Earth Day

Floor Speech

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I rise in support of this resolution commemorating Earth Day and its goals and ideals. The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970 by 20 million people. That same year, President Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency to protect public health and the environment and Congress amended the Clean Air Act with the goals of improving the national air quality, reduce auto emissions, and create antipollution standards.

We have come a long way as a Nation since that first Earth Day. In 1972, when Congress passed the Clean Air Act, only 26 percent of the Nation's streams were safe for swimming and fishing. Today, about 60 percent of our streams are safe for such purposes. This day has a very special meaning for me because of my childhood experiences with streams. In the early thirties, I grew up in the coal mining country of western Pennsylvania, and every one of the streams that I could get to was called a sulfur creek because it contained waters that had leached the sulfur out of the mines. There was only one thing that lived in those creeks, and that was a little red wiggly worm. It must have been tough because nothing else lived there. The rocks were all covered by a slimy, orangish kind of a film. I am sure those streams weren't safe to swim in, but we swam in them anyway because we were too poor to go to the pool. I didn't know where a pool existed. So Earth Day has a very special meaning for me. Those streams now, I think, are all clear thanks to our attention to that.

A few years later, when Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act, ensuring EPA regulate the quality of our drinking water, today many Americans receive annual reports on the quality of their drinking water. In 1987, the United States joined other nations in signing the Montreal Protocol to phase out the production of chlorofluorocarbons, CFCs. As a result, the use of CFCs has been reduced drastically.

As a Nation, we also focused efforts on educating the public on the benefits of recycling and the clean up of hazardous materials from our lands and our waterways. In the 1990s, under President George Bush, we passed the Pollution Prevention Act and the National Environmental Education Act to emphasize the importance of preventing pollution, while educating the public on the potential effects their actions might have on the environment.

During the same period, the EPA established the Energy Star program to provide consumers with information on the availability of energy efficient appliances.

I would like to note, Mr. Speaker, that our efforts on efficiency have really been dramatic, and if it were not for the greatly increased efficiencies we have, we would be in even more trouble environmentally and with oil today than we are.

In 1993, President Clinton launched a program encouraging Federal Government agencies to buy recycled and environmentally friendly products. In recent years, President George W. Bush signed the Brownfields Revitalization Act to reclaim and restore thousands of abandoned properties and the Healthy Forest Restoration Act to prevent forest fires and preserve the Nation's forests.

Throughout the last three decades, efforts have been made to educate the public about the importance of conserving resources, preserving the environment and protecting the air we breathe and the water we drink. Americans have a better quality of life due to our own efforts to clean up the environment for ourselves and our children.

I support this resolution recognizing Earth Day and urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. Speaker, I think that a tipping moment occurred for most Americans when in that spacecraft hurdling toward the Moon they looked back and took a picture of our Earth, how small it was from that vantage point, and we suddenly recognized that the more than 6 billion of us who occupy this Earth ride a rather, in the grand scheme of things, tiny spacecraft. It is our only home.

I am very appreciative of the emphasis today on Earth Day, because I think that it is more than appropriate that we focus on this tiny orb that we are privileged to occupy as we hurdle through space. I remember staying up until 2 o'clock in the morning for that first walk on the Moon, and I remember those early pictures, and, gee, this is our Earth, and it really isn't all that big, is it?

So I thank those who got this legislation together. I am in strong support of recognizing Earth Day and encourage all Americans to do so.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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