An Open Letter To The Future President
July 14, 2008
By Josh Donlan
THIRTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, 20 million people experienced the grand vision of Senator Gaylord Nelson: the first Earth Day. More than a celebration, it was a revolution, a single day that raised America’s awareness of the plight of our earth and its ecosystems that support us. During the years immediately before and after April 22, 1970, the world witnessed the onset of American environmentalism. Agencies were formed and legislation was enacted to protect America’s biodiversity: the Environmental Protection Agency, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Today, the ESA remains one of the most powerful pieces of environmental legislation ever enacted by any country. Despite these actions, we have much left to do to protect biodiversity–our country’s natural heritage. Many plants and animals, like the dusky seaside sparrow, continue to go extinct despite such legislation. With the human population at 6 billion and realistic predictions of 10 billion by 2050 and our rates of resource consumption at all time highs and rising, safeguarding our nation’s biodiversity, along with our neighbor’s, will be an unprecedented challenge.
