Activists List Wins, Losses for 1900s
12/31/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Activists list wins, losses for 1900s
Source: Environment News Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 31, 1999
Byline: Cat Lazaroff
WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 - The 20th century may be remembered as a period
of great environmental devastation. Yet this century will also be
remembered as the time when the United States realized the importance
of protecting nature and took major steps to do so, according to some
of the nation's largest environmental groups. An environmental review
of the United States in the 20th century shows both gains and losses,
according to the Wilderness Society, Friends of the Earth and the
Sierra Club.
ALL THREE groups have released lists of their picks for the most
important environmental milestones of the century, agreeing on the
major points.
"During the last 100 years, Americans have made much progress
protecting our environment, but nature has also been destroyed on an
astonishing scale," says Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope.
"Future generations will honor those 20th century Americans who had
the vision and the tenacity to protect some of our most spectacular
forests, coastlines, mountains, and canyonlands," agrees Wilderness
Society president William Meadows.
"Americans' awareness of environmental problems has greatly improved
over the past 50 years," says Friends of the Earth president Dr.
Brent Blackwelder. "In the United States, strong environmental
organizations have emerged, a phenomenon that is being replicated
throughout the world as thousands of grassroots groups are forming to
protect their water, air, and land from degradation."
The Sierra Club took a look at the top environmental champions,
images and victories of the 20th century. The group also points to
eight 20th century inventions that they feel are making life worse
for Americans, and highlights five "bold new ideas" for the next
century.
"One of the most profound changes that has occurred in the 20th
century has been the inception and blossoming of the environmental
movement," says Pope. "Protecting clean air, clean water and the
beautiful places that inspire us has grown from an idea in the minds
of pioneers like John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt to become a guiding
ethic for our society."
SIERRA CLUB TOP VICTORIES
The Sierra Club's top 12 environmental victories of the last century:
1. Protecting over 100 million acres of federal Wilderness, over 100
million acres of Alaska in 1980 as new parks, wilderness areas and
refuges, and over 80 million acres as National Parks.
2. Banning DDT, lead in gasoline, and other harmful toxic pollutants.
3. Adopting national and international programs to protect and
recover endangered species.
4. Starting the process of dismantling environmentally destructive
dams.
5. Requiring all federal actions to be considered for their
environmental consequences.
6. Cleaning up America's air, an action which has reduced the number
of days Los Angeles residents breathe dirty air by 75 percent.
7. Cleaning up two-thirds of America's rivers and lakes.
8. Placing Antarctica off-limits to commercial exploitation.
9. Adopting an international ban on commercial whaling.
10. Passing the Montreal Protocol to ban chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).
11. Halting the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
12. Exporting the National Park idea to every continent and major
nation.
WILDERNESS' PROTECTION LIST
The Wilderness Society's list concentrates on the nation's 12 most
significant land protection actions.
In making its choices, the Society weighed the acreage affected, the
type of land involved and the breadth of the action's impact.
"Leaders in the late 19th century took some notable steps," Meadows
points out. "They set aside Yellowstone and Yosemite and created the
first national forests. But it was really the 20th century when land
protection became a major force and won support from a large majority
of Americans. The days of looking upon land in its natural condition
as a waste or as something to be conquered are now behind us."
The Wilderness Society's list of the dozen most significant land
protection actions of the 20th century, in chronological order:
Creation of the first national wildlife refuge, Pelican Island
National Wildlife Refuge, along Florida's central Atlantic coast
(1903).
Passage of the Antiquities Act (1906).
Passage of the Weeks Act (1911).
Creation of the National Park Service and a standard for managing the
parks (1916).
Defeat of Echo Park Dam (1956).
Passage of the Wilderness Act (1964).
Passage of the Land and Water Conservation Act (1964).
The first Earth Day (1970).
Passage of the National Environmental Policy Act (1970).
Passage of the Endangered Species Act (1973).
Passage of the National Forest Management Act (1976).
Passage of the Alaska Lands Act (1980).
Additional landmarks this century, the Wilderness Society says,
include the California Desert Protection Act (1994), the Federal Land
Policy and Management Act (1976), and the early century forest
protection engineered by President Theodore Roosevelt.
FRIENDS' LIST OF ECO-GAINS
Environmental laws rank fourth on the Friends of the Earth's list of
the century's big environmental gains, under increased environmental
awareness, land and water protection, and wildlife conservation.
"The increase in protected lands and waters has been especially
noteworthy: new national parks have been set aside, a wilderness
system now embracing 77 million acres has been put in place, a wild
and scenic rivers system to preserve over 150 rivers with outstanding
natural values is now operational," says Blackwelder. "State and
private initiatives have contributed further to the conservation of
nature. The heavily logged eastern forests have made a significant
comeback."
Blackwelder fills out his list of seven positives with pollution
clean up; more open government, as represented by the Freedom of
Information Act and National Environmental Policy Act; and energy
conservation.
"Public pressure and pollution laws have brought about major
reductions in pollution and have cleaned up some of the worst
examples of abuse," Blackwelder notes, "a dead Lake Erie, a river
that caught on fire - the Cuyahoga - and the Potomac, which was a
virtual summertime sewer in the 1960s."
"The reduction of energy use through more efficient motors, lights,
and appliances eliminated substantial pollution and is currently
saving Americans over $100 billion annually and has shown how an
industrialized economy can run on a more environmentally sustainable
basis," he says.
FRIENDS CITE FAILURES TOO
But Blackwelder cites many 20th century environmental failures. "We
end the century poised to eliminate one fourth of the species on
earth, and to erase some of the most important conservation
achievements of the last thirty years," he says. "Gains in protecting
areas of special beauty and wildlife could be reversed if global
climate change transforms the earth's vegetation in the next
century."
