… with progress

Anniversaries are a good time for reflection. Gathering with family and friends, we can recall fond memories and share hopes for the future. A welcome respite from the trials of day-to-day life, these milestones remind us of all that is good in life and how fortunate we are.

At least, that is how most of us appreciate anniversaries. For a few, however, anniversaries apparently offer a chance to forget all that is good in their lives. Gathering with friends and family, they will recall all that is wrong with the world and share their apocalyptic fears for the days ahead. Sound absurd? Just pay attention in the next days as we approach the 34th anniversary of Earth Day.

In April 1970, activists concerned about pollution and the environment created Earth Day, to focus attention on conservation and the need to ensure a clean and healthy future for the planet. Through a combination of educational outreach and targeted political activism, they have greatly heightened the public’s awareness about the environment.

In public opinion surveys, concern about the environment routinely ranks among voter’s top concerns. This awareness, combined with economic growth and technological improvements, have had a dramatic and positive impact. This week would seem a good time to reflect on the outstanding progress that has been made.

Photographs of American cities just 30 years ago depict buildings black with soot and skies of yellow haze. The sight of brown exhaust billowing out of automobile pipes was common. Many urban areas lived for large parts of the year under “smog alerts.” In the past 30 years, though, we have literally experienced a “breath of fresh air.”

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, ambient levels of the pollutants that most affect air quality have fallen two-thirds. Carbon monoxide has decreased more than 66 percent. Airborne lead, which, when entering the bloodstream can stunt brain development in children, has all but disappeared — falling 99 percent in the last few decades. Sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, ozone, soot and dust have all experienced dramatic reductions. As a result, we experience just a fraction of the “smog alert” days in American cities in the 1970s

If this were the only environmental improvement of the last 30 years, it would be cause enough for hearty celebration. But cleaner air is only one victory on long list of recent environmental accomplishments.

By virtually any measurement — access to clean water, acreage of forests and wetlands, use of toxic chemicals, amount of “open space” — the environment improves daily. Even on endangered species (which always get much press attention), the biggest policy debate is over how to reintroduce formerly endangered species into nature. There is so much environmental good news it’s frankly becoming a bit boring.

And there’s the problem. It is hard to get people motivated behind a slogan like, “Things are great. Keep up the good work.” We often don’t think of it this way, but in many ways environmental activism is a business much like any other. Organizations like Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Natural Resources Defense Council and others have large, permanent, full-time staff. They have annual budgets. They have business plans, complete with revenue targets and expenditures.

Capital Research Center policy institute estimated the U.S. environmental “industry” took in just over $8 billion in annually. Worldwide, the “industry” gets about $40 billion yearly.

These revenues come mostly from the contributions of millions of individuals with a genuine concern for the health of the environment. It’s not unreasonable to assume many of these individuals might take their activism — and their dollars — elsewhere, if they knew how much progress has been made.

It is well known that when a mature business runs into trouble maintaining its revenues, it will launch a new product or a new design of an old product. It seems many environmental groups have adopted this time-honored strategy. Each year, Earth Day signals the launch of a new “crisis,” a new potential environmental disaster that demands our attention.

Instead of coming together to celebrate the great strides we have made, and drawing inspiration for the challenges we must still tackle, Earth Day has devolved into a kind of medieval “day of atonement.” In beautiful city parks across the country, speakers will take the microphone and admonish us for our sins, demanding we repent. It’s too bad.

Organizers of the first Earth Day showed their enthusiasm and optimism by selecting a spring date for the celebration. In spring, nature is reborn in all its glory. It is a season synonymous with hope, unbridled expectation. The environmental progress of the last few decades merits an Earth Day celebration worthy of this. It’s too bad some want to turn it into the “winter of our discontent.”

Sandy Liddy Bourne is director of the Energy, Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Task Force at the American Legislative Exchange Council.