CT NOFA Co-Hosts Green Amendment Discussion with Author Maya van Rossum

On April 19, 2023, CT NOFA was proud to co-host a discussion about the Green Amendment movement in Connecticut with author Maya K. van Rossum. van Rossum is the author of The Green Amendment, The People’s Fight For a Clean, Safe & Healthy Environment and her discussion centered on how Connecticut can benefit from securing a constitutional right to clean and healthy air, water, and soil; a stable climate; and health ecosystems as part of its state constitution. Find video of that discussion, below.

CT NOFA would like to thank the Greater New Haven Green Fund for helping to fund the discussion. To learn more about the Green Amendment movement, visit ctgreenamendment.org. Find ways to support the movement at https://linktr.ee/ctera.

van Rossum is a veteran environmentalist on a mission to use our state and federal constitutions to empower activists and provide hope to communities everywhere seeking to address environmental racism, the climate crisis, and the ongoing ravages of polluted water and air, toxic contamination, and withering ecosystems nationwide. She is the founder of Green Amendments For The Generations, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring passage of Green Amendments in every state across the U.S. that would recognize and protect environmental rights on par with other inalienable civic and political freedoms such as speech and property. 

In 2023, Connecticut joined over a dozen states that have active Green Amendment efforts underway. The CT Environmental Rights Amendment was introduced in the General Assembly and had a public hearing in the Environment Committee. Although the CT Environmental Rights Amendment gained support from over 30 environmental, civic, and religious organizations, it was not brought up for a vote by the committee. The CT Environmental Rights Amendment Alliance will continue efforts to broaden and extend community support. Learn more at the Linktree for the Connecticut Environmental Rights Amendment. 

For every book purchased through Possible Futures, 10% will be donated to the CPEN, the Community Place-making and Engagement Network (http://www.cpeninc.com/). Books can be purchased at the New Haven events or through bit.ly/thegreenamendment.

About The Green Amendment Second Edition

We have reached a critical tipping point in our fight for the environment: Corporations profit off climate change, natural disasters devastate homes, BIPOC communities continue to suffer disproportionately from pollution, and the most vulnerable suffer the health effects of pollution. Yet our laws are designed to accommodate this destruction rather than prevent it. Without government support, it’s no wonder people feel powerless.

Fortunately, there is a solution. With The Green Amendment (Disruption Books, November 1, 2022, Second Edition), Maya K. van Rossum lays the groundwork for an inspirational new agenda promoting environmental constitutionalism—one that will finally empower people, level the playing field, and provide real hope for communities everywhere. 

Featuring forewords by Mark Ruffalo and Kerri Evelyn Harris, this updated edition of her trailblazing 2017 book invites readers to join the growing movement where our state and federal constitutions make a clean, safe, and healthy environment an enforceable right. Through compelling interviews with activists on the ground, clear evidence from experts, and heartbreaking stories from those hit hardest by environmental ruin, The Green Amendment demonstrates how our current U.S. system of environmental protection is failing communities; but then lights a transformational path forward using our constitutions. Under Maya’s leadership, the future of constitutional environmentalism is a bright one. In this second edition, she also turns her attention to the often-neglected issues of environmental racism, the climate crisis, the human health devastation caused by environmental degradation, and the importance of protecting future generations from pollution and environmental harm.

The Green Amendment seeks to revolutionize the United States system of environmental laws and governance by transforming environmental protection from an unfulfilled promise driven by politics and industry to a constitutionally enforceable RIGHT of the people.