A fish-eye lens view of one of the former cranberry bogs dotting the Black Run Preserve in Evesham, Burlington County.
New York has one. Pennsylvania does as well.
But not New Jersey.
And some environmentalists and other citizens want that to change, for New Jersey to catch up.
They are pushing the state Legislature to allow voters to decide if the state Constitution needs a "Green Amendment," which is an environmental rights amendment.
Watch in coming months for articles on your local digital news sites as more noise is made about the amendment and local governments pass resolutions urging their local legislators to get on the stick.
A resolution to put the amendment before voters in a general election has been mired since a version was first introduced about eight years ago.
"The resolutions in both the state Senate and Assembly are currently stalled in committees," according to the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, one of the organizations leading the charge to get the amendment moving. "While more co-sponsors have signed on, ultimately, we are not asking our elected leaders to vote on whether we have these rights. We are asking them to get out of the way and let the people of New Jersey vote through the ballot."
A quick read of one version of the proposed amendment might leave you nodding your head, thinking "Well, of course." But the impact on life, laws and the environment could be far-reaching.
Here's the first part: "Every person has a right to a clean and healthy environment, including pure water, clean air, safe climate and ecologically healthy habitats, and to the preservation of the natural, and scenic, historic, and esthetic qualities of the environment. The state shall not infringe upon these rights, by action or inaction."
If the amendment makes it into the Constitution, then the constitutionality of land-use and environmental laws and decisions made by governments from municipal to state could be questioned.
"These laws are not good enough," Maya van Rossum, environmental advocate, author and founder of Green Amendments for the Generations, told about 35 people who attended an informational meeting on the New Jersey Green Amendment last Wednesday at Rutgers University in Camden.
Advocate van Rossum, who has played a role in writing Green Amendments elsewhere, said the system of laws and regulations in New Jersey essentially "legalizes pollution."
A business going to the right agencies, getting the right reviews and the right permits will be "golden" in actions that may contribute to pollution, she said.
"We need systemic reform," she told the group at the session sponsored by the Pinelands Alliance. Her organization's website includes information on the amendment and a petition.
How could anyone be against preserving the environment and the rights of its citizens? It's complicated, contend opponents who maintain the amendment could foment legal chaos.
"It is crafted on the premise that the Legislature cannot be trusted to protect the public and make the right decisions," the NJBIA's Ray Cantor said in written testimony to the Senate last year. "It seeks to go around the Legislature, and the Governor and Executive Branch as well, and allow any person to go to the courts to get the result they want."
The youngest citizens and those yet to be born have the right to enjoy the environment as we have. Amendment proponents say those rights need to be, in essence, written in stone through an amendment.
Consider the thoughts of Maya DeAndrea, a Preservation Alliance intern who graduated this year from Moorestown Friends School and will attend George Washington University. This is from her July 18 blog post, "Protect Our Future in Writing: Why the Green Amendment Matters to Gen Z":
"We the people have the right to speak freely, to practice our faith, to assemble and to receive due process under the law. Yet, we remain unprotected from the risk of polluted air, contaminated water, and irreversible damage to our natural world. We the people are limited in our ability to live in a healthy environment, one that sustains not only our lives, but those of generations to come."
