Earth Day 2005 - Getting Better all the Time

Reason‘s Ron Bailey opines on the 35th anniversary of Earth Day:

The Hallmarkization of Earth Day aptly symbolizes the predicament of 21st century ideological environmentalism. Unfortunately for green activists, the public now recognizes that their relentless predictions of imminent environmental apocalypse are a bunch of hooey. In fact, people need only look around to see that the state of the natural world in the United States and much of the world has greatly improved over the past 35 years. Sure, public schools still teach environmental doomster tracts to impressionable children, but public schools are always decades behind the rest of society, being, after all, the absolutely last places where new facts and ideas infiltrate.

And be sure to check out the 2005 edition of the Index of Leading Environmental Indicators for more on the positive environmental trends that the media fails to make room for amid the endless torrent of doom-and-gloom articles. For example, check out these air pollution stats. According to EPA data, since 1976:

ozone levels have decreased by 31 percent
sulfur dioxide levels have decreased by 72 percent,
nitrogen dioxide levels have decreased by 42 percent,
carbon dioxide levels have decreased by 76 percent (!),
particulates (smoke and dust) have decreased by 31 percent, and
air quality in the 10 largest U.S. metro areas has improved an average of 53 percent in the last 25 years.

Doesn’t quite jive with The Day After Tomorrow alarmism we’re used to hearing, huh? Read the 2005 Index for even more food for thought. And be sure to pass some of this environmental sanity along to others; friends don’t let friends believe the enviro-nonsense that emanates from Big Media. And if you have kids, it is ABSOLUTELY your mandatory duty to give them a healthy dose of deprogramming this weekend.

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Earth Day 2005 – Getting Better all the Time