Environmental Rights
The climate crisis and climate change are unavoidable truths of what the future looks like for me and for my fellow students. You can't escape it as you scroll through social media, endless posts warning us that the danger is here. A lot of dread and disappointment pulls at me as a college student, watching as legislation fails to be enacted not only nationally but also globally to protect the precious environment we live in. There have been moves nationally to present change in the national sphere, many legislators pushing through legislation such as the Infrastructure Bill that would add things such as incentives for solar energy and a transition to electric power for school buses. Yet, this is a mitigation, a reaction to an already pending emergency. We need to think proactively about the relationship between the people and the environment.
The proposed Chilean Constitution of 2022, was crucial in thinking not only about reactive but proactive action to the change of the climate. The constitutional proposal would have established a relationship between people and the environment, a precedent where harm to the environment is harm to its people. The proposal outlined themes such as the right to a safe and sanitary environment for its people but also for its children. It also would have guaranteed the right to Environmental Education and the protection of all kinds of resources from the wetlands to the fields, in almost every aspect of the environment. The rivers are a special case, they are enshrined as objects. They provide a new perspective, we begin to think about what it means to protect the river, to build structures that could harm it. It considers a biological, physical relationship between the people and its environment. The issue of climate remains a highly partisan issue, both in Chile and the US. Chile, however, has taken to the legislative floor, in its drafting of its new constitution, to try to bring these rights to its people in an enshrined text. With 91% of Chileans believing that climate protections should be a government priority now, the march toward including positive rights in its Constitutions attests to the will of its people. Chileans have pointed to the rights of indigenous people as the natural caretakers of the land, coming to understand nature beyond a colonial context. In the US, the divided party politics will continue to leave us awaiting negotiation, for us to realize our call to the earth we inhabit.
Even going back to 1999 Venezuela, in the creation of its Constitution,there is thought about its role as an actor in this climate crisis. Venezuela is rich in oil and the presence of these companies. The constitution cites things such as an individual’s right to a safe, healthful and ecologically balanced life and environment. It calls upon the state to protect the biodiversity of the land, and lists duties of each citizen to participate in this process. Although in recent years, there is much to be desired in the actions that Venezuela has taken to protect these environmental protections outlined in its constitution, the power of the people is not lost. With the precedent of these rights being explicit in the law of the land, a movement has propelled through as the people called for these protections to be upheld and further define these protections. These are not things that we can point to as American citizens, we call on our law to make these demands but we can learn a lot about the power of explicit rights for our environment.
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Gurmendi Dunkelberg, Alonso, director. Live to Tell: Rights of Nature in the Forthcoming Chilean Constitution. YouTube, University College London Law School , 17 Mar. 2022, https://youtu.be/VYyDpNZC5Tw. Accessed 15 Nov. 2022.
McMillan, Rebecca. “Greening the Venezuelan Constitution: Proposals from the Grassroots.” Venezuelanalysis.com, Venezuela Analysis , 27 Feb. 2020, https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/13259.