Friends of the Earth lists 11 areas which president Blackwelder calls
America's biggest failures and resource losses:
1. Nuclear Power: "Nuclear accidents stand out among the major
environmental catastrophes of the 20th century," says Blackwelder.
"Despite being deluged with U.S. government subsidies, the nuclear
power industry never managed to solve the fundamental problems of
cost, safe operation, radioactive waste disposal, and nuclear
proliferation through theft and terrorism."
2. Interstate Highways: "The interstate highway system destroyed
rail passenger service in the United States, harmed rail freight
operations, and has been the engine of sprawl and the destruction of
open space around major cities," he argues. "The transformation has
left our nation at the end of the century with an energy wasting,
sprawl inducing, congested fiasco that every 20 years kills more
people than the U.S. lost in both World Wars."
3. Air and Water Pollution: "Despite the goals of the 1970 Clean Air
Act and the 1972 Clean Water Act, 40 percent of U.S. waters are not
fit for swimming or fishing, 100 million Americans breathe unhealthy
air, and groundwater contamination is seriously threatening our
supply of drinking water," Blackwelder says.
4. Climate Change: "Over 2,200 scientists in the U.S. and abroad have
concluded that climate change is occurring," says Blackwelder. "It
threatens to undermine ecosystems worldwide and cause massive
economic disruption and human dislocation."
5. New Pollution: "Spectacular pollution of a highly grotesque and
destructive nature has emerged in two areas at the close of the
century," Blackwelder says. "Massive mountaintop removal of coal in
Appalachia - the tops of mountains are literally being blasted away
and the rubble dumped in streams and valleys. And filthy industrial
pig and chicken factory operations, which are fouling the rivers and
coasts, killing millions of fish, filling rural counties with
intolerable stench, and destroying family farms in the process."
6. River Destruction: "Most of our great rivers have been dammed,
dredged and diverted, in addition to being polluted. Hundreds of
gigantic dams built by the Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of
Reclamation, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and others have
prevented fish passage, drowned prime farmland and rural communities,
inundated scenic canyons, and wiped out areas of special biological
value and scientific importance," says Blackwelder. "Now these dams
clog rivers and act like giant doses of cholesterol in the arteries
and veins of our nation's streams and waterways."
7. Exotic Species: "Some of the biggest environmental losses have
come with the import and invasions of non-native species like the
Gypsy moth, zebra mussel, chestnut blight, Dutch elm disease, and
Asian long-horned beetle, to name a few," he says. "Once these
diseases and exotic plants and animals have gained a foothold, they
are almost impossible to get rid of. They have devastated ecosystems
by wiping out native plants and animals and are causing over $100
billion in annual economic damage."
8. Chemical Nightmare: "Rachel Carson warned the nation about the
dangers of pesticides, but we are closing the century with vastly
greater quantities of chemicals being used than in her day," warns
Blackwelder. "Furthermore, the consequences of living in a new world
of chemical pollution are not really understood. Beyond the concerns
about cancer are new worries about the potential of chemicals to
disrupt endocrine systems and hormonal balances. Synergistic effects
are not properly being analyzed."
9. Population Explosion: "As the world's population crosses the six
billion mark, space for other species is rapidly diminishing. No
current social or environmental problems are rendered easier to solve
by having more people on the planet," Blackwelder argues. "Excessive
consumption by northern countries and failure to empower women have
driven and compounded the population problem."
10. Species Loss: "Despite gains in wildlife protection, habitat
destruction and fragmentation have put the majority of bird species
on earth in decline," he notes. "Over 40 percent of the freshwater
fish species in America are now threatened."
11. The Legacy of War: "The environmental legacy of war is enormous
and not fully understood. Beyond the immeasurable personal tragedies
with the destruction of human life, there are painful consequences to
those who must live on the devastated land," Blackwelder concludes.
"The Vietnam War deforested one third of the country's tropical
rainforests, and left the chemical legacy of Agent Orange as well as
thousands of unexploded land mines that continue to kill and maim
rural people. The Persian Gulf War resulted in the world's largest
oil spills on land, sea, and in the air."
LEARNING FROM MISTAKES
While saluting the many conservation milestones of the past 100
years, the Wilderness Society's Meadows also acknowledges that the
country also did much to harm the land. The 20th century will also be
remembered for urban sprawl, species loss due to habitat destruction,
and ecological nightmares such as the diking and ditching of the
Everglades. "But I believe we have learned from our mistakes,"
Meadows says. "For example, we now understand that swamps help clean
our water and that human welfare depends on biological diversity."
"Sadly, conservationists must spend a lot of time trying to prevent
special interests from poking holes in the laws that stand out as the
century's environmental landmarks," says Meadows. "The Antiquities
Act and the Endangered Species Act are under constant attack by
powerful members of Congress. Efforts to add lands to the National
Wilderness Preservation System face a series of roadblocks. Only a
third of the money in the Land and Water Conservation Fund has been
used over the past 20 years. As we prepare for the 20th anniversary
of the Alaska Lands Act, that state's congressional delegation is
seeking to weaken it. Stacks of public opinion surveys prove that the
American people want greater protection of their land - not weaker."
Meadows notes the bipartisan character of 20th century land
protection. "Theodore Roosevelt gets the credit for the first
national wildlife refuge," he says, "and of the eight actions on our
list that were federal initiatives, four were signed by Republican
presidents and four by Democratic ones. We need bipartisan leadership
if we are to do right by future generations.
Meadows voices the thoughts of many conservationists, saying, "As we
cross over into the next century, we should commit ourselves to
saving a national network of wildlands that will always be there for
the American people."