March 28, 1968
Page 8212
To Save a Nation
HON. EDMUND S. MUSKIE OF MAINE IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES Thursday, March 28, 1968
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, the New York Times recently placed the conservation needs of the Nation in perspective. It did so in an editorial entitled "To Save a Nation," commenting on President Johnson's conservation message.
The editorial was accurate when it said:
No recent administration has accomplished more for conservation than President Johnson's has over the past four years. In part, the President and Secretary of Interior Udall have made good on a generation of agitation and education. They have also provided strong leadership and some fresh initiative on their own.
I ask unanimous consent that the editorial be printed in the Extensions of Remarks.
There being no objection, the editorial was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
TO SAVE A NATION
Man's technological capacity to alter his environment and his preference for speed, profits and convenience have placed his very existence in jeopardy. From the ravaged redwood forests of California to the oil-befouled beaches of Puerto Rico, from the now threatened waters of Lake Baikal in Siberia to the choking, polluted air above New York and a hundred other major cities around the globe, humanity is threatened by the unintended consequences of its own ingenuity.
The reckless, unheeding misuse of technology and the refusal to respect ecological values may make earth an uninhabitable environment. As President Johnson observed in his message to Congress last week, "conservation's concern now is not only for man's enjoyment – but for man's survival."
The issues are worldwide but, until the concern is also worldwide, each nation must act to save itself and try to conserve what it can of the human habitat. The United States, one of the most prodigal offenders, is also one of the leaders in the belated effort to bring technologies and resources into a humane balance. That is what conservation is all about.
No recent Administration has accomplished more for conservation than President Johnson's has over the past four years. In part, the President and Secretary of the Interior Udall have made good on a generation of agitation and education. They have also provided strong leadership and some fresh initiative on their own.
The latest message is in the nature of an interim report, reviewing old problems and calling attention to some that are new. Its greatest merit is its comprehensiveness; it brings together many diverse but interrelated environmental issues.
Three of Mr. Johnson's recommendations are particularly promising. He proposes giving the Secretary of the Interior authority to regulate the viciously destructive stripmining industry. If the states do not devise adequate controls within two years – as Kentucky already has done – the Secretary could impose Federal standards.
Similarly the President asks that the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare be empowered to develop and enforce standards covering chemical as well as biological contaminants of drinking water since a recent study indicates that nearly one-third of the nation's public water systems may not be pure.
And to combat the growing danger to the world's oceans and beaches from tankers which spill oil, Mr. Johnson seeks to create an economic incentive for better management. Shipowners would be required by law to reimburse the Federal Government for the full cost of cleaning up oil pollution.
The exciting ideas about long-range planning set forth in last year's report on the Potomac River Valley are carried forward in the President's recommendation that Congress declare the Potomac a "national river" and provide coordinated types of zoning in the valley.
President Johnson submits seven areas for inclusion in the Wilderness system and renews his request for several valuable pieces of legislation, some of them long in the Congressional mill, to establish a network of scenic hiking trails, protect certain wild and scenic rivers, revive the highway beautification program, replenish the Land and Water Conservation Fund and create national parks in the redwoods and the North Cascades.
If he properly understands his relationship to his environment and has the will and self-discipline to do so, man can be master rather than victim of his own economic and technological forces. The President's message sets forth the minimum measures needed for what must be an unremitting effort.