Over the past two decades, the Sunset Park, Brooklyn community has advocated for the New York City government to clean up its waterfront. This community activism has led to new green amenities. Now, Sunset Park has a new shoreline walking path and newly planted trees alongside roads. Additionally, the community was able to prevent a toxic gas-fired power plant from being built in its backyard. These improvements, however, led to increased housing and living costs, which forced some low-income community members to relocate outside of Sunset Park. The Sunset Park community was unknowingly forced to choose between affordable housing and being able to breathe. The community chose to breathe. Now, some community members are being forced to leave.
It’s Time to Pass a Rights of Nature Constitutional Amendment
The natural environment is vital to human existence. We rely on it for oxygen, sustenance, and shelter. We crave it for sports, hobbies, and relaxation. Humans cannot live without nature because we are a part of it. Nature endured long before the evolution of homo sapiens. Yet we often treat the environment as the “other”; we act as though it is something apart from us rather than something with which we co-exist. Isn’t it time we accorded nature the rights we accord ourselves? Deep Green Resistance, an environmental grassroots organization, certainly thought so and even took legal action to make these rights a reality.