On the recordMay 7, 1997
In 1938 we had a major flood in California. I was 4 years old. I remember it clearly, dropping a ping pong ball outside my back window and it dropped about 12 to 18 inches and hit the water and floated out through the back fence. At that point in time, I understood clearly that nature could have a very big impact upon our lives and that disasters were of great potential that we needed to pay great attention to. The next event involved the late 1960's, when my colleague from California who is standing over here and I discovered the word environment. And it was a very important development before all of us recognized that mankind was having an impact upon our environment that we needed to pay very careful attention to. As a result of that and the work involving that, I once chaired a committee that developed the toughest air quality management district in the country. I take a back seat to nobody in terms of environmental questions.
Source
govinfo.gov
