GayandRight

My name is Fred and I am a gay conservative living in Ottawa. This blog supports limited government, the right of the State of Israel to live in peace and security, and tries to expose the threat to us all from cultural relativism, post-modernism, and radical Islam. I am also the founder of the Free Thinking Film Society in Ottawa (www.freethinkingfilms.com)

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Environment is better than you think....

The world is getting better, and cleaner...a few stats about the US...

Since 1970, the year of the first Earth Day, America's population has increased by 42%, the country's inflation-adjusted gross domestic product has grown 195%, the number of cars and trucks in the United States has more than doubled, and the total number of miles driven has increased by 178%.

But during these 35 years of growing population, employment, and industrial production, the Environmental Protection Agency reports, the environment has substantially improved. Emissions of the six principal air pollutants have decreased by 53%. Carbon monoxide emissions have dropped from 197 million tons per year to 89 million; nitrogen oxides from 27 million tons to 19 million, and sulfur dioxide from 31 million to 15 million. Particulates are down 80%, and lead emissions have declined by more than 98%.

When it comes to visible environmental improvements, America is also making substantial progress:

• The number of days the city of Los Angeles exceeded the one-hour ozone standard has declined from just under 200 a year in the late 1970s to 27 in 2004.

• The Pacific Research Institute's Index of Leading Environmental Indicators shows that "U.S. forests expanded by 9.5 million acres between 1990 and 2000."

• While wetlands were declining at the rate of 500,000 acres a year at midcentury, they "have shown a net gain of about 26,000 acres per year in the past five years," according to the institute.

4 Comments:

Blogger Brian in Calgary said...

I'll bet you won't see this info in a CBC story.

4:38 PM  
Blogger Suricou Raven said...

Good, but not yet good enough! Carbon dioxide emissions are still far too high, and the dependance on non-renewable resources is great enought to be a looming problem for the future.

3:53 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

A reason why environment is doing better is because the warmer weather is raising humidity levels in the tropics, and this increases the amount of vegetation. That new vegetation in hand will absorb more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, thus we have a natural control system. A major problem though is that we're killing a lot of this vegetation in the Amazon... If you want to really fight climate change, regulating CO2 emissions will do practically nothing, it's the preservation and growth of vegetation that is important.

12:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Um.. I believe the better standards shouldn't be stalled or rolled back, we should continue to decrease emissions. I find it humorous that I search for this topic and find a posting about how "great" the environment is from a Conservative, and a Canadian no less. I'll not think so highly of Canada next time I'm looking at a map. LOL

6:38 AM  

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