[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6267]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                CELEBRATING OUR ENVIRONMENTAL SUCCESSES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEARNS. Madam Speaker, it is estimated that 500 million people 
around the world participated in Earth Day on April 22 this year. We 
should consider how the environment has changed since the first Earth 
Day was celebrated in 1970.
  Although a celebration, Earth Day 1970 generated a large amount of 
dire predictions for the future. I think we should take a moment to 
look back at those. One Harvard biologist declared ``we are in an 
environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this Nation and of 
the world as a suitable place for human habitation.''
  Another common premonition of devastation centered on population 
growth. Environmental doomsayers in 1970 estimated that the world 
population would exceed 7 billion people by the year 2000, prompting 
one Stanford biologist to state, ``At least 100 to 200 million people 
per year will be starving to death during the next 10 years.''
  This picture of widespread starvation has not materialized, nor has 
the population projections. Instead of more than 7 billion people on 
the earth today, we have roughly just 6 billion.
  Just as in 2000, environmentalists in 1970 saw a growing 
environmental catastrophe in the form of climate change. Unlike today, 
30 years ago the alarm was sounded over global cooling. They talked 
about another ice age was in the works.
  One ecologist, Kenneth Watt, proclaimed that, ``The world will be 
about 4 degrees colder . . . in 1990, but 11 degrees colder in the year 
2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice 
age.''
  Now, frankly, there are no ice sheets spreading across this 
continent; the threat of global cooling dissolved into the sea of 
misinformation. However, how can we rage against climatic change if the 
world is not getting colder? It, therefore, must be becoming warmer.
  Evidence indicates that the world's average temperature has increased 
by 1 degree over the past 100 years. However, data from global 
satellites indicate that the earth actually has cooled by less than 
one-tenth of one degree Celsius over the past 18 years. The warnings of 
serious global warming today have as little basis in fact as those for 
global cooling 30 years ago.
  Now, doomsayers in 1970 also warned of poisonous air ravaging the 
populations in our major cities. In that year, Life Magazine said, ``In 
a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air 
pollution.'' The same scientist that predicted that starvation would 
kill ``at least 100 to 200 million people per year'' also opined 3 
decades ago that air pollution would take ``hundreds of thousands of 
lives in the next few years.''
  How is our air quality now? The Environmental Protection Agency 
reports that between 1970 and 1997, emission of every major pollutant 
except nitrogen dioxide has decreased. From 1988 to 1997, the number of 
unhealthy air quality days decreased by an average of two-thirds for 
every major city in the United States of America.
  The first Earth Day in 1970 was observed against a backdrop of dire 
environmental predictions. Unfortunately, Earth Day 2000 was 
accompanied with similar predictions of environmental calamities. 
Instead of providing a platform for the harbingers of ecological 
destruction, we should use Earth Day, I think, to acknowledge the 
progress we have made.
  The environment is better today than it was 10 years ago and better 
than it was 30 years ago. If we continue our present course, it will be 
even better 10 years from today. Thanks to the Heritage Foundation, I 
can share my reasons for this optimism.
  Even though 16 billion cubic feet of timber are harvested each year 
in the United States, net tree growth exceeds tree cuttings by 37 
percent. Today we have more forest area in America than we did in the 
1920's and it is growing.
  The loss of wetlands has been slowing over the past 45 years. From 
1992 through 1996, 160,000 acres of wetlands were restored privately 
through voluntary arrangements each year. The United States is within 
47,000 acres of achieving a ``no net loss'' of wetlands acreage.
  Since 1945, the amount of land committed for parks wilderness and 
wildlife has expanded twice as fast as the growth in urban areas.
  Unfortunately, our major media prefer to focus on the negative; they 
still rely on dire predictions based upon questionable scientific data 
and misinformation. The American people of today and of future 
generations deserve their rich natural heritage of clean air, pure 
water, and unspoiled land. Across the board over the last 3 decades, 
our water, land and air have gotten cleaner. They will be cleaner in 
years to come. That is a message we should be sharing on Earth Day 
2001.




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