The people of Michigan have rights to free speech and religion, the right to bear arms and to freely assemble, but we do not have the right to clean water and air, a stable climate and healthy environments. The failure to constitutionally recognize and protect environmental rights means that government officials are often free to disregard water, air, climate and environmental protection in favor of other political or economic priorities and there is little recourse for impacted communities.
Leader Maya van Rossum and her organization, Green Amendments For The Generations, are working to transform this legal paradigm by inspiring support for Green Amendments, i.e. constitutional amendments added to the Bill of Rights section of every state constitution, and ultimately the federal constitution, which recognize and protect the inalienable rights of all people to pure water, clean air, a stable climate and healthy environments—regardless of race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status and including future generations. Only Pennsylvania (largely due to the work of van Rossum’s organization) and Montana have Green Amendments today, but since 2014 she and her organization have inspired Green Amendment proposals in 13 states across the nation. Will Michigan be next?
September 13, 7:00pm ET on Zoom
Register here: https://bit.ly/MIGreenAmendmentWebinar
Please join long time environmental activist, Rev. Richard Killmer in welcoming Maya, as she lays out this new agenda for environmental advocacy, one that will transform how we think about and pursue environmental protection and environmental justice from both a policy and legal perspective. Let’s discuss and explore the idea of pursuing a constitutional environmental rights amendment, or Green Amendment, in Michigan together!
We all have the right to pure water, clean air, a stable climate, and healthy environments. It’s time to focus on how to truly secure that right for our own sake and that of future generations.