CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

An Earth Day Victory for the Endangered Species Act

This was a social media post presented by Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican U.S. House member, who bucked the GOP leadership on Earth Day to protect Endangered Species.

Fifty-six years ago 20 million people across the nation celebrated the first Earth Day in massive demonstrations of support for a clean and healthy environment — one of the largest demonstrations in U.S. history which is now celebrated by 193 nations worldwide.

There’s no mystery about why so many citizens felt the need to do so.  Simply put, our largely unregulated industrial activity had poisoned land, air and water — including the polluted Cayahoga and Rouge Rivers catching on fire. When rivers are burning, there’s no escaping the fact that society has a significant pollution problem.

To its credit, Congress responded to the very serious problems by passing a number of visionary and foundational environmental laws including establishing the Environmental Protection Agency (1970), the Clean Water Act (’72), the Endangered Species Act (’73), and significantly strengthening the Clean Air Act(’70, ’77).

All these laws have........

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