THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 22, 1995 TAG: 9504200001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
The outdoors once seemed too big to muck up, but humans managed. Then came Rachel Carson's wake-up call of a book, Silent Spring, in 1962; suddenly the outdoors seemed too big to clean up. Again, however, we're managing.
Today is the 25th Earth Day, and nature, at least in the industrialized countries, is on the mend. Forests are expanding and air and water are getting cleaner, even as the number of humans increases. The country has more trees now than at the turn of the century. So does Virginia.
A recent article in The New Yorker magazine listed many ways the environment is improving:
``Since 1970, airborne levels of lead have declined 98 percent nationwide; annual emissions of carbon monoxide are down 24 percent; emissions of sulfur dioxide, the chief cause of acid rain, have fallen 30 percent, even as the use of coal, the main source of sulfur, has almost doubled; and emissions of fine soot, which causes respiratory disease, have fallen 78 percent.''
Only a third of United States bodies of water were safe for fishing and swimming in 1972, compared with nearly two-thirds today.
A number of species once considered likely goners have sufficiently recovered to be taken off the priority-protection list - notably the bald eagle and the Arctic peregrine falcon.
These three federal bills have mightily defended Mother Nature: the Clean Air Act (1970), the Clean Water Act (1972) and the Endangered Species Act (1972).
Individuals have pitched in. Recyling, a fringe idea a decade ago, is commonly practiced. Hunters and fishermen, among the first to witness nature's degradation, have done their part. The practice of releasing caught game fish, for example, has become popular in the past decade.
On the first Earth Day, in 1970, environmentalists still were kooks, well outside society's mainstream. Today the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Nature Conservancy are the mainstream.
Oddly enough, neither liberals nor conservatives trumpet the environmental movement's successes. Liberals fear the movement will lose momentum if they stop scaring everyone with tales of doom - and certainly much remains to be done: toxic dumps need cleaning up; nuclear waste must be stored somewhere; water quality has slipped in some areas. Conservatives dislike a program that may work but expands government and complicates life for individuals and businesses.
The conservation movement could lose ground abruptly, weakened by its successes and a general anti-government mood.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on whether the Endangered Species Act bars destruction of wildlife habitats on private property. A federal appeals court ruled last year it did not. If the Supreme Court agrees, environmentalists will suffer one of their biggest setbacks in decades.
Governor Allen's administration has attempted to go no farther in protecting the environment than federal laws require. The Republicans controlling Congress are intent on protecting property owners from intrusive environmentalists.
The environmentalists are often pictured as enemies of development, when in fact sound environmental policies foster development. The nations with the best environmental policies are faring the best economically.
This Earth Day we should applaud our progress but rededicate ourselves to preserving our portion of the planet for our children and their children. To do less is theft. by CNB