Abstract
The right to live in a healthy environment is the right to live in an environment where Donald Trump is not president. As this Article demonstrates, Trump’s negative impact across a wide spectrum of policy areas implicated by the right’s goal of creating and maintaining a healthy environment in the United States ran directly opposite to achieving that goal. Trump era policies not only exacerbated poverty, hunger, and discrimination issues, but they quite literally cost thousands of Americans their lives during the COVID-19 pandemic, and they continue to do so. Climate change-fueled storms and weather patterns have wreaked havoc across North America long since he left office.
Eighteen months after the Trump presidency ended, on July 28, 2022, at its 76th annual session, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 300—recognizing the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. The vote was 161 in favor, 8 abstentions, and 0 against. Although two permanent Security Council members, China and Russia, were among those states abstaining, adoption of this Resolution was seen as a major step forward by both the environmental protection and human rights communities. Moreover, Secretary General Guterres considers the Resolution essential in combatting what he views as the increasing threat to our planet. “This refers to the three main interlinked environmental threats that humanity currently faces: climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss - all mentioned in the text of the resolution. Each of these issues has its own causes and effects and they need to be resolved if we are to have a viable future on Earth.”