01 Apr 2000 Earth Day Reflections

Earth Day 2000 Fact Sheet

Earth Day Reflections

• "One effect of the success of the environmental movement over the last thirty years is that environmental issues have become more intangible. Because of our success in cleaning up much of the worst, people can’t easily see the remainder that needs to be accomplished." – Bruce Hamilton, Sierra Club’s National Conservation Director, on the occasion of Earth Day’s 30th anniversary.
  
  
• "The past 25 years have left us with a complex and unwieldy system of laws and regulations and increasing conflict over how we achieve environmental protection. The result of this history? An adversarial system of environmental policy. A system built on distrust." – EPA Administrator Carol Browner, "The Earth is in Your Hands," April 1995.
  
  
• "We need to re-convince America that the environmental movement is not an elitist crusade, but a struggle to ensure a sustainable future." – Denis Hayes, Executive Director of Earth Day 1970, on the occasion of Earth Day’s 25th anniversary.
  
  
• "The experience of this century has been the opposite of that claimed by many environmentalists. Where most of the economic growth has occurred, the environment has become cleaner and healthier. It is in the poor countries, where growth has been generally meagre, that air and water pollution is an increasing hazard to health." – Editorial, "Our Durable Planet," The Economist, September 1999.