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What the U.S. Has done, What Is It Doing, and What Needs to Be Done for Environmental Sustainability

Since the modern environmental movement in the 1960s, the U.S. has been improved its air and water quality with environmental laws and regulations. Since 1970, the U.S. has spent more money on environmental protection than any other nation.I Manufacturing companies added environmental compliance departments to avoid running afoul of environmental laws and regulation and reduce pollution, energy consumption, and waste by altering their product and manufacturing process. Social media deliberately informed environmental impacts from extracting common natural resources over their carrying capacities around the world through newspapers and internet. Demands of living and working in safe, healthy and attractive places with sustainable water supplies and air quality were increased. Recently, American households recycled more wastes, consumed less water, and bought more local products. However, the U.S. still has a long way to go for environmental sustainability because sustainable environments depend on the continuous efforts of businesses, governments, and households to improve and protect damaged environments from Laissez-faire. Laissez-faire is a French phrase which can be translated as “let it do” in English and it refers the economic system or social engineering that was free from government interferences such as regulations, privileges, tariffs, and subsidies in the 19th century and it is the one of major factors of the industrial revolution.II

Major environmental issues such as conserving water supplies, mitigating natural hazards, retaining forests and farms in sustainable ways, and protecting wildlife habitats require more than twenty years with current technology to be effectively managed in terms of quality and quantity, but the usual comprehensive planning process has 10 to 20 years of time horizon. The regional government in Portland, Oregon recognized the need for long-term planning and adopted a comprehensive plan that has 45 years of time horizon in 1995. What else the U.S. has done, what is it doing, and what needs to be done for environmental sustainability?

The concerned scholars, citizens, government officials formed offices of sustainability in cities and universities. More than 1,700 land trusts were formed. Land trusts are non-profit organizations that actively work to conserve lands and resources. They created their own green comprehensive plans, climate action plans, green infrastructure plans, and sustainability plans with excessive geographic information and analyses from geographic information system (GIS) and light detection and ranging (LIDAR) remote sensing technology. These technologies allowed planners, developers, local officials, and the public to reason where development should be done and constrained by identifying physical and cultural landscape features and approximate amount of natural resources. Recently, 50 million acres of land for wildlife habitat, recreation, farming, and forestry are preserved.III Some states became more proactive than the federal government. California’s motor vehicle and air-quality standards are stricter than the federal standards. Pennsylvania pioneered a brownfields cleanup. Oregon has stringent agricultural and timber land zoning with urban growth boundaries. The federal government did not enforced to have a certain amount of electricity from renewable sources. Voluntarily, some states adopted renewable portfolio standards which require utilities to have a certain amount of electricity from renewable sources.IV Public participation and activism were increased by social media,

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land trusts, governments, and technology. The 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act were partially written by representatives from non-profit organizations such as the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Environmental Defense Fund, the Sierra Club, the National Wildlife Federation, and the National Audubon Society.V Sometimes, non-profit organizations regulate governments. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to require states to undertake the cleanup of polluted waters through the Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) process under the 1972 Clean Water Act.

The U.S. voters approved more than $50 billion for land conservation from 1998 to 2010.VI In New Jersey, more than 200 municipalities and 23 counties drafted open space plans and established open space trust funds to buy lands.VII With the investments on nature conservation and green infrastructures, states, countries, and communities across America are buying private working landscapes and natural areas and building green infrastructures in order to improve water quality, storm water and sewer management, wildlife habitat, perpetuate healthy forests, scenic vistas from public areas, and sustainable agriculture.VIII The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated that the economic benefits of the 1990 Clean Air Act exceeded the costs more than twelve times in 2010. Increasing awareness of green structures’ benefits even allowed local governments to require green infrastructures in development projects and give incentives for green roofs, rain gardens, and swales. A green roof is a roof that covered with plants in order to absorb rainwater, provide insulation, create a habitat for wildlife, lower urban air temperatures, and mitigate the heat island effect.IX A rain garden is a garden positioned near a downspout, driveway or sump pump to capture rainwater runoff and stop the water from reaching the sewer system.X A swale is a moist or marshy low tract of land that designed to manage water runoff, filter pollutants, and increase rainwater infiltration.XI

Contrary, some technologies are not leading the U.S. to more sustainable environments. The U.S. congress spent approximately $1 trillion dollars on new highway construction and road and bridge repairs between 1991 and 2012. New highways promoted suburban developments into the countryside and more vehicle travels. Carbon dioxide emission from motorized vehicles accelerated glaciers melting. Also, carbon Dioxide dissolves calcium carbonate which is the one of substances in the shells and skeletons of aquatic organisms and fishes, one of major food sources in the U.S., are in danger of collapse. More than one-quarter of World’s coral reefs have been destroyed and 6 of the 10 largest marine ecosystems were being fished at unsustainable rates.XII Sea water level was increased 3.2 mm in 2013 and climate scientists are predicting that the sea level can be 7 feet higher by 2100 if mankind does not reduce its greenhouse gas emission.XIII The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world body for assessing the science related to climate change, ranked coastal flooding death as one of the major threats and approximately 40% of U.S. population is living on coastal areas.XIV According to the World Health Organization, floods can kill or traumatize living organisms by drowning. Also, they can increase water-borne or vector-borne communicable disease infection by serving breeding sites for infectious disease causing mosquitos, contaminating drinking water facilities, and spreading rