Scott Pruitt must respond to the environment

Our earth is under attack ~ Cincinnati Enquirer

Not from malicious invaders from outer space. Not from provocative North Koreans. But from narrow-minded economic interests and their political allies who are threatening our planet’s very existence by their shortsighted (environmental) actions. 

A sense of environmental awareness was a long time coming in the United States. As America expanded across the continent in the 19th century, the Robber Barons of the Gilded Age built an economic empire, but always with an eye on personal gain.

And in the process, they paid little attention to maintaining the natural beauty of the nation. 

In fact, the millions of buffalo on the Plains were in the way, and so gave way to the crops that were planted and the cattle and sheep that grazed on the land.

Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican, was the first President concerned with conservation. An amateur naturalist who loved the outdoors, he used his executive authority in the early years of the 20th century to more than triple the land allocated for natural forests. He also used what he called the “bully pulpit” to raise public consciousness about the need to save natural resources and appointed a National Conservation Commission to inventory natural resources. And in the process, he angered those interests who simply wanted to use the land for their own ends.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, shared Theodore’s sense of environmental consciousness. 

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, he created the Civilian Conservation Corps which both put people back to work and helped tend to the natural environment in long-overdue ways.

He also embarked on policies to deal with the ravages of the dust storms that attacked the heartland of the country. And he pushed through the huge federal project to harness water power for the public good through the Tennessee Valley Authority.

There was no time for environmental activity during World War II, and little interest in the 1950s, as big business boomed once again. Then, in 1962, naturalist Rachel Carson published Silent Spring alerting the public to the consequences of DDT, and in 1964, architect Peter Blake wrote God’s Own Junkyard: The Planned Deterioration of America’s Landscape, recording the ravages of unbridled capitalism. Those books and others began to foster a renewed sense of environmental awareness.

By 1970, 53 percent of the population considered air and water pollution to be major national problems.

Responding to that growing consciousness, Republican Richard Nixon oversaw the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1963 and the Water Quality Improvement Act in 1970, and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), also in 1970. There was a clear sense of the need to protect the environment that governed for almost 50 years.

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Environmentalists must continue to petition Scott Pruitt to fulfill his obligation to care for clean air and water. In fact, the public health is at risk for increased respiratory illnesses and water borne bacteria (not to mention the danger of lead poisoning),

Instead, the current Secretary of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Pruitt is intent on breaking down safeguards that have protected clean water, and air quality, by ignoring or recalling pubic health regulations.

In the Cincinnati Inquirer, this "encore", a letter to the editor re-blogged, questions the EPA process for supporting a clean environment:

Letter to the Editor ~In contributor Allan Winkler’s article “Threats to Earth grow Intense” (Oct. 23), he concludes with a call for us to respond to the Trump’s dismantling of environmental protections before it’s too late. This raises the obvious question of, “Well, what can we do?”

Trump and EPA head Scott Pruitt seem to be making these choices — which will have long-term consequences — without oversight or input from the American people.

The environmentalists of the past inspired change by opening people’s eyes to the devastating exploitation of Earth’s resources happening around them; today, it’s hard to find that kind of voice. 

But when facing this kind of reality, there doesn't seem to be many other options than to try.

Lauren Godfrey, Maineville ~ Scott Pruitt alert!