Turning Tides: Policy, Ethics, and the Promise of Clean Water

More than fifty years after the Clean Water Act established the national goal of making all waters fishable and swimmable, recent legal decisions and rulemaking have dramatically weakened the Act by narrowing the definition of “Waters of the United States.” This redefinition threatens to remove federal safeguards from more than 80 percent of the nation’s wetlands and millions of miles of creeks and streams. This rollback comes amid persistent water pollution, escalating climate-driven risks, and ongoing environmental injustice, raising the urgent question: Can we afford to weaken the legal protections that sustain life itself? 

Join the Center for Earth Ethics on Tuesday, July 28 for an online forum on the legal, ethical, cultural and spiritual dimensions of clean water protection in the United States. Drawing on a new policy note authored by Maggie Greenfield, with Karenna Gore and Paul Gallay, the webinar will bring legal, policy, Indigenous and global leaders to explore how communities and watershed advocates are responding to this pivotal moment in the history of clean water protection.

Featured speakers:

• Bette Billiot: Co-founder, Louisiana Liberation and Sovereignty Collective; United Houma Nation Tribe of Louisiana
• Yenny Vega Cárdenas: President, International Observatory on the Rights of Nature
• Paul Gallay: Strategic Advisor, Center for Earth Ethics; Director, Resilient Coastal Communities Project (Columbia Climate School)
• Karenna Gore: Executive Director, Center for Earth Ethics
• Maggie Greenfield: Consultant, Center for Earth Ethics
• Samira Siddique: Director of Strategic Initiatives, Center for Earth Ethics