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BY DAVID WHEELER
COMMENTARY
Imagine America with no rules at all on what chemicals can go into the air we breathe. With rivers so filthy they catch fire. With toxic sites doubling as homes and playgrounds. With chemicals so dangerous that bald eagles – our American symbol – are little more than a mirage. With garbage barges dumping the waste of entire cities right into the ocean.
What you just imagined was America in the years before President Richard M. Nixon formed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It wasn't that long ago, and yet the progress that we have made environmentally since 1972 is extraordinary.
• New cars produce 98 percent less smog than they did in 1970.
• More than 160,000 premature deaths have been prevented by the Clean Air Act’s ensuing EPA programs.
• Two-thirds of Superfund sites have been cleaned up, creating over 3,300 good-paying American jobs.
The EPA turns 41 years old this month, and it is hardly perfect. Like any government bureaucracy, the agency can move slowly at times, and can be subject to undue influence when it should rise above it. Yet there is little doubt that America is a healthier, safer country by far than it was just 41 years ago.
This month, as politicians use their sound bytes to attack the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - and even call for removing it altogether - let us focus instead on reality. On water and air that are much cleaner than they once were, on toxic nightmares that are being cleaned up one by one, and even on jobs that are being created by the thousands as we enter a new era of sustainability.
The challenges that face the EPA - and face all of us - are daunting. From oil spills and drilling to severe flooding and overdevelopment, the environment is as fragile as it ever was. And as much as it's politically expedient to use the environment as a scapegoat, not a single one of us can afford to live in a nation that ignores the world around us. Let us each take a deep breath - and then work to make the EPA an even stronger agency, and America an even healthier and safer place.
David Wheeler is the author of "Wild New Jersey: Nature Adventures in the Garden State" and director of operations for the nonprofit Edison Wetlands Association.
