By Bart King
The first Earth Day, held on April 22, 1970, rallied 20 million Americans, who believed the environment wasn’t receiving the attention it deserved in national politics. It gave a single voice to numerous grass roots movements protesting oil spills, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides and loss of wilderness.
The success of that event led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species acts.
Better industrial practices have lessened the direct environmental threats to communities across the United States and abroad. But the overall condition of the planet has worsened since 1970, as its human population has nearly doubled to 6.8 billion people. Natural resources like fresh water and tropical forests are dwindling, and it’s becoming more difficult to hide our waste, much of which is plastic and will be around long after our children—and theirs—have lived through a fair share of Earth Days.
But after nearly forty years, saving the Earth is finally at or near the forefront of American politics, pushed there by growing awareness of global climate change and a national energy policy that leans too heavily on imported oil and other limited fossil fuels.
Major policy changes rarely take place during high times, but these are not high times. The financial crash has cleared the ground for rebuilding the U.S. and global economies on the promise of green technology, and for the first time U.S. and world leaders are poised to begin the work together. International negotiations are underway for a long-range climate change treaty, and Congress is debating how to best cap greenhouse gas emissions and transition the nation to renewable energy.
But we are stayed by one fear: cost. How much will our bills rise if we mandate solar, wind and geothermal power? What will happen to existing industries? Can we afford to switch to clean energy when coal and natural gas are cheaper?
These misgivings are understandable, but shortsighted.
The true costs of burning fossil fuels are not tabulated in our current system of accounting. The Earth subsidizes this and other dirty habits. But its reserves—what scientists call ecosystems services—are nearly tapped. And if those are depleted, then our cost of living will truly skyrocket.
