Words To Live By: Environment

There’s a lot of talk about the environment these days – climate change of course – but also many other issues. With those issues top of mind, let’s take another look at those seminal radio addresses, written in the late 70’s. Initially, when he set out to write these essays, there was no special plan to cover particular issues. From 1975-1979, he chose various topics week by week, choosing ones that he thought were timely. The result was nonetheless a blueprint for the policy issues that were important to Reagan from 1975-1979.

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And they give us the opportunity to set the record straight about our 40th president’s record on the environment… which is quite impressive. Remember, Ronald Reagan was a great admirer of Teddy Roosevelt and his pro-environment policies. Although he never thought of the environment in political terms, he loved the outdoors since his boyhood wanderings among the “woods and mysteries” of rural Illinois. Perhaps the Rock River was an early refuge for the young man who was a lifeguard for 7 summers. And in adulthood, his ranches were retreats from the masses of humanity, as he thrived on horseback riding and ranch chores. He was a good steward of the land…Rancho del cielo was nestled in an area of steep hillsides, low water pressure and high fire danger, so President Reagan cleared away the brush from his homesite but otherwise left the land intact. He was so caring of the wildlife at Rancho del Cielo that he had rattlesnakes near the ranch house trapped and carted away instead of following the usual ranching practice of simply killing them.

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As president, he was dismayed to learned upon his first visit to Camp David that Richard Nixon had paved over many of the riding trails to provide for a golf cart.

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With that in mind, let’s begin by listening to Environment, which aired in April 1977. In this essay, he tries to strike a careful balance between protecting the environment versus respecting business realities.

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“Everyone know that capitalism is responsible for scarring the earth, polluting the air and water, and squandering nature’s bounty. I’ll be right back.

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“Virtually every one of us is an environmentalist at heart. Therefore, we’re all pre-conditioned to accept the icea that men in search of profit have torn up the hills, scraped the earth bare, destroyed the forests and dumped their waste in the nations’ streams and lakes. The motive, of course, pure greed.

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“Certainly, there are evidences that in the past, when our country seemed limitless in its expanse, capable of bearing the wounds inflicted by puny humans, there was little regard for nature. Admittedly too, it was government that first sounded the alarm. President Teddy Roosevelt, an outdoorsman himself, led the charge. Of course, there were also farsighted individuals who had been crying out against such things as hydraulic mining for gold that ripped into hillsides and choked rivers and streams with gravel. They raised a cry against the early lumber barons who cut down the trees and moved on with no thought of replanting.

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“But today so much progress has been made. The lumber industry is practically on a sustained yield basis planting as many trees as are harvested. Strip miners replace the topsoil and stringent controls limit air and water pollution by industry. Now it seems that we, the people, are the despoilers through our own government agencies.

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“The biggest polluter of San Francisco Bay is the city sewer system. In New York City, it is the dumping of garbage in the Atlantic Ocean that threatens the coast with a tidal wave of toxic sludge. And for a time, the nearest stream or body of water was automatically the city sewer systems.

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“But…we are doing something about it, the present-day doom criers, notwithstanding, we can all agree pretty good about what has been accomplished here in the USA at both the private and government level. In fact, we may be trouble now and then by overkill. Only a few years ago, a governor of one of the states fronting on one f the great lakes, announced he was going to halt any industrial thermal pollution that changed the lakes temperature by more than one degree. By that he meant no plant could turn clean but hot water into the lake which would have meant millions of dollars in cooling towers and equipment. That particular lake undergoes a temperature change of about 40 degrees every year between winter and summer.

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“But to make us a little proud and optimistic, hear the story of a Soviet trawler captain who defected three years ago and sailed his ship into a Swedish port. He has described the fishing operation of those Russian trawlers that seem to be off every coast in every ocean.

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“They use such fine mesh nets that he says they an catch half grown fish of every kind, the result being that much of the catch rots on board. If the refrigerator vessels can’t take what they have, the surplus is thrown overboard polluting the spawning grounds with rotten fish. If they sail into port with their catch and the port facilities can’t handle their haul, it is dumped on shore to decay and taken inland later to be burned.

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“The refugee captain estimated no more than one third of the catch ever reaches the consumer as food. That ties in with other information about Soviet agriculture. Their need for food imports is not alone the result of drought, crop failure or just plan inefficiency in farming. Like the fish, much of their agriculture output rots in the field or spoils in storage.

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“I just thought you’d like to know now that spring is here. This RR – thanks for listening.”

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So, as Governor and as President, perhaps you don’t know that Ronald Reagan approved the toughest antismog laws in the country and…the strongest water pollution control law in US history. A total of 145,000 acres, including forty-one miles of ocean frontage, were added to the state park system.

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At the same time, he vetoed a bill that would have practically eliminated the internal combustion engine and he opposed regulations of the Environmental Protection Agency that would have brought major social and economic disruption in the state of California.

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It’s been said that Ronald Reagan’s finest hour as governor came in 1972 on the issue of the Dos Rios dam, a proposed 730-foot structure on the Middle Fork of the Eel River, one of California’s few remaining wild rivers. Both the army corps of engineers and the state water bureaucracy favored the damn and…almost everyone assumed that a decision in favor of the damn was a forgone conclusion. But Norman Livermore, Reagan’s director of resources and some conservationists pointed out that a historic valley would have been flooded by the damn along with the gravesites of the Yuki Indian tribe. The Yukis argued that their graves and some of the valley was theirs by treat. So Reagan explained that we’ve broken too many damn treaties and rejected the Dos Rios damn while signing the Wild and Scenic Rivers act, commenting…we’re not going to flood them out.

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On that subject, let’s listen to Endangered Species, a common sense essay on the challenge of protecting mother nature while being fair to all entities involved.

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“How much do you miss dinosaurs?? Would your life be richer if those giant pre-historic flying lizards occasionally settled on your front lawn?? I’ll be right back.

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“Since the beginning of life on this planet, thousands of species, plant and animal have disappeared every century as part of the evolutionary process in an ever changing world.

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“We, as humans, share a feeling of guilt because as our numbers have increased we have contributed to the disappearance of some species by destroying their habitat or hunting them down for food, fur and feathers.? And sometimes our guilt makes us forget those thousands of species that simply ceased to exist before man ever appeared in the primeval swamp.

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“Today we are trying to halt as best we can our contribution to, or hastening of the disappearance of existing plant and animal life.? We have identified endangered species and passed laws preventing any act by man which might reduce their numbers.? And I’m sure there is general agreement with this policy.? But shouldn’t we now and then remember nature’s part in the elimination of some species and separate the serious from the silly in our own policy?

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“Up in Maine, a mammoth hydro-electric generating facility was scheduled to be constructed in a part of America, the North East, where power is in short supply.?? The Dickey-Lincoln dam site was key to this $1.3 billion project on the St. John River.? Many factors were taken into consideration and a great deal of study went into planning such an expensive project, as you can well imagine.?

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“Then about a year ago someone discovered a clump of wild flowers, about 200 in all in the area to be flooded by the building of the dam.? They were a species of snapdragon, thought to be extinct, called the Furbish-Lousewart.? The $1.3 billion Dickey-Lincoln generating facility is now halted stopped dead in its tracks by the endangered species act of 1973.?

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“I’m not a botanist, but isn’t it possible those plants could be transplanted?? I’ve transplanted wild flowers on the ranch with little or no trouble at all.? I’ve even gathered seeds and helped the spread of some types to other parts of the ranch.? And can anyone really say there aren’t other clumps of Furbish-Louswart hidden in the woods of Maine as this clump was hidden until humans invaded the area to build a dam?

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“Down on the Little Tennessee River, the Tennessee Valley Authority has been building a dam to produce electricity for about 200,000 homes, and I don’t know how many industries, providing jobs for people in those homes.? This project has been going on for about 10 years so far.? $116,000,000 have been spent and the huge Tellico-Dam is 95% complete.? Apparently that’s as far as it will get.? A federal court has stopped construction because a 3 inch fish, called the Snail Darter, has been found to spawn in the waters of the Little Tennessee River.? This particular “Snail Darter” is an endangered species even though it differs only slightly from the 77 other kinds of Darters found in the rivers of Tennessee.

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“To date more than 200 project have been halted to protect among other things an inedible clam, some crayfish and freshwater snails.? And the Fish and Wildlife service announces it is now going to classify as “endangered” some 1700 species of plants.? It is time to ask if some environmentalists and I do mean some, aren’t using the Endangered Species Act of 1973 simply to halt construction of projects they don’t like; which is too bad, because most of the billions of dollars I’ve mentioned would be in pay checks.

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“This is Ronald Reagan.? Thanks for listening.”

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Now, we know Ronald Reagan cared deeply about the environment, but that concern was placed within his bigger belief that freedom and America was unique among all nations and essentially, the “hope of mankind.” He felt we had a duty to protect what we inherited – whether in a physical environmental sense or a theoretical, libertarian sense. He also believed we had a duty to spread the message to the rest of the world, like missionaries. His guiding star was individual liberty, how lucky we are to have it, and how to preserve it and protect it.

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That said, let’s listen to a radio address entitled, “The Hope of Mankind” delivered on September 21st, 1976.

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“Sometimes I think we need to remind ourselves of what it is we’re trying to preserve in this country. I’ll be right back.

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“Every once in a while, all of us native born Americans should make it a point to have a conversation with one who is an American by choice. They can do a lot to firm up our resolve to be free for another 200 years.

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“In a dinner at Mt. Vernon back in revolutionary times, Lafayette turned to his host and said, “General Washington, you Americans even in war and desperate times have a superb spirit. You are happy and you are confident. Why is it?” Washington answered, “There is freedom, there is space for a man to be alone and think and there are friends who owe each other nothing but affection.” So simple an answer and so true.

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“Now, 200 years later, our self-respect as a nation has undergone a strain. At times it has seemed as if the symbol of American power has become our departing ambassador, flags under his arm boarding a rescue helicopter.

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“But there is an awful lot of that other America still around. Like beauty it may be in the eye of the beholder. A few years back a woman who had fled from Poland wrote a letter and said, “Among some of our American born friends it is not fashionable to be enthusiastic about America. There are illegal drugs, urban and racial conflict, poverty and pollution. Undoubtedly, this country faces urgent and serious problems. But we newcomers see not only the problems but also solutions being sought and applied.

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“I love America because people accept me for what I am. They don’t question my ancestry, my faith, my political beliefs. When I want to move from one place to another, I don’t have to ask permission. When I need a needle I go to the nearest store and get one. I don’t have to stand in line for hours to buy a piece of tough, fat meat. Even with inflation, I don’t have to pay a day’s earnings for a small chicken.

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“I love America because America trusts me. I don’t have to show an identity card to buy a pair of shoes. My mail isn’t censored and my conversation with my friends isn’t reported to the secret police.

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“Recently, on July 5th, the London Daily Mail filled its editorial page with an article by Ferdinand Mount in which he sharply criticized his fellow Britons and other Europeans who delight in lambasting the US. He said, “What the world needs now is more Americans. The US is the 1st nation on earth deliberately dedicated to letting people choose what they want and giving them a chance to get it. For all its terrible faults in one since America is still the last, best hope of mankind. Because it spells out so vividly the kind of happiness which most people actually want, regardless of what they are told they ought to want. We criticize, he said, copy, patronize, idolize, insult but we never doubt that the US has a unique position in the history of human hopes. For it is the only nation founded solely on a moral dream. A part of our own future is tied up in it and the greatest of all the gifts the Americans have given us is hope.”

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“Thank you Mr. Mount – we needed that. This is RR – thanks for listening.”

On that inspiring note, we hope you have a little extra hope in your soul. And…thanks for listening.

?#RonaldReagan #Environment #ClimateChange