Why We Need a Green Amendment for Environmental Justice: A Call to Action for Baja Pescador
At Baja Pescador, we’re deeply committed to protecting not only the oceans and ecosystems that sustain our fishing communities but also the overall environment that makes healthy living possible for everyone. But as we look at the legal and political landscape in the United States, we see a fundamental gap: our Constitution protects essential rights like free speech, property, and gun ownership, but it doesn’t formally recognize the right to clean water, clean air, or a healthy environment.
This gap leaves communities vulnerable to pollution, environmental degradation, and the long-term impacts of climate change. To address this, we believe it’s time for a Green Amendment to the U.S. Constitution—a change that would elevate environmental protection to the same level as other civil and political rights.
Environmental Rights: Missing from the Constitution
While we safeguard freedoms like free speech and gun rights, Americans don’t currently have a recognized right to drink clean water, breathe clean air, or live in an environment that supports their health and well-being. Instead, these fundamental needs are placed in the hands of a political system where money, corporate interests, and partisan struggles often take precedence over the basic rights of citizens.
Existing environmental laws, while helpful in some cases, typically accept pollution and environmental harm as inevitable. For example, industries receive permits to pollute within limits, and environmental reviews allow projects to move forward even if they have negative impacts on air, water, and land. Rather than preventing harm at the outset, current laws too often manage damage after it’s already done.
The Result: Communities and the Planet Suffer
The effects of this system are stark. Communities across the U.S. are experiencing increasing levels of pollution, especially those with lower socio-economic standing or communities of color. People are living near toxic waste sites, breathing in dangerous air, and watching their water supplies become contaminated. Meanwhile, the growing climate crisis is exacerbating these issues, leading to more floods, droughts, wildfires, and an uncertain future for our planet.
This system leaves many feeling powerless as they witness environmental degradation in their own backyards, with little recourse to challenge it. That’s why we’re advocating for a solution that is as powerful as it is necessary: the Green Amendment.
What is a Green Amendment?
A Green Amendment would elevate environmental rights to the same constitutional status as other civil and political rights. By adding this amendment to the U.S. Constitution, we could ensure that the right to a healthy environment is legally protected at the highest level. This amendment would mandate that government officials prioritize environmental protection in every decision they make, rather than allowing environmental degradation to be an acceptable trade-off in the name of economic or political gains.
Three states—Pennsylvania, Montana, and New York—already have such amendments in their constitutions. These can serve as models for how environmental rights can be put on par with other rights and protected through the legal system.
How a Green Amendment Would Work
If a Green Amendment were added to the U.S. Constitution, it would give citizens a powerful tool to hold their government accountable for protecting the environment. Just as individuals can currently go to court to defend their free speech or property rights, a Green Amendment would allow them to challenge environmental harms in court. This means that if there’s a gap in current environmental laws or enforcement, citizens could still rely on their constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment to demand action.
Importantly, the Green Amendment would also ensure environmental justice. The environmental rights of one community could no longer be sacrificed to achieve the political, economic, or environmental goals of another. All communities—regardless of race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status—would have an equal right to clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment.
Why This Matters Now
At Baja Pescador, we’re seeing firsthand how environmental degradation is affecting fishing communities and marine ecosystems. We also recognize that climate change and pollution have far-reaching impacts beyond the ocean. With wildfires becoming more frequent, droughts more severe, and access to clean water increasingly uncertain, it’s time for a constitutional change that recognizes these threats and puts people’s health and safety first.
A Green Amendment would raise the public’s expectations for government action and provide citizens with a legal avenue to demand stronger protections when necessary. It would force governments to take science, facts, and the long-term sustainability of our environment seriously—putting environmental health on equal footing with other critical rights.
A Call to Action
Now, more than ever, we must take a stand for the environment and push for a Green Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It is an essential step toward securing true environmental justice and protecting the basic human rights to clean water, air, and land that we all depend on.
At Baja Pescador, we are committed to advocating for sustainable fishing and environmental stewardship, but we cannot do this alone. We need the power of legal protections to ensure that the natural world we rely on remains healthy and vibrant for future generations.
Join us in advocating for a Green Amendment and demanding a future where environmental protection is not an afterthought, but a constitutional right.
