A blog about Wildlife Conservation and protecting our planet cannot be written without talking about the EPA. The EPA was founded in 1970 by President Richard M. Nixon to protect human health and the environment by writing an enforcing regulations by Congress. The origins however began around the late 1950's and early 1960's as growing concern of the impact of human activity on the environment around them. The Resources and Conservation Act was introduced by a Senator by the name of James E. Murray. This added a environmental council in the offices of the president and must begin annually reporting on environmental events and the health of our planet. In 1970 President Nixon proposed a restructuring of the organization into a single agency, a new Environmental Protection Agency. Thus, the EPA was born.
Immediately the EPA began regulating green house gases (GHGs) which would cut back on GHG emissions into our environment which was a leading cause of pollution and climate change. Some other things that the EPA began to add was the Energy Star program in 1992. Many of you will probably notice when you buy a light bulb or an appliance at a store it will have a "energy star" label on the packaging somewhere. The Energy Star program was meant to make products that were more energy efficient and cut back on pollution into our environment. Since the program has started the EPA estimates $14 Billion was saved in energy costs in 2006 alone! That's a substantial amount of money saved and energy!
Another act the EPA is famous for and one you may not know is the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, Rodentcide Act. This made it so that every company must register all pesticides to be legally sold in the United States. Making any harmful to our environment not allowed to be sold in the country. As you may not many insecticides hurt bees which is a sad side effect of the product. Bees are more important to our environment then you may know. Without them many plants like vegetables and fruits would not get the necessary pollen to grow properly and would die off. Pollination is also important for plants to reproduce and grow. It is important that we take the time to protect even the smallest of creatures to ensure the safety and survival of our planet.
Unfortunately for the EPA it's new head, Scott Pruitt, is a climate change denier and believes that CO2 emissions have nothing to do with our climate's issues. This man is a disaster for the department and it's looking like a grim future for the agency. Hopefully, if we get enough people involved we can stop this man from destroying our environment. Recent budget cuts have also shown that the EPA will be getting a substantial decrease in funding while our military will get a substantial increase the largest we've seen in recent history. We must stand up for what is right and protect our environment before there isn't an environment left to protect. In my final post after this one, I will summarize most of what I have posted throughout this blog and hopefully convince you to get more involved in protecting our beautiful planet and the animals that we share it with.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Environmental_Protection_Agency
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