Maya K. van Rossum - The Green Amendment: The Peoples Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment

Amendments are hard, of coursetheres a lot of corporate power to overcomebut given the stakes, this is surely an idea worth everyone taking very seriously!

BILL MCKIBBEN, author of Radio Free Vermont

A rallying cry not only for conservationists and wildlife biologists, but for pediatricians, teachers, psychologists, architects, city plannerseveryone who is concerned about the welfare of all species, including human beings. Please read this important book.

RICHARD LOUV, chairman emeritus of the Children & Nature Network and author of Last Child in the Woods and Our Wild Calling

The Green Amendment asks us to imagine a world in which the right to pure water and healthy air exist on par with due process and free speechand then shows us how to make it so.

SANDRA STEINGRABER, PhD, author of Living Downstream and Raising Elijah, recipient of the Rachel Carson Leadership Award, and cofounder of New Yorkers Against Fracking

Constitutional protection of natural and human communities may be our best hope for survival.

BRADLEY M. CAMPBELL, President of the Conservation Law Foundation, former Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and former Regional Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

The beauty of her work and message is its clarity, simplicity, and the way in which it, in many ways, is dyed into the very fabric of the American Democracy and the American experience . We have an American folk hero in our midst and her name is Maya van Rossum.

EMMY-NOMINATED JOURNALIST STEVE ROGERS, producer of NJTVs Heres the Story

Read this book and you will be infuriated and inspired. Infuriated because the book drags you through the environmental muck of fracking, pipelines, PFOA But you will be inspired by the notion, transformed into a call for a constitutional amendment, that we, the people, have always had more power than we thought.

A. R. INGRAFFEA, PhD, PE, Dwight C. Baum Professor of Engineering Emeritus and Weiss Presidential Teaching Fellow at Cornell University

Mayas latest book will help expand readers knowledge and understanding of what it means to work to protect our fragile environment and the great efforts it takes to gain the political support that reflects the concerns of the majority of the world.

JOANNE FERRARY, State Representative, D-New Mexico 37th District

This book is an inspiration and a road map. It empowers individuals to take action to protect our precious air, land, and water. The stories of environmental heroism and the legal protections that all of us deserve make a huge contribution to the environmental movement. It is well-written, engaging, and informative.

ANTOINETTE SEDILLO LOPEZ, State Senator, D-New Mexico

This is activism 2.0. Important, timely, and passionate, The Green Amendment will revolutionize the way we approach our work to protect the environment.

GREG VITALI, State Representative, D-Pennsylvania 166th District

Published by Disruption Books

New York, New York

www.disruptionbooks.com

Copyright 2022 by Maya K. van Rossum

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. Thank you for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of this book without express written permission from the copyright holder. For information, please contact the publisher at .

Distributed by Disruption Books

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Disruption Books at .

Cover images Shutterstock / Beskova Ekaterina; iStockphoto / Yevhenii Dubinko

Cover and book design by Sheila Parr

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available

Printed in the United States of America on 100% post-consumer waste paper.

Print ISBN: 978-1-63331-064-3

eBook ISBN: 978-1-63331-065-0

Second Edition

To the rivers, plants, and animals

We must be their voice in our human world.

And to the future generations

We must secure their future by fighting to protect our environment today.

I wish to express my immense gratitude to all the people and communities I have the honor of working with to fight for our rights to a clean, safe, and healthy environment. I want to thank my beautiful Delaware River, and all of the streams, plants, soils, critters, and natural communities that inspire me every day to rise up and advocate on their behalf.

Thank you to my family: my amazing husband, David Wood, for bringing unending love, joy, and support to my life, and my daughter, Anneke, and son, Wim, for being the budding advocates and special people that they are. Not only have they been amazing supporters of my work, but they have been proactive and engaged allies. Dave is the first to help me take on any needed task, from booking my flights to joining me at late night and early morning events so I have the support I need. Anneke has actively joined me in my environmental advocacy and advancing the Green Amendment message, using her dedicated talent for speaking up and speaking out in defense of our natural world; from the moment she was born, I knew she would be an amazing environmental ally, and every day she proves me right. Every day Wim is growing his voice for social and environmental justice, taking steps large and small to help others see the power and importance of treating all people and all of nature with respect, kindness, and gratitude. I want to give a special thank you to my four step-childrenSteven, Jessica, Scott, and Tommyfor becoming such a wonderful part of my family and my world; they didnt know what they were getting into when their dad and I got together, but they have blossomed into amazing people who every day show loving care for others.

Thank you to my mother, Marijke, and my father, George. I have no words to describe what spectacular people they were and how much I miss them. Each and every day, they inspire me to be a better person and to advocate more passionately for justice and the protection of communities and the Earth.

I want to give special thanks to Bridget Brady and Molly Atz, who joined me early in my Green Amendment journey. They have been with me every step of the way, and helped me face all of the immense challenges, from inspiring funders to support this work, to challenging the opposition, to keeping up the positive energy during the long workdays and workweeks we increasingly face. This movement would not be advancing so beautifully without their partnership and leadership.

I want to thank Suzanne Crilley, Bob Meek, and Kathleen Reidy for providing the financial support that allowed this second edition to happen. I knew more needed to be said and that updated information needed to get to the world. It is thanks to you that I was able to do so. Thank you for believing in me.

I want to thank Susan and Bruce Wallace for being there from day one and providing the financial support for the Act 13 legal action and the early years when we were launching this new national movement. The Green Amendment movement would not be where we are without your dedication to furthering environmental protection and making our world a safer and happier place for all.