Earth Day , environmental allies, and vital tools
No. 06 | April 22, 2024
Happy Earth Day.
Earth Day is now 54 years old, and for many of you reading this, it has been a fixture of your adult life (or your entire life, full stop).
US Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-WI) proposed the first Earth Day in 1970. Reflecting on it a decade later, he sounded quite surprised at the attention it received, and the breadth and depth of public engagement.
“My primary objective in planning Earth Day was to show the political leadership of the Nation that there was broad and deep support for the environmental movement. While I was confident that a nationwide peaceful demonstration of concern would be impressive, I was not quite prepared for the overwhelming response that occurred on that day. Two thousand colleges and universities, ten thousand high schools and grade schools, and several thousand communities in all, more than twenty million Americans participated in one of the most exciting and significant grassroots efforts in the history of this country.”
In his remembrance, Senator Nelson also listed “the basic legislation needed to protect the environment” that had been enacted into law in the 1970s:
the Clean Air Act
the Water Quality Improvement Act
the Water Pollution and Control Act Amendments
the Resource Recovery Act
the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
the Toxic Substances Control Act
the Occupational Safety and Health Act
the Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act
the Endangered Species Act
the Safe Drinking Water Act
the Federal Land Policy and Management Act
the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act
Nelson then adds,
“And, the most important piece of environmental legislation in our history, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was signed into law on January 1, 1970. NEPA came about in response to the same public pressure which later produced Earth Day.”
NEPA itself says the Act “is often called the "Magna Carta" of Federal environmental laws”. An apt description, but I imagine many participants in environmental impact statements would prefer a bit of the Great Charter’s spirit of brevity (3,500 words) over today’s typical 600 pages and 4.5 years’ completion time.
And while imagine many people associate environmentalism more with Jimmy Carter than his 1970s predecessor, it is Richard Nixon that we must thank for the Environmental Protection Agency. It is worth reading his statement on the environment and technology in Nixon’s special message to Congress in February 1972.
MAKING TECHNOLOGY AN ENVIRONMENTAL ALLY
The time has come to increase the technological resources allocated to the challenges of meeting high-priority domestic needs. In my State of the Union Message last month, I announced an expanded Federal research and development commitment for this purpose. There is great potential for achievement through technology in the fight against pollution and the larger drive for quality in our environment.
The temptation to cast technology in the role of ecological villain must be resisted--for to do so is to deprive ourselves of a vital tool available for enhancing environmental quality. As Peter Drucker has said, "the environment is a problem of [the] success" of technological society, by no means a proof of its failure. The difficulties which some applications of technology have engendered might indeed be rectified by turning our backs on the 20th century, but only at a price in privation which we do not want to pay and do not have to pay. There is no need to throw out the baby with the bath water. Technology can and must be wisely applied so that it becomes environmentally self-corrective. This is the standard for which we must aim.
This spirit - that technology is a vital tool for creating a better physical world - motivates many of the company founders and climate investors I know. I wonder how many today would attribute it to Richard Milhous Nixon (or at least, his 1972 speechwriter).
Brian Potter has a superb long read on how NEPA works, and how a “seemingly minor provision” has made it so influential today.
Halcyon
Last week, my co-founders and I announced Halcyon, an AI-assisted search and information platform that helps those navigating the energy transition and decarbonization. Thank you to those who have sent a note of support - I look forward to hearing from many more of you with energy/climate/infrastructure/decarbonization information problems that we can address with technology.
Media
I enjoyed speaking with Ben Shwab Eidelson on the Climate Papa podcast. A treat to talk more about research process than research output, and on what I hope to achieve with a big annual slide presentation.
Chart - one time series, five countries, and many energy stories
