“Are America’s waterways more polluted than they were 40 years ago or less polluted?”
When I ask my students this question, more than 97 percent regularly answer it incorrectly, because there is a generally pessimistic assumption that things only get worse. They have no idea how much better things became as a direct result of a robust and vocal environmental movement, and the subsequent establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency, in the 1970s.
Before regulation, there was virtually no penalty for dumping; and the result was toxic accumulations, burning rivers and poisoned children – especially in poorer urban communities.
Over the past 15 years or so, environmental regulations have been under siege. They have been attacked as “job-killing,” and enforcement divisions have been gutted. Simultaneously, health concerns about both pollution and infrastructural decay have been openly downplayed or dismissed.
The current water crisis in Flint, Michigan, is a shocking example of disdain for an entire urban community -- a terrible and cynical cost-cutting decision by the state government, whose solemn mandate is to protect the public. The resulting disaster was entirely predictable, but expert opinion either was not sought or was dismissed as a “political football” by aides to the Michigan governor.
The message of this disaster is that reasonable and vigorously enforced environmental regulations are critical, as is robust citizen vigilance. We must demand accountability and respect from government officials, as well as from corporations.
Only then can we develop and maintain sustainable and thriving communities.
I’m Reed Scherer, and that’s my perspective.