Political Quotes

“Mr. President, 40 years ago, Senator Gaylord Nelson attempted to bring attention to a degraded environment through a day dedicated to our planet. On April 22, 1970, environmental issues, as they are today, were challenging oxygen levels in the Androscoggin River in my great state of Maine frequently reached zero during the summer, resulting in the death of nearly all fish and other aquatic life in the river and carbon monoxide and ozone emissions significantly degraded our country's air quality. The environmental, economic, and personal costs of a failure to recognize the benefits of a healthy environment had reached a tipping point for many American citizens who demanded action both through greater awareness of personal environmental decisions and through new public laws. Millions of Americans, as Senator Nelson said, ``organized themselves'' to not only protest the degradation of our environment, but also to educate each other on personal steps to reduce waste, increase recycling, and together improve the condition of environment around us. Four decades later, Earth Day serves as a consequential reminder of what we have achieved since 1970, and what we still have left to accomplish, especially as we evaluate the current state of our environment. In that light, on this Earth Day, as the ranking member of Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard, I held a hearing on the threat of acidification on the largest ecosystems of the world, our oceans.…”