The Delaware Riverkeeper Network has been working to support constitutional level protection for environmental rights in New York’s constitution. While for years there have been provisions discussing various environmental issues in Article XIV, the provisions do not have the high level strength needed to recognize the inherent and indefeasible rights of people to a healthy
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This op-ed originally ran on Jan 25, 2018 in NewsPress, Part of the USA Today Network. Proposal 23 is just another “feel-good” constitutional provision that will inspire frivolous litigation, rather than needed environmental protection. That’s how Herschel Vinyard, former secretary of Florida’s DEP, characterized this proposed environmental amendment to Florida’s constitution, currently winding its way
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New Jersey is just one of the 48 U.S. states that fails to recognize and protect the right to clean water, clean air and the healthy environments necessary to support healthy lives and economies. New Jersey, along with New York, is also poised to become the next state to recognize and protect this right. On
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We Need to Recognize Environmental Rights as Inalienable Human Rights In Our Constitutions United Nations officials visiting communities in California and Alabama have been shocked by the level of environmental degradation and poverty they have witnessed. As one investigator recounted: “raw sewage flows from homes through exposed PVC pipes and into open trenches and pits.”
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Forty-seven years ago, on April 22, 1970, communities around the nation marched to defend the earth. They brought banners, signs, chants, and a realization that environmental degradation damages every aspect of our lives and our communities. When we pollute the water, the air, and the land, people suffer – our health is impacted, recreational opportunities
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The New York Times’ seemingly objective and forthright piece titled “Climate Change is Complex. We’ve Got Answers to Your Questions” is instantly undermined by its assertion that fracked gas from shale, including for use at power plants, is part of the solution rather than a devastating and growing part of the climate change problem. Among
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For Immediate Release November 30, 2017 Contacts: Assemblyman Tim Eustace, 201-576-9199 Maya K. van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, 215-801-3043 David Pringle, Legislative Director, Clean Water Action, 732-996-4288 Jeff Tittel, Director, New Jersey Sierra Club, 609-558-9100 Doug O’Malley, Director, Environment New Jersey, 609-392-5151 Trenton, NJ: Assemblyman Tim Eustace, joined by Maya van Rossum,
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The NY Times article, Why Has the E.P.A. Shifted on Toxic Chemicals? An Industry Insider Helps Call the Shots, exposes the efforts by Donald Trump’s EPA to undermine critical protections for communities from dangerous toxins like PFOA, TCE and the pesticide chlorpyrifos. As long as the EPA can make a defensible claim that it is acting
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For Immediate Release: Tuesday, November 14, 2017 Contact: Robyn Shapiro, robyn.shapiro@berlinrosen.com, 202-800-7407 The Green Amendment by Maya van Rossum with Foreword by Mark Ruffalo Proposes New Constitutional Solutions New York, NY – Today, Disruption Books announced the publication of The Green Amendment: Securing Our Right to a Healthy Environment, a new book by leading environmental
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In the NY times article “Corporations Have Rights. Why Shouldn’t Rivers?” we learn about a recently filed lawsuit in which a judge is being asked to recognize the Colorado River as a person. This lawsuit is testing an important legal theory — giving rights to nature — similar to Ecuador’s model. In 2008, Ecuador became the first country to
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Review: ‘The Green Amendment’ - The Montpelier Bridge
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“The Green Amendment: The People’s Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment,” by Maya van Rossum. Second edition, 2022, Disruption Books, New York. Much environmental damage has envelope...