Carl Pope says progress on environmental issues is slowing under the Bush administration and that most of those advances took place between 1970 and 1995. He says during the last five years -- as he puts it -- "we've been falling backwards.
Sierra Club says environmental progress is slowing
WASHINGTON Being green isn't as easy as it used to be.
Since the first Earth Day 35 years ago, the number of Americans breathing unhealthy air has been cut in half. More than half the nation's waterways are cleaner. And the level of lead in children's blood has been reduced by about 85 percent.
Environmentalists cite huge victories like passage of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Environmental Policy Act.
But the head of the Sierra Club says progress on environmental issues is slowing under the Bush administration. Carl Pope says most of those advances took place between 1970 and 1995. He says during the last five years -- as he puts it -- "we've been falling backwards."
Pope calls on President Bush to do more. He says there's no reason for sewage on U-S beaches now that technology exists for sewage treatment plants. And he says it shouldn't take ten years to clean up mercury in drinking water.
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