April 22, 2008 is EARTH DAY or EARTHDAY that appear to be separate groups. Earth Day was founded in 1970 and the Environmental Protection Agency’s official birthday, listed on its website, is December 2, 1970. EARTHDAY’s website says it promotes environmental citizenship and year round “progressive action” worldwide. Twenty million people across America celebrated the first Earth Day and the number has remained constant. The EARTHDAY website says 1 billion worldwide are involved to some degree.
The ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY EARTH DAY website focuses on domestic issues and events and shares in the EPA’S federal taxpayer budget specifically allocated $3 million for the day exclusive of indirect costs that may add another $20 million to the figure. The EPAs spends nearly $1 million an hour. For fiscal year 2009 it requested $7.1 billion for 17,000 full-time equivalent employees.
EPA’s website credits Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, with an epiphany of conservation calling it “This exhaustively researched, carefully reasoned, and beautifully written attack on the indiscriminate use of pesticides.” More recently Carson’s core allegation that wild bird’s eggshells were being thinned due to DDT has been debunked and much of its 1972 ban has been rolled back amid estimates its banning unnecessarily costs 20 million human death mostly from malaria. A REASON magazine study puts it in summary this way, “Carson’s concerns about the effects of synthetic chemicals on human health were not completely unwarranted. Along with other researchers, she was simply ignorant of the facts. But after four decades in which tens of billions of dollars have been wasted chasing imaginary risks without measurably improving American health, her intellectual descendants don’t have the same excuse.”
President Bush announced his plan this week to limit greenhouse gases — he said he will ban all greenhouses. — Leno
Last 5 posts by Richard Cochrane
- Washington Post ‘McNasties’ McCain - April 20th, 2008
- Maher’s Non-Apology To Pope and Catholics - April 20th, 2008
- McCain Leads; Obama and Clinton ‘Unfavorables’ Climb - April 19th, 2008
- HBO’s Bill Maher Says Pope a NAZI. - April 18th, 2008
- “Change” Is Political Favorite But, Be Careful What You Get. - April 18th, 2008
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