareriverkeeper.orghttps://forthegenerations.org/the-green-amendment/https://twitter.com/MayaKvanRossumwww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.org

Maya K. van Rossum is the founder of Green Amendments For The Generations, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring passage of Green Amendments in every state constitution across our nation, and also at the federal level when the time is right. She is an environmental attorney, community organizer, and the Delaware Riverkeeper, leading the regional advocacy organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, for over 30 years. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network works throughout the four states of the Delaware River watershed (NY, NJ, PA & DE) and at the national level using advocacy, science and litigation to protect the Delaware River and its tributaries. She is the Author of The Green Amendment: The People's Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment.“What is a Green Amendment? It is language that recognizes the rights of all people to clean water and clean air, a stable climate, and healthy environments, and obligates the government to protect those rights and the natural resources of the state for the benefit of all the people in the state, or if it was a federal green amendment in the United States, and they become obliged to protect those environmental rights and those natural resources for the benefit of both present and future generations, that's functionally what it does. But to help people understand what it accomplishes, a green amendment actually obligates the government to recognize and protect our environmental rights in the same, most powerful way we recognize and protect the other fundamental freedoms we hold dear. Things like the right to free speech, freedom of religion, civil rights, and private property rights. We all know how powerfully they are protected from government overreach and infringement. Well, when we have Green Amendments, now the environment and our environmental rights are added to that list of highest constitutional freedoms and protections."www.ForTheGenerations.orgwww.delawareriverkeeper.orghttps://forthegenerations.org/the-green-amendment/https://twitter.com/MayaKvanRossumwww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.org

“What is a Green Amendment? It is language that recognizes the rights of all people to clean water and clean air, a stable climate, and healthy environments, and obligates the government to protect those rights and the natural resources of the state for the benefit of all the people in the state, or if it was a federal green amendment in the United States, and they become obliged to protect those environmental rights and those natural resources for the benefit of both present and future generations, that's functionally what it does. But to help people understand what it accomplishes, a green amendment actually obligates the government to recognize and protect our environmental rights in the same, most powerful way we recognize and protect the other fundamental freedoms we hold dear. Things like the right to free speech, freedom of religion, civil rights, and private property rights. We all know how powerfully they are protected from government overreach and infringement. Well, when we have Green Amendments, now the environment and our environmental rights are added to that list of highest constitutional freedoms and protections."Maya K. van Rossum is the founder of Green Amendments For The Generations, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring passage of Green Amendments in every state constitution across our nation, and also at the federal level when the time is right. She is an environmental attorney, community organizer, and the Delaware Riverkeeper, leading the regional advocacy organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, for over 30 years. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network works throughout the four states of the Delaware River watershed (NY, NJ, PA & DE) and at the national level using advocacy, science and litigation to protect the Delaware River and its tributaries. She is the Author of The Green Amendment: The People's Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment.www.ForTheGenerations.orgwww.delawareriverkeeper.orghttps://forthegenerations.org/the-green-amendment/https://twitter.com/MayaKvanRossumwww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.org

Maya K. van Rossum is the founder of Green Amendments For The Generations, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring passage of Green Amendments in every state constitution across our nation, and also at the federal level when the time is right. She is an environmental attorney, community organizer, and the Delaware Riverkeeper, leading the regional advocacy organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, for over 30 years. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network works throughout the four states of the Delaware River watershed (NY, NJ, PA & DE) and at the national level using advocacy, science and litigation to protect the Delaware River and its tributaries. She is the Author of The Green Amendment: The People's Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment."It's very, very important that people are fully informed about what is the current situation when it comes to the environment and environmental impacts within their community. And what does the science say about a proposal that's coming down the pike? It's also very important that they understand the laws that are implicated? What are the agencies that have a role in deciding whether or not they will be exposed to whatever the proposal is that's coming down the pike?But I think also something that's very important, whether people have a Green Amendment or not, is really for them to take into their hearts and their minds this understanding and belief that the right to a clean, safe, and healthy environment is truly an inalienable right that belongs to all people by virtue of the fact that we are here on this Earth.It's not something that government has given to us. Government doesn't give us the right to clean water and clean air. We're born with that. The question is what do we do to protect those environmental rights from harm by industry, by developers, and by unscrupulous lawmakers? One of the things that we do is we try to pass and enforce good laws. The problem is the way all the laws are written nationwide is they really, at the state level and on the federal level, they really start from a place that pollution and degradation is acceptable. And so we need to just manage it, and they manage it by issuing permits that very literally legalize the environmental harm that's about to happen."www.ForTheGenerations.orgwww.delawareriverkeeper.orghttps://forthegenerations.org/the-green-amendment/https://twitter.com/MayaKvanRossumwww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.org

“What is a Green Amendment? It is language that recognizes the rights of all people to clean water and clean air, a stable climate, and healthy environments, and obligates the government to protect those rights and the natural resources of the state for the benefit of all the people in the state, or if it was a federal green amendment in the United States, and they become obliged to protect those environmental rights and those natural resources for the benefit of both present and future generations, that's functionally what it does. But to help people understand what it accomplishes, a green amendment actually obligates the government to recognize and protect our environmental rights in the same, most powerful way we recognize and protect the other fundamental freedoms we hold dear. Things like the right to free speech, freedom of religion, civil rights, and private property rights. We all know how powerfully they are protected from government overreach and infringement. Well, when we have Green Amendments, now the environment and our environmental rights are added to that list of highest constitutional freedoms and protections."Maya K. van Rossum is the founder of Green Amendments For The Generations, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring passage of Green Amendments in every state constitution across our nation, and also at the federal level when the time is right. She is an environmental attorney, community organizer, and the Delaware Riverkeeper, leading the regional advocacy organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, for over 30 years. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network works throughout the four states of the Delaware River watershed (NY, NJ, PA & DE) and at the national level using advocacy, science and litigation to protect the Delaware River and its tributaries. She is the Author of The Green Amendment: The People's Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment.www.ForTheGenerations.orgwww.delawareriverkeeper.orghttps://forthegenerations.org/the-green-amendment/https://twitter.com/MayaKvanRossumwww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.org

Maya K. van Rossum is the founder of Green Amendments For The Generations, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring passage of Green Amendments in every state constitution across our nation, and also at the federal level when the time is right. She is an environmental attorney, community organizer, and the Delaware Riverkeeper, leading the regional advocacy organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, for over 30 years. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network works throughout the four states of the Delaware River watershed (NY, NJ, PA & DE) and at the national level using advocacy, science and litigation to protect the Delaware River and its tributaries. She is the Author of The Green Amendment: The People's Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment.“What is a Green Amendment? It is language that recognizes the rights of all people to clean water and clean air, a stable climate, and healthy environments, and obligates the government to protect those rights and the natural resources of the state for the benefit of all the people in the state, or if it was a federal green amendment in the United States, and they become obliged to protect those environmental rights and those natural resources for the benefit of both present and future generations, that's functionally what it does. But to help people understand what it accomplishes, a green amendment actually obligates the government to recognize and protect our environmental rights in the same, most powerful way we recognize and protect the other fundamental freedoms we hold dear. Things like the right to free speech, freedom of religion, civil rights, and private property rights. We all know how powerfully they are protected from government overreach and infringement. Well, when we have Green Amendments, now the environment and our environmental rights are added to that list of highest constitutional freedoms and protections."www.ForTheGenerations.orgwww.delawareriverkeeper.orghttps://forthegenerations.org/the-green-amendment/https://twitter.com/MayaKvanRossumwww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.org

Maya K. van Rossum is the Founder of Green Amendments For the Generations, a grassroots non-profit organization inspiring a nationwide movement to secure constitutional recognition and protection of environmental rights in every state and ultimately at the federal level. Maya is the author of The Green Amendment: Securing Our Right to a Healthy Environment, and the follow up book The Green Amendment: The People's Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment, which will be released in November 2022. Continue reading Maya's bio at ASustainableMind.com/100 Today's Sponsors: Wren helps you calculate your carbon footprint and then go carbon neutral by investing in environmental projects across the globe. Sign up and take the carbon footprint quiz at Wren.co/ASM and get 10 extra trees planted in your name! Brooklyn Candle Studio specializes in hand-crafted eco-friendly luxury candles. Get 20% off with the promo code SUSTAINABLE20 at BrooklynCandleStudio.com! In this episode, Marjorie and Maya discuss: Is our environment actually protected under current legislation? States that are getting environmental protection right and why The one thing you should always do when speaking to local and state officials about the importance of environmental protections…hint: it involves the Constitution! Maya's new book! Resources mentioned in today's episode: Maya's first book: The Green Amendment: Securing Our Right to a Healthy Environment Maya's first ASM appearance: ASustainableMind.com/026 TerraCycle, global leader in recycling hard-to-recycle materials: TerraCycle.com TerraCycle founder Tom Szaky on ASM: ASustainableMind.com/027 Book: The Last Train to Lon­don: A Novel by Meg Waite Clayton, purchase at JewishBookCouncil.org Book: Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, purchase at Ishmael.org Last Child In the Woods by Richard Louv, purchase at RichardLouv.com Connect with Maya and The Green Amendment Team: Website: ForTheGenerations.org/the-green-amendment/ Website: DelawareRiverkeeper.org LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/maya-van-rossum-21803114/ Twitter: @GreenAmendments Instagram: @GreenAmendments Connect with Marjorie Alexander: Instagram: Instagram.com/asustainablemind/ Twitter: Twitter.com/SustainableMind Facebook: Facebook.com/asustainablemind/ Website: ASustainableMind.com Interested in sponsoring or supporting A Sustainable Mind? Visit our sponsorship page at ASustainableMind.com/sponsor!