Swimming Towards a Constitutional Proper for Nature – State of the Planet

Christopher Swain’s deep relationship with water started as a toddler. He recollects splashing round within the water, trying to find the protruding fringe of a pirate’s gold chest alongside the shores of Massachusetts, and feeling an virtually religious connection to the ocean. For Swain, the water has at all times been a spot of belonging. His sunlit childhood recollections of the ocean later formed his life’s mission to guard water and the pure world.

In 1995, impressed by studying the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Swain walked 200 miles alongside the size of Massachusetts, holding a prototype Olympic torch and distributing copies of the declaration. This endeavor launched him to the facility of participating folks by means of symbolic motion. But it additionally sparked a realization that his subsequent journey ought to join on to the aspect he beloved most: water. The subsequent 12 months, he swam 200 miles down the Connecticut River to advertise the declaration. This effort unexpectedly drew public consideration to water air pollution and environmental points, he says, and in the end, the expertise planted the seed for what turned his life’s work: swimming lengthy, polluted rivers to advocate for clear water and environmental justice.

In 1997, Swain fell in love with the Columbia River after coming throughout the Lewis and Clark journals. This impressed him to swim all 1,243 miles of the Columbia over the course of 165 days, from 2002 to 2003. He discovered himself immersed within the bodily problem of the swim, alongside the tales of the individuals who lived alongside the river. Through conversations with Indigenous leaders, Swain developed an understanding of the cultural interconnectedness Indigenous peoples really feel with the surroundings, he says. Their tales reshaped his worldview, he provides, and taught him that “the illusion of separateness between humans and nature is the root of the environmental crisis.”

Swain’s swims are greater than athletic achievements, he says—they’re additionally acts of storytelling. He believes that tales have the facility to transcend political and emotional limitations, in the end uniting folks. He emphasizes that the shared affection for the pure world is some extent of connection slightly than a divide. For Swain, this shared love for the surroundings is the inspiration for significant environmental motion.

The bodily toll of his swims has been substantial. Swain has encountered a number of ear infections, colds, collisions with boats and extra. But he views these hardships as a part of his pact with the water. Each river he has swam has grow to be a residing being to him, he says.

So far, Swain is the primary particular person to swim the total size of main polluted water our bodies. These embody the Columbia, Hudson, Mohawk, Charles, Mystic, East and Boise rivers, in addition to Lake Champlain, Gowanus Canal, Newtown Creek, Long Island Sound and Narragansett Bay.

Today, as a scholar within the M.A. in Climate and Society program at Columbia’s Climate School, Swain is ready to synthesize his experiential data with tutorial coaching to tell environmental coverage. His aim is to safe a “place at the table where the future of the living world is negotiated,” he says.

Currently, Swain is selling a proposed U.S. constitutional amendment to guard the rights of nature, the local weather and future generations. He argues that whereas the science and information supporting the necessity for environmental safety is properly established, the true problem lies in social and political will. Swain sees storytelling as a solution to overcome worry, dissolve polarization and drive collective safety of the pure world. “It’s not enough to care,” he says. “You gotta be courageous…I want to bind courage to care.”