Editor’s note: This oped is by George Plumb, a long time volunteer environmental activist and is currently the executive director of Vermonters for Sustainable Population. He may be reached at gplumb@pshift.com.
40 Years of Earth Day – What Has Been Accomplished?
Vermont Population
1970 – 444,732
2010 – 621,760 or a 40% increase
Number of Environmental Organizations in Vermont with Staff
1970 – 0
2010 – 71
Number of Vermont Colleges and Universities with Environmental Programs
1970 – 1
2010 – 12
Vermont Government Expenditures for the Environment/% of State Budget
1970 – $4,815,019 or 2.0%
2010 – $82,304,483 or 1.7%
Condition of the Environment
1970 – There were certainly environmental problems in Vermont. Large scale land development including great expansion of the ski areas, building of malls, and large subdivisions were just beginning. There was also point source pollution including untreated waste water going into our rivers and air pollution from manufacturers. However, the problems were largely local in nature and could be dealt with through environmental regulation such as Act 250 and building sewage treatment plants.
2010 – The health of Vermont environment has gotten worse. How do we know this?
We know this anecdotally from the huge increase in the number of environmental organizations and environmental programs at colleges and universities. If the environment was improving would there be such a great need for the increase in organizations and programs? Unfortunately, although we have more serious environmental problems now than we had then the percent of state expenditures on the environment has decreased slightly.
More importantly, we know the environment has deteriorated from empirical environmental data showing historic trends. There are three different environmental reports that show a wide variety of data. The most comprehensive is the Disappearing Vermont? report published by Vermonters for Sustainable Population. It lists thirty-one different indicators of environmental health, including both objective and quantifiable data and subjective and non-quantifiable measures. Of the thirty-one indicators, twenty-three show a decline, two are about the same, and only six have improved and those only slightly. The other comprehensive reports were published by the Council on the Future of Vermont and the Vermont Community Foundation and show similar results.
Globally the environmental situation is even worse. Global warming, dead seas, clearing of rain forests, collapsing fisheries, and loss of biodiversity were not a problem in 1970. Now the Data Center of the Earth Policy Institute documents the many ways the global environment is deteriorating.
Why are our environmental problems getting so much worse both here in Vermont and globally?
The most important cause is population growth. While the Vermont population increased by 177,000 during the last forty years, the U.S. population increased by 139 million! It continues to grow by approximately three million people per year. Lester Brown, the president of the Earth Policy Institute and author of Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, recently stated that, “Despite forty years of Earth Day our environmental situation has become much worse, and population growth since that time has been a major cause.”
Unfortunately, during these forty years of trying to solve our environmental problems we have primarily been dealing with the symptoms and not the cause of those symptoms. It is like dealing with a car that is leaking oil from the engine. If we just keep adding more oil we are only dealing with the symptom, and the underlying cause only gets worst. On the other hand if we fix the engine gasket the problem stops. In our environment we are dealing with water pollution by adding and upgrading waste water treatment plants. However, that doesn’t stop the silt and other pollution caused by non-point source pollution from developed land. Acre for acre developed land causes more pollution than agricultural land. And it is more than the environment that is being polluted. Research by the Vt. Public Interest Research Group shows that all Vermont human bodies now have toxic chemicals in them!
When the first Earth Day was held on April 22 in 1970, population growth was at the top of the agenda. A headline in the Burlington Free Press on April 23 reads, “Dr. Gray Says Mankind Must Face Problems of Snowballing Population.” Another article detailing the themes at the UVM Earth Day lists “OVERPOPULATION” as the first item.
When the first Earth Day was held on April 22 in 1970, population growth was at the top of the agenda. A Times Argus headline of April 23, 1970 titled, “Increasing Population Called Major Threat.” Dr. Mary June Gray spoke to over 300 Vermont College students about overpopulation as the cause of other environmental problems – “all pollution results from people.” The Rutland Herald meanwhile reported on a talk by Prof. David Van Vleck from Middlebury College, who spoke at Grace Congregational Church. “Environments have certain carrying capacities, and populations such as the human population may increase until those capacities are reached he noted.”
However, since that time both environmental and political leaders have retreated from talking about the population issue. Given that the environmental situation now is so much worse this is irresponsible to the earth and to future generations. Our leaders should once again lead us in discussing this issue and what we can voluntarily do to deal with it.
Some argue that the root cause is consumption and not population growth. This is not a valid argument. If there were only twenty-five million people living in the U.S., as there was in 1850, we could all be living highly consumptive lifestyles and driving hummers around and our ecological systems could handle both the consumption of the resources and the resulting pollution. Also, there is little evidence that people are willing to significantly lessen their consumptive lifestyles. Even this ardent environmentalist in recent weeks has bought a new lap top, purchased my first IPod, and driven over one hundred miles round trip to Burlington to teach a class, none of which did I really have to do.
Fortunately, with the combination of our increasing environmental problems, food and water shortages already happening, rising awareness of peak oil, and our failing economy, people are beginning to realize that unsustainable population growth is behind much of this. The human species has exceeded its carrying capacity. Environmentalists talked about carrying capacity during the first Earth Day, following which we heard little about it. But now it is being discussed again, along with the newer concept of ecological footprint.
While discussing population growth this Earth Day will likely not be on the top of the agenda as it was in 1970, we can use this opportunity to begin to reconsider and take action on the cause of our problems and stop the imaginary thinking that only dealing with the symptoms is the answer.
