[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 63 (Thursday, April 19, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S4748]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               EARTH DAY

  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I commemorate April 22--Earth Day 2007, 
a day set aside to celebrate gains we have made in improving the 
environment and to renew our commitment to protect our planet.
  Earth Day was established by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin and 
was first celebrated in 1970. Senator Nelson firmly believed that 
education was the key to changing people's attitude about the 
environment. Since then, the Earth Day celebration has spread 
throughout the nation and to the rest of the world, with more and more 
people getting involved in efforts to clean and nurture the 
environment.
  Despite Earth Day's popularity and the many programs that were 
created to improve the health of the planet, our world is still wrought 
with environmental problems. We still face many pressing issues such as 
global warming, protecting our coastal waters from over-fishing, and 
preserving America's most precious resource lands from the Alaskan 
Tongass Rainforest to the Redrock lands in Utah, to our own Chesapeake 
Bay.
  Today, we face a serious and growing threat from global warming. 
Recently I told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee about 
the immediate threats that global warming poses to Maryland. A 
significant part of Maryland is in low-lying areas that would be 
inundated if global temperatures keep rising. The National Flood 
Insurance Program has designated more than 12 percent of Maryland as a 
special flood hazard area, and an estimated 68,000 Maryland homes and 
buildings are located within a flood plain.
  We are already seeing the effects. About a third of Blackwater 
National Wildlife Refuge on the Eastern Shore has been lost to sea 
level rise in the past 70 years. Smith Island, situated in the 
Chesapeake Bay, has lost 30 percent of its land to rising sea levels 
since 1850.
  I have long supported a comprehensive, environmentally friendly 
energy policy that emphasizes increasing the availability and use of 
renewable energy, as well as promoting greater energy efficiency. 
Energy efficiency and renewable energy will reduce America's dangerous 
dependency on foreign oil while also dramatically reducing greenhouse 
gases.
  Closer to home, we must continue to focus our efforts on restoring 
the Chesapeake Bay. The Bush administration's budget proposes drastic 
cuts to vital initiatives, including environmental education, funds to 
upgrade wastewater treatment plants, and several farm bill conservation 
programs that help farmers reduce nutrient runoff from entering the 
Bay. The budget resolution that I helped draft and the Senate passed 
last month restores many of those dangerous cuts, but we still have 
much work ahead of us to assure that these critical Federal programs 
are fully funded.
  Earth Day celebrations serve as important reminders that we cannot 
take our natural resources for granted. I urge all Americans to join 
together to protect, preserve, and restore the planet's natural 
treasures.

                          ____________________