Caldwell promotes constitutional amendment to improve status of national environmental policy

By Jayne Spencer

moth In the forward to The Natural Heritage of Indiana, IUB's best known environmentalist has an interesting thing to say: "Hoosiers seem to attach a sentimental value to a sense of place," writes Lynton Caldwell, "while simultaneously endorsing a commitment to material 'progress' and economic priorities which would irreversibly alter the qualities of place and environment. Civic club members could sing 'On the Banks of the Wabash' at luncheon meetings and then applaud a speaker who urged the river's transformation into an industrial canal."

For some years, Caldwell has been an advocate for amending the U.S. Constitution to give environmental policy the status of fundamental law, co-equal with private property rights and civil rights. It's one of the ways the IU emeritus professor advocates preventing "environmental train wrecks" that he sees looming in the 21st century.

Caldwell In a recent issue of Harvard Environmental Law Review he writes that, regardless of its political feasibility, a proposal for an amendment would lead to an assessment of the nation's preparedness to cope with an environmentally troubled future.

Caldwell points out in the article that at least 44 other countries have some provision for environmental protection in their national constitutions. "Archaeology has recorded the failure of societies that have misconceived the requirements for environmental sustainability," he noted.

"But apocalypse need not be a preordained outcome for a society that marshals and moves its moral, material, intellectual and organizational capabilities toward attainment of a preferred and sustainable future."

Caldwell is Arthur F. Bentley professor emeritus of political science and professor emeritus of public and environmental affairs. He was the originator of the environmental impact statement requirements in the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.