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.

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What does passing the Green Amendment mean on the state level and the federal level? I understand the ultimate aim is passing it on a federal level, but how do they work together?

MAYA VAN ROSSUM

So in the United States of America, when it comes to environmental protection, there is a lot of power in the hands of the states and there's also a lot of power in the hands of the federal government. So we really need a federal Green Amendment to address the federal government and federal officials. Even if we had a federal constitutional green amendment, we would want green amendments in every State Constitution across our nation so we could be ensuring that our states were also doing better.

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.

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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? I mean, what we see, whether we're talking about a residential or commercial development project, or we're talking about another industrial operation, the industry will always come in and make claims that it's good for the environment, good for the people, it creates jobs, it won't do any harm. In fact, we hear that from the fossil fuel industry all the time, fracked gas from shale, the industry is always saying is part of the climate solution, when in fact it is a big part of perpetuating and growing the climate crisis.

So it is very, very important for people to be armed with the facts and to be armed with the science. It's also very important that they understand to the degree they can - not everybody's a lawyer. You know, what are 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.

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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.

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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 think the other thing is that 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.

This interview was conducted by Mia Funk and Megan Hegenbarth with the participation of collaborating universities and students. Associate Interviews Producer and Digital Media Coordinator on this podcast was Megan Hegenbarth. Additional Digital Media: Jacob A. Preisler.

Mia Funk is an artist, interviewer and founder of The Creative Process & One Planet Podcast (Conversations about Climate Change & Environmental Solutions).