Caring for the Earth

Events converged during 1988 to make the state of the Earth a matter of keen public concern. Now comes the difficult part. In 1989 the involved officials must move forcefully to translate that concern into serious public policy so that this new awareness does not become just another passing trend or lost opportunity.

The issues will not go away. There is a danger, however, that the enormousness of the collective problem will overwhelm a public desire to do something. After all, what can one person do about the atmosphere or the ocean? The United States has become a result-oriented nation that likes to see some bang for its buck, and soon. A dollar invested today to avert a global-warming crisis may have no visible payoff for decades.

But perception is critically important. What made 1988 the year of the Earth may have been a coincidence of unrelated and largely irrelevant circumstances. The appearance of medical waste on Atlantic beaches or the Yellowstone Park fires had nothing to do with the ozone hole. The 1988 drought may have had nothing to do with global warming. The growing trash crisis certainly did not. But all these events impinged on the public consciousness until they set off an alarm bell: Something is very wrong.

The importance of this public attention cannot be underrated. But little happened in 1988 that was new or surprising to most environmental scientists. And Earthlings possess most or all of the technical equipment needed to slow or halt just about all the bad things that are assaulting the planet. What has been lacking is the public demand, the political will and an institutional structure for facing the challenge.

The new year provides the opportunity for setting this process in motion. The obvious source of leadership is the presidency. President-elect George Bush already has been inundated with stacks of studies for combatting environmental problems on a national and global scale. One of the best was compiled by a 50-member bipartisan task force under the chairmanship of Sens. Timothy E. Wirth (D-Colo.) and John Heinz III (R-Pa.). In addition to the more traditional regulatory controls, the plan emphasizes the search for common ground and the development of market incentives for pollution control.

The Wirth-Heinz outline also makes the critical point that the public must be informed of the full social costs of environmental action or inaction, not just the direct outlays. Because so many environmental issues are interrelated, some policies will attack several problems at once and provide multiple benefits. The energy-efficiency program advocated by the Wirth-Heinz study would help fight global warming, acid rain and local air pollution while also improving U.S. energy security and productivity. Short-term investments can yield long-range national economic benefits. Existing fragmented federal policies often work at cross-purposes or lack the public attention and support that they deserve.

Bush will have to decide what he thinks are the most effective means of advancing the environmental agenda. An address to Congress is an obvious possibility. Or he could revive the dormant President’s Council on Environmental Quality, which is supposed to serve as a clearing house and as a coordinator of programs. Better yet would be the creation of a Cabinet Department of the Environment that would consolidate the Environmental Protection Agency with related agencies from within the Interior and Agriculture departments. Most other industrialized nations created cabinet-level environmental agencies years ago.

Since so many of these issues observe no boundaries, the United States must pursue international agreements to control pollutants and preserve critical rain forests. The environment is an appropriate topic for the next superpower summit and the annual meeting of the Western industrial nations, leading perhaps to a global environmental conference.

Environmental problems, from protection of U.S. wild lands to the global atmosphere, seem immense. Still, every citizen can have an effect. It begins with caring.