[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 45 (Wednesday, April 22, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E628]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         EARTH DAY RECOGNITION

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                           HON. SAM GEJDENSON

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 22, 1998

  Mr. GEJDENSON. Mr. Speaker, as a former member of 4-H while growing 
up in eastern Connecticut, I would like to take this opportunity to 
share with you the results of a recent national poll conducted by 4-H 
and Honda, which shows the American people are demanding more vigilance 
from the U.S. government and industry in safeguarding the environment.
  According to the EarthView survey released this week, teenagers and 
baby boomers agree that government and industry are falling short of 
their environmental obligations and that time is running out to protect 
the Earth from permanent environmental damage.
  Sixty-three percent of teens and 64% of boomers agree that government 
leaders are not concerned about the future impact of today's 
environmental problems.
  Eighty-two percent of teens and 76% of boomers think government 
leaders should do more to control pollution from the oil and chemical 
industries, even if that increases the price of oil.
  The American people have rejected the extreme policies of the anti-
environmentalists in Congress. In fact, every poll conducted since the 
1994 election, which includes questions about the environment, 
demonstrates the vast majority of the American people support the 
progress of the past twenty five years. Moreover, a majority of 
Americans continue to reject the false choice between the environment 
and economic growth. Public opinion aside, the Republican Party is 
committed to rolling back important protections which guarantee every 
American can enjoy a healthy environment. I have opposed these 
dangerous attacks on the House floor as well as a former member of the 
Resources Committee.
  I remain committed to preserving the fundamental tenets of our most 
important environmental statutes. While we have made tremendous 
progress over the last generation, we must remain vigilant. The 
American people do not believe we have gone too far and that it's time 
to turn back the clock. We need to continue our efforts to improve 
water quality to ensure our children will be able to enjoy our precious 
natural resources like the Quinebaug and Shetucket rivers in eastern 
Connecticut and Long Island Sound. We must preserve endangered plants 
and animals for their aesthetic, economic and pharmacological benefits. 
National standards must be maintained to ensure every American, 
regardless of where they live, will receive certain basic protections 
and to guarantee taxpayers in our state do not see their investments 
rendered meaningless by actions of our neighbors. Finally, changes to 
major statutes must be fully debate before the American people and not 
brought about through backdoor tactics.
  Finally, I would like to submit for the Record an op-ed piece by 
William Strauss and Neil Howe which appeared in USA Today regarding 
this survey. Be assured that I will continue to fight to preserve, and 
further, the gains of the past twenty-five years and I hope you will 
join me in the fight.

                 Grandpa Sure Would Like This Earth Day

                   (By William Strauss and Neil Howe)

       The original Earth Day, April 22, 1970, took place when the 
     fabled ``generation gap'' between young boomers and their 
     middle-age parents was at its widest. Back then, eco-
     activists openly loathed the pro-construction mind-set of the 
     dominant ``can-do'' G.I. generation.
       The times, they are (again) a-changin'. A new generational 
     wave is about to break over the environmental movement as the 
     boomers' own ``can-do'' kids come of age, according to a new 
     poll.


                        Enter the `Millennials'

       Today's teens are the front ranks of the Millennial 
     Generation, 1980s babies who are now populating American 
     middle and high schools. Whereas their boomer parents were 
     better talkers than doers, these Millennial kids are doers 
     first, the poll says.
       Millennials are no more like Generation X than inner-driven 
     Xers were like boomers. Through the 1980s and early `90s, Gen 
     X teens commonly viewed Earth Day not as boomer-style ``eco-
     awareness,'' but rather as an occasion to do something 
     personal, local and manageable. They'd recycle, pick up 
     litter or tidy up a park. All that was useful, but it 
     narrowed the crusading spirit of the original Earth-Day 
     activism.
       Earth View, a new poll conducted by the National 4-H 
     Council and Honda, compares the environmental views of 1,000 
     American teen-agers ages 13-18 with those of 1,000 of their 
     parents, now in their 40s and early 50s. The poll reveals 
     that the ``eco-awareness'' of Earth Days gone by soon may be 
     supplanted by ``eco-action.''
       Consider this. Three out of five boomer parents believe 
     their own generation cares more about the environment than 
     their kids do. Talking isn't doing, though. Millennials agree 
     that their parents' generation cares as much about the 
     environment as they do. but they see their own generation as 
     far more inclined to take concrete action.
       Where boomer parents are somewhat more likely than their 
     kids to have donated to eco-causes or to have boycotted 
     polluters' products, more Millenials have actually cleaned up 
     or measured pollution, the poll shows.
       Today's teens are more willing than their parents--or than 
     teens a decade ago--to dig into their pockets. Seven in 10 
     say they would support shelling out 50 cents more per gallon 
     for gasoline to make the air cleaner. Nearly eight in 10 
     would pay 50 cents more per compact disc to fund plastic-
     recycling programs.
       Where the Earth Days of the '70s reflected a distrust of 
     technology--recall the burying of automobiles--the Earth Days 
     of the next century are likely to celebrate it. Aging boomers 
     and Millennials overwhelmingly agree that technology can play 
     a major role in safeguarding the planet.


                            Activism revived

       More than their parents, today's teens feel an urgency 
     about the environment. Yet the Earth View poll also shows 
     them to be more optimistic that they can do something about 
     it. Fully 86% believe that it's their generation--and only 9% 
     believe that it's boomers--whose actions today will matter 
     most in 20 or 25 years.
       If current trends continue, eco-activism early in the next 
     century could become a modern version of what it was in the 
     1930s. That's when uninformed workers from the Civilian 
     Conservation Corps cut trails, planted trees, and built 
     enormous flood-control and power-generation edifices.
       And who were those civic doers whose attitudes remind us of 
     today's teens? The same G.I. Generation that won World War 
     II--and then came home to create suburbia and give birth to 
     the boomers.
       The boomers' own environmental visions may be achieved by 
     their children, whose attitudes resemble the boomers' 
     parents. Yet it's the G.I. generation's grand constructions 
     that the original Earth Day activists so often condemned. How 
     ironic.
       Neil Howe and William Strauss are co-authors of 
     Generations, 13th-Gen and The Fourth Turning.

     

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