It may come as a limited surprise that this Earth Day presents many of the same unresolved problems as the first Earth Day in 1970. According to the Earth Day organization:
Groups that had been fighting individually against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness and the extinction of wildlife united on Earth Day around these shared common values. Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, urban dwellers and farmers, business and labor leaders.
Since the first Earth Day, thousands of Iowa's private wells have dangerous levels of nitrites and bacteria, nitrogen pollution flowing out of Iowa to the Gulf of Mexico have grown by close to 50 percent over nearly two decades, and over 700 Iowa waterways are impacted. What is behind much of this? Lax enforcement of existing law as it applies to agriculture particularly as it relates to mitigating animal (mostly hog-related) waste.
In a state where the leadership cuts the budget for the Department of Natural Resources and relies on guidance from the Farm Bureau to make policy, there is a good reason why we are walking backward,. The problem is when will we say "enough already"?
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