144
social, economic and cultural rights as well as rights to a healthy environment
because of fears related to the distribution of power and resources (Boyd 2012,
p. 288)?”
The answer to the last of these question is a likely yes. In his 2018 book Can
Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? Robert Kuttner explains how the politics of
a succession of US Presidents and Congresses since 1973 have changed a decent
democratic social contract in the US that developed during the three decades following World War II and fostered a huge increase in the concentration of wealth in the
top ten percent of its citizens today (Kuttner 2018). This outcome signals the end of
democracy as defined by former supreme court justice Louis Brandeis who famously
stated in the 1940s “We can have democracy or we can have wealth concentrated in
the hands of a few but we cannot have both” (Freeland 2012, p. 277).
New and amended constitutions show that politics can impact on environmental
provisions in constitutions with positive or negative results. The large number of
amended constitutions with environmental provisions since 1970 and the major
increase in public awareness of climate change around the globe in the last ten years
indicate that there is some room for optimism.
References
AGO (2018) Anthropocene Exhibit. https://www.AGO.ca/exhibitions/anthropocene. Accessed 15
May 2019
Aulakh R (2014) Tunisia’s next Arab Spring: fighting global warming. Toronto Star. 2 Feb
Baichwal J, de Pencier N, Burtynsky E (2018) Anthropocene: the Human Epoch. https://theanthropocene.org/film. Accessed 15 May 2019
Banda M (2018) Why should trees have legal rights? It’s second nature. The Globe and Mail. 2
June, p O5
Bergandi D (2017) The ecological catastrophe: the political-economic caste as the origin and cause
of environmental destruction and the pre-announced democratic disaster. In: Westra L, Gray J,
Gottwald F-T (eds) The role of integrity in the governance of the commons: governance, ecology, law, ethics. Springer, pp 179–189
Boyd D (2012) The environmental rights revolution: a global study of constitutions, human rights,
and the environment. UBC Press, Vancouver
Brown B, Brown D (2015) Commonly unrecognized benefits of a human rights approach to climate change. In: Westra L, Gray J, Karageorgou V (eds) Ecological systems integrity: governance, law and human rights. Routledge, New York, pp 162–175
Brown C (2014) Kayapo Courage. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2014/01/kayapo-courage. Accessed 20 May 2019
Carson R (1962) The silent spring. Houghton Mifflin, Boston
Freeland C (2012) Plutocrats: the rise of the new global super-rich and the fall of everyone else.
Doubleday, Canada
Government of Canada (1982) Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Kitchell M (2014) A Fierce Green Fire. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/a-fiercegreen-fire-about-the-film/2924. Accessed 8 Oct 2019
Kuttner R (2018) Can democracy survive global capitalism? W.W. Norton, New York
Mauro I, Suzuki D (2018) Beyond Climate. https://www.beyondclimate.ca/film. Accessed 22
Oct 2018
A. Venton
social, economic and cultural rights as well as rights to a healthy environment
because of fears related to the distribution of power and resources (Boyd 2012,
p. 288)?”
The answer to the last of these question is a likely yes. In his 2018 book Can
Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? Robert Kuttner explains how the politics of
a succession of US Presidents and Congresses since 1973 have changed a decent
democratic social contract in the US that developed during the three decades following World War II and fostered a huge increase in the concentration of wealth in the
top ten percent of its citizens today (Kuttner 2018). This outcome signals the end of
democracy as defined by former supreme court justice Louis Brandeis who famously
stated in the 1940s “We can have democracy or we can have wealth concentrated in
the hands of a few but we cannot have both” (Freeland 2012, p. 277).
New and amended constitutions show that politics can impact on environmental
provisions in constitutions with positive or negative results. The large number of
amended constitutions with environmental provisions since 1970 and the major
increase in public awareness of climate change around the globe in the last ten years
indicate that there is some room for optimism.
References
AGO (2018) Anthropocene Exhibit. https://www.AGO.ca/exhibitions/anthropocene. Accessed 15
May 2019
Aulakh R (2014) Tunisia’s next Arab Spring: fighting global warming. Toronto Star. 2 Feb
Baichwal J, de Pencier N, Burtynsky E (2018) Anthropocene: the Human Epoch. https://theanthropocene.org/film. Accessed 15 May 2019
Banda M (2018) Why should trees have legal rights? It’s second nature. The Globe and Mail. 2
June, p O5
Bergandi D (2017) The ecological catastrophe: the political-economic caste as the origin and cause
of environmental destruction and the pre-announced democratic disaster. In: Westra L, Gray J,
Gottwald F-T (eds) The role of integrity in the governance of the commons: governance, ecology, law, ethics. Springer, pp 179–189
Boyd D (2012) The environmental rights revolution: a global study of constitutions, human rights,
and the environment. UBC Press, Vancouver
Brown B, Brown D (2015) Commonly unrecognized benefits of a human rights approach to climate change. In: Westra L, Gray J, Karageorgou V (eds) Ecological systems integrity: governance, law and human rights. Routledge, New York, pp 162–175
Brown C (2014) Kayapo Courage. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2014/01/kayapo-courage. Accessed 20 May 2019
Carson R (1962) The silent spring. Houghton Mifflin, Boston
Freeland C (2012) Plutocrats: the rise of the new global super-rich and the fall of everyone else.
Doubleday, Canada
Government of Canada (1982) Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Kitchell M (2014) A Fierce Green Fire. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/a-fiercegreen-fire-about-the-film/2924. Accessed 8 Oct 2019
Kuttner R (2018) Can democracy survive global capitalism? W.W. Norton, New York
Mauro I, Suzuki D (2018) Beyond Climate. https://www.beyondclimate.ca/film. Accessed 22
Oct 2018
A. Venton