Tag: Environmental Rights Amendment

Ask Your State Legislators to Support Your Environmental Rights

by Kimberly Stoner, Director of Advocacy, CT NOFA

Every person should have the fundamental human right to a clean and healthy environment: clean air, water, and soil, healthy ecosystems, and a safe and stable climate. This right is essential to our survival but is not mentioned in the CT state constitution or the US Constitution. An alliance of individuals and organizations, including CT NOFA, C3M, Sierra Club CT, CT League of Conservation Voters, and the CT League of Women Voters, among many others, have been working together to pass a resolution in the state General Assembly that would put environmental rights on the ballot.

This year, the resolution is HJ7, and we already know that it will get a public hearing in the Government Administration and Elections Committee. Last year’s resolution passed the GAE committee, but never got a vote in the state House or Senate.

Here’s what you can do now, at the start of this year’s legislative session:

  1. Find your state legislators. If you don’t know your legislators, you can go to cga.ct.gov, click on “Representation” and “Find Your Legislator,” and put in your address. Your legislator’s email is: [email protected]
  2. Send an email asking your legislator to co-sponsor HJ7. Here’s a simple script:
    1. I’m a resident of [city/town] and your constituent.
    2. I support the CT Environmental Rights Amendment because …..
    3. Tell them very briefly why – just one sentence is enough. Possible talking points:

A personal experience showing why a clean and healthy environment is important to you.

It recognizes environmental rights as being on par with other fundamental human rights, such as the right to free speech.

It protects the environment for the benefit of all residents.

CT Environmental Rights Amendment Featured at Climate March in Hartford Feb. 2

by Kimberly Stoner, Director of Advocacy, CT NOFA

On Friday, Feb. 2, about 200 people from over 20 organizations marched in Hartford to demand immediate action on climate change by the state legislature, the Lamont administration, and utility and insurance companies in the state. The theme of the march was “Keep CT’s Climate Promise.”

There’s a lot to do. In the Global Warming Solutions Act, Connecticut promised by 2050 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80% below levels in 2001. We would have to make some dramatic reductions in the next 26 years to meet that goal — and given the rate of climate change, that goal may not be enough. Indeed, one of the demands of the march was to set a more difficult target of reaching net zero greenhouse gases by 2050.

Kimberly Stoner photo

The CT Environmental Rights Amendment was one of the key demands. This amendment to the state constitution would include a safe and stable climate among the human rights of the people of Connecticut, along with clean and healthy air, water, soil, ecosystems, and environment, and would safeguard those rights for present and future generations. Right now, we are calling on the co-chairs of a key committee of the state legislature to bring this amendment forward in the coming legislative session. You can sign a petition at https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/we-want-our-right-to-a-healthy-environment-in-the-ct-constitution.

A great opportunity is coming up to learn more about the CT Environmental Rights Amendment, and to hear about how similar provisions in state constitutions in other states have asserted the human right to a livable environment! Maya van Rossum, the national leader of the movement to put environmental rights into state constitutions, will be the keynote speaker at the winter conference of CT NOFA coming up in March.

There was a broad range of other demands to the CT General Assembly in addition to the CT Environmental Rights Amendment:

  • Setting a target of net zero greenhouse gases by 2050, along with subtargets for electricity generation, transportation, and other uses,
  • Increasing funding for energy efficiency,
  • Rapidly increasing solar energy, battery storage, and clean heat through heat pumps, and
  • Rapidly reducing greenhouse gases from transportation by adopting advanced standards for clean cars and trucks.

When we arrived at the Capitol, state legislators, including State Rep. Joe Gresko from Stratford, co-chair of the Environment Committee, pledged to include many of these demands in a bill they are developing, to be numbered House Bill 5004. It has not yet been introduced, but when it is, all of our organizations will be watching closely to see if the state legislators are ready to meet the urgency of the moment.

Campaign for Environmental Rights Amendment

Rachel Heerema, CT Environmental Rights Amendment Alliance

The CT Environmental Rights Amendment campaign is ramping up! We are working to add individual rights to the CT state constitution for everyone to clean and healthy air, water, soil, and environment; a stable and safe climate; and self-sustaining ecosystems.

Sign our petition here:  https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/we-want-our-right-to-a-healthy-environment-in-the-ct-constitution.

Register for a national training on Oct. 4, “Securing Climate Justice Through Green Amendments: the Held v. Montana Victory & What It Means for the Nationwide Movement”: register at bit.ly/HeldvMTgreen.

And save the date for the November 1 Connecticut-based training — signing the petition will add you to our email list.
Please visit our Facebook page for more information: https://www.facebook.com/CTEnvironmentalRights.

Maya van Rossum, National Leader of Green Amendments for the Generations, is Coming to New Haven!

by Kimberly Stoner, CT Climate Crisis Mobilization

As readers of the PAR newsletter know, C3M (the CT Climate Crisis Mobilization) and CT NOFA (the Northeast Organic Farming Association of CT) have been working hard to get HJ 37, the resolution proposing the CT Environmental Rights Amendment to the state constitution passed in the legislature, so that it can come to a referendum of the people.

We are excited to announce that Maya van Rossum will be coming to Connecticut April 19 to April 22 to inspire us to action in honor of Earth Day. Maya 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. Van Rossum was also a lead petitioner in the landmark case decided by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2013, that revived the state’s long-ignored Constitutional Environmental Rights Amendment, empowering it to protect the people’s right to pure water, clean air, and a healthy environment. This victory inspired her to write the book, The Green Amendment: Securing Our Right to a Healthy Environment, now in its second edition. Planning for her visit is still in process, but the following events are confirmed:

  • Wednesday, April 19: Environmental Justice and Environmental Rights, 7 p.m. United Church on the Green, 270 Temple St., New Haven. Leaders in the Environmental Justice movement from around CT will be invited to join Maya van Rossum.
  • Friday, April 21: Conference on The Green Consumer and the Future: From Today’s Fast Fashion to the Law of Tomorrow. 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. University of Connecticut School of Law. 55 Elizabeth St., Hartford. Maya van Rossum will be speaking in the afternoon panel. Event website: https://law.uconn.edu/about/events.
  • Also Friday, April 21: The Green Amendment, talk and book signing. Possible Futures Books. 318 Edgewood Ave., New Haven. For time, go to https://possiblefuturesbooks.com.
  • Saturday, April 22: Middletown Earth Day Extravaganza. Noon-3 p.m. Harbor Park, Middletown. Event website: https://www.rebooteco.com/events/earth-day-extravaganza-in-middletown-ct.

Thanks go to donations from the GNH Green Fund to CT, NOFA and a donor to C3M for making these events possible!