Written by Leighia VanDam, senior at Central College
At Central College, the concept of sustainability is ingrained in our campus culture.
Pieces of social, economic, and environmental sustainability come up in every discipline, and all students are required to take at least one course with a global sustainability designation. Global sustainability is taught to mean meeting the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own. For me, this means enacting climate policy that maintains our current land and resources today so that future generations may enjoy them similarly.
The 2021-22 Called to Climate Action faith statement confirmed my commitment to such policies with a promise to be a steward, cultivating a healthy future for generations to come.
The idea of working to meet our needs without putting others’ needs in jeopardy means a lot to me; our behavior today shouldn’t be a selfish effort to make our lives a little bit better if it puts our children and grandchildren at risk. Since I started at Central, I’ve been learning more about environmental policy and even more about how things are not improving. We seem stuck. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it, right? The opposite stands the same; our system is broken, so it needs fixing.
Environmental laws now often seem to accommodate pollution rather than prevent it. The solution, I believe, is a Green Amendment. A Green Amendment would add to the Iowa Constitution the right of all people to a clean and healthful environment. We’d have constitutional recognition and protection of our inalienable right to pure water, clean air, a stable climate, and a healthy environment. Governments would be accountable for both their action and inaction that puts Iowa’s natural heritage at risk, thereby creating a space in which our legislators have no option but to uphold our right to the environment.
Luckily, this isn’t a new idea; Maya van Rossum wrote The Green Amendment: Securing Our Rights to a Healthy Environment, an entire book about the topic. She outlines the need for, and her path to, a Green Amendment, and she’s been moving across the country supporting legislators who want to pass their own version of the amendment in their state. She seems to have the same thing in mind as we do at Central: our future generations. The opening dedication reads:
“To 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”
A green amendment gives Iowans today and Iowans tomorrow the fighting chance to preserve our environment, and I’m going to ask my state representative to be stewards and move forward with Iowa’s Green Amendment, HJR 12, by co-sponsoring the resolution; I invite you to do the same.
Leighia VanDam participated in Called to Climate Action in 2020.