Happy Earth Day everyone.
Nearly half a century ago a US Senator from Wisconsin had an idea for a national day of focus on the environment. I have heard that he was inspired by the anti-war movement and by a few environmental disasters like an oil spill in California. It was Senator Gaylord Nelson’s idea that led to the first Earth Day on April 22nd, 1970. On that day, around 20 million Americans helped to spread the word on the environment. In that same year, the United States created the Environmental Protection Agency and passed the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts.
It’s been 48 years since that day and since that time the EPA and the American public have been working hard to achieve a clean and sustainable environment. But what kind of progress have we really made? Well, we have come a long way in terms of a data collection, environmental studies, and efforts to make the world cleaner, but we still have a long way to go.
EPA- Some of the information in this article was taken from the EPA’s website. However, the EPA has yet to return any of my phone calls or emails. I am hoping to update this article if that changes.
Since the 1970s we have been able to greatly reduce pollutants in our air. The progress made on vehicle emissions alone has been a great success. Newer vehicles are about 98-99% cleaner compared to those made in the 60s. Our fuels are much cleaner as well since lead has been taken out and sulfur levels have been reduced by about 90%. Furthermore, it was the regulations created by the EPA that have led to innovations in technology that make it all possible. In fact, a 2013 report to Congress showed that for every dollar spent to reduce emissions resulted in nine dollars of benefit to the American people in public health, environment, and consumer savings.
In addition to the advances in vehicle emissions, the EPA has reported a decline in the six common health-related pollutants by 70% since 1970. This includes reductions in lead, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, surface-level ozone, and particulate matter under 10 and 2.5 micrometers.
All of that seems like pretty good news, but looking ahead we still have a lot of work to do particularly with carbon emissions. Climate change is having a large effect on the planet and our daily lives and CO2 emissions are a big part of that. The EPA has set carbon emission standards for cars, trucks, and other vehicles but is still working to better those standards in order to get CO2 levels to drop. According to the US Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report, CO2 emissions have risen 3.7% from 1990 to 2016. We have put about 5,310 million metric tons of CO2 into the air in 2016 alone. Also, Nitrous Oxide levels are up 4.2% and Fluorinated Gases are up 74%. That’s not good at all and just emphasizes the idea that we have a lot of work to do.
