We live in a world where people are constantly perplexed, asking why polluters and bad actors get away with damaging our environment, our earth, and even our health. What many don’t understand is that our current system of laws actually allow for this, they create the chess board that allows industry to charge forward while we the people, are mere pawns standing in their way. But when we give people a constitutional right to clean air, pure water, a healthy environment, and a safe and stable climate, the game shifts in the favor of the people. This is why we need Green Amendments in every state constitution.
The Climate Crisis is not coming, it is here knocking down our doors. The wildfires we are seeing in Los Angeles are not an anomaly, but a direct result of the environmental decisions made to date or the lack thereof. Green Amendments are about giving and protecting the rights of all people – regardless of skin color, socioeconomic status, gender, religion, politics, culture – to a healthy environment. That is how it should have always been.
But today, as disasters strike and communities are having their water poisoned, their air toxified, and are losing their homes to worsening disasters like floods and wildfires, we still see the fossil fuel industry hiding behind false narratives and the mischaracterization of science. They blame people for staying in the shower too long, and suggest wind turbines and solar panels are the energy bad guys. Most recently, the fossil fuel industry has been blaming black, brown and poor communities living on the frontlines of devastating environmental harm for the proliferation of climate change and the devastating wildfires, hurricanes, floods and environmental contamination that harms them. They suggest that government action to encourage diversity, equity and inclusion is at fault. Lies, lies and more lies, I say.
READ: Fracking, Green Amendments, and Defending Democracy in Pennsylvania and Beyond!
The science is conclusive: the fossil fuel industry – their extraction, fracking and combustion – are the primary culprit for the advancement of climate change and all of its devastating harms.
And it is our current system of laws and regulations that allow, and even encourage, the fossil fuel industry to continue to proliferate and grow. And know this, contaminated water and air, wildfires, floods and the heatwaves of climate crisis don’t care about your net worth. Black, brown, indigenous, and low-income communities for sure bear the greatest brunt of the harm, but in time pollution and climate crisis is and will impact everyone – regardless of your bank account.
The Green Amendment movement was birthed out of a legal victory in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that defeated a devastatingly pro-fossil fuel law set to exponentially expanded the footprint, ravages and harms of fracking. Act 13 mandated that fracking well-pads be allowed within 300 feet of homes, automatic waivers of environmental protections, and no obligation to notify homeowners on private wells that their drinking water had become potentially contaminated with dangerous toxic chemicals. But, because the people of Pennsylvania had a constitutional right to pure water, clean air and a healthy environment for current and future generations, these devastating provisions of law were struck down. Because of Pennsylvania’s Green Amendment, the harms that could have been caused by Act 13 never came to fruition.
U.S. environmental laws and policies are reactionary to environmental disasters and destruction. By contrast, we need our state and local governments to be proactive, and to prevent environmental devastation before it can even start.
With Green Amendments nationwide we can empower good government officials and arm our people with an enforceable constitutional right that can be used to take meaningful action to stop the fast advancement of the climate crisis. With Green Amendments nationwide, we can ensure that every time governments act within a state they are taking responsibility for their contribution of harm or benefit to the environment. If we have Green Amendments in every single state constitution across the U.S. and ultimately at the federal level, if we have government officials behaving responsibly when it comes to environmental protection, we could have a massive beneficial impact for all people and for all generations.
With strong action today, we can begin to heal the earth, and stop the proliferation of emissions continuing to warm our earth and grow the harms of climate change. In Pennsylvania, Montana and New York, we need to stand together to demand enforcement of the 3 Green Amendments that exist. In New Jersey, Delaware, and the other 20 states nationwide where Green Amendments are advancing, we need to march our advocacy forward to secure them.
It is not too late. You have a chance to be a hero in the story of protection for our Mother Earth and the present and future generations that depend on her.
