By Sterling Burnett, KERA 90.1 commentator
Dallas, TX – Earth Day 2004 - April 22nd to the general public - passed with very little fanfare. Why? Perhaps because the press has finally wised up to the fact that despite the annual doomsday predictions of environmental organizations, the environment is actually improving every year. In a mass media world where the catch phrase "if it bleeds, it leads" is the order of the day, good news doesn't sell as well as disaster, so Earth Day got only slightly more coverage than headlines such as "New Schools Open in Iraq," or "Church Attendance Up" might have gotten.
The environment has improved markedly since the first Earth Day in 1970. As proof, one needs to look no further than the "2004 Index of Leading Environmental Indicators," published by the American Enterprise Institute. The 2004 Index shows that since 1976, aggregate emission of air pollutants measured by the Environmental Protection Agency all substantially declined. Indeed, pick a pollutant, its levels have declined: ozone is down 31 percent; sulfur dioxide is down 70 percent; nitrogen dioxide is down 41 percent, carbon monoxide is down 75 percent, particulates are down 28 percent and lead has decline 98 percent.
Much of the decline is due to the fact that cars are getting cleaner every year. Indeed, contrary to the popular impression given to the public by environmental extremists, today's SUVs are nearly as clean as new sedans and minivans and much cleaner than either the big or small cars of yesteryear. Accordingly, vehicle emissions are dropping an average of 10 percent per year as the vehicle fleet turns over.
On the water front, things are getting better as well. For instance, by 2002 the percentage of the U.S. population served by a water system that had no reported violations of water quality health standards had risen to 94 percent from 79 percent in 1993. In addition, the loss of wetlands to development and agriculture has steadily declined from 400,000 acres of wetlands lost on average annually in the mid-1950's to less than 50,000 acres lost each year by the mid-1990's. And due to a combination of public and private wetland restoration efforts, the U.S. may currently be experiencing a net gain in wetlands. For instance, the Wetlands Reserve Program alone has restored as much as 210,000 acres of wetlands in some years.
AEI's Index also shows that according to the EPA, the amount of toxic chemicals released, measured against a 1988 baseline, has declined by 55 percent, despite the fact that the total output of the industries covered by the measurement had increased by more than 40 percent. Ain't technological improvement grand!
None of the above is to say that the world doesn't face serious environmental difficulties. The state of the world's fisheries is dire, developed countries face rising rates of childhood asthma and developing countries continue to be plagued by malaria and grinding poverty. These issues need attention but they can be dealt with.
Only Washington insider environmental organizations could bemoan or ignore the significant environmental improvements that the U.S. has made in the past 30 years. Good news, after all, is bad for both their political aspirations and their fundraising efforts.
Sterling Burnett is a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis. If you have opinions or rebuttals regarding this commentary, call (214) 740-9338 or contact our website at KERA.ORG.