Today is Earth Day. The day that is ridiculed by the right wing of the Republican Party and the squawk radio machine. Which is funny because Republicans were not always so adamant about undermining environmental protection…but then todays Republican Party bears no resemblance to its forebears of 50 years ago. It's now beholden to its corporate overlords and will roll-back environmental protections whenever the chance presents itself. Some history…..it was 1968 when Morton Hilbert and the US Public Health Service organized an environmental conference for students to hear from scientists on the environmental degradation on human health. In April 1970, Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson issued a federal proclamation declaring the first Earth Day. For those too young to remember, the late 60's and into the 70's saw industrial pollution reach an apex. Clean air, water and ground were getting harder and harder to find even outside of major metropolitan areas. Even here in central Wisconsin the Wisconsin River was filthy. You couldnt eat the fish out of the river or swim in the smelly, polluted cesspool it had become. Even folks like Richard Nixon knew something had to change. For all his other ethical problems, it was Nixon who signed the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act and established the EPA. Imagine Trump, McConnell and the rest of the ethically challenged Republican Party championing things like that today. They are working to marginalize those things or do away with them entirely. Are things better now than they were in 1970? Yes, but they won;'t stay that way. Putting people like Scott Pruitt and Andrew Wheeler in charge of environmental protection shows the administrations priorities clearly. The idea that the dangers of climate change are ignored and belittled by the current occupants of the White House, Senate Majority leaders office and empty suited congressional Republicans from here in Wisconsin is disheartening. John Muir and Aldo Leopold would be appalled. Republican president Theodore Roosevelt would be livid. Even Richard Nixon would not approve of his party's swing away from protecting the environment to protecting the polluters. It's just one more reason why todays Republican Party needs to be sent packing. Until the few, reasonable people left in the party, can wrestle back control from the bought and paid for unethical zealots that control it now.
Songs Of The Day- Earth Day 2019. We've come a long way with a long way to go.
So, what are you going to do? Even little changes can have big effects. I have pledged to stop buying plastic water bottles and using plastric forks and spoons, Kuerig plastic coffee pods and one use plastic covers and bags. It will be a slight inconvience but think what would happen if millions of people did the same thing.
Quotes of the Day
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”-Margaret Mead
“One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between man and nature shall not be broken.”-Leo Tolstoy
“The environment is where we all meet; where we all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing that all of us share.”-Lady Bird Johnson
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“The earth will not continue to offer its harvest, except with faithful stewardship. We cannot say we love the land and then take steps to destroy it for use by future generations.”-John Paul II
“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”-Jane Goodall
“The ultimate test of a man's conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.”-Gaylord Nelson
“What's the use of a fine house, it you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?”-Henry David Thoreau
“Destroying rainforest for economic gain is like buring a Renaissance painting to cook a meal.”-E.O. Wilson
“It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.”-Ansel Adams
“A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children.”-John James Audubon
