Posted: 04/19/2004 | Author: H. Sterling Burnett
Energy Legislation: Another Earth Day with Much to Celebrate
The environment has improved markedly since the first Earth Day in 1970. As proof, one needn’t look further than the “2004 Index of Leading Environmental Indicators” published by the American Enterprise Institute with input from environmental scholars at a variety of research institutes. 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, pun intended, things are getting better as well. For instance, by 2002 the percent 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-1950s to less than 50,000 acres lost each year by the mid-1990s. 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!
On the climate front, reality, rather than the hype that had up until recently dominated the global warming debate, is beginning to rule the roost. For example, numerous analysts, including us at the NCPA, have long argued that the Kyoto Protocol to limit greenhouse gas emissions was flawed in theory and unworkable in practice. Even if one believes that humans are causing climate change, Kyoto would do nothing to prevent it. If all the parties to Kyoto met their greenhouse gas targets, global temperature would be an insignificant 1/2 of 1 degree cooler than it would have been without the treaty because fast growing countries such as China, India, South Korea and Indonesia are exempt from emissions cuts.
Fortunately, facts on the ground are quickly putting the final nails in Kyoto’s coffin. Following the U.S. and Australia, in late 2003, Russia firmly rejected signing the treaty arguing that it would put Russia in an untenable economic position of restraining its already anemic growth. In addition, the best evidence is that the European Union, which led the fight for Kyoto, will be unable to meet its own emission reduction commitments under the treaty. Economic growth, at least within the constraints of present technology, requires increased energy use. European countries are choosing increased employment, rising wages and improved standards of living over economic sacrifice in the pursuit of a failed environmental treaty.
This leaves the world arguably in a better place since rather than spending precious time and resources slowing the rise in greenhouse gas emissions—which may or may not mitigate climate change—world leaders can direct their efforts on preparing for a warmer world, with all of its variable effects, regardless of the cause.
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—to replace the current President—and their fundraising efforts.