Earth Day events will engage more than a billion people in 192 countries Friday, April 22, but there’s still plenty more to do.
A variety of environmental laws made their way out of Congress in 1970 following the first Earth Day: The Clean Air Act, Water Quality Improvement Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, Occupational Safety and Health Act, Endangered Species Act, Safe Drinking Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
During the last 46 years, the nation has gradually learned that protecting public health and the environment reduces disease and improves quality of life. Thanks to this effort, the United States is a far better country to live in.
We’ve learned that polluting industries can clean up their own pollution in a cost-effective way and that protecting the environment doesn’t mean sacrificing the country’s economic progress. On the contrary, economic progress may actually depend on the clean environment our laws now mandate. A healthy population wastes less on short-term and long-term medical treatment and contributes more to nationwide workforce.
Is nuclear power “green”? Depends whom you ask. Traditional environmentalists oppose nuclear power due to risks in case of accident or terrorist attack, which could spread radiation across big regions. But other environmentalists, including Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore and the late Ansel Adams, a noted naturalist and former Sierra Club director, support nuclear power because when managed safely and securely, it produces electricity cleaner and more efficiently than coal, gas and oil. Nuclear plants currently produce 63 percent of the nation’s carbon-free electricity.
About 30 percent of Sedona’s power is produced by nuclear power, so Assistant Managing Editor Ron Eland toured the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station near Tonopah, with a story we ran on our front page Wednesday, April 20.
Solar and wind power are green alternatives without the risk, but as yet do not produce enough power to satisfy Americans’ energy needs. If we are serious about eliminating fossil fuels in power generation, American voters must demand more action from our elected officials and be willing to pay more for the technological advancements while also reducing the amount of electricity we waste.
More and more businesses want to be green because their customers have shown that’s what they want. Integrating environmental protection into business plans from the outset pays dividends, especially in terms of energy cost savings, but also in terms of the goodwill such policies generate with customers. Business adapts to what customers want, be it healthier foods, greener products or locally-produced items with smaller carbon footprints. The strength of the green movement isn’t just in protests, activism and legislation, but in the small green paper rectangles we trade for goods and services.
In the face of climate change, global warming, melting ice sheets and a growing worldwide population, we must look at environmentalism not as just yet another political movement, but as a way we must learn to live. The future of our species depends on us spreading into space and onto colonies on other worlds, but first we must survive on this one.
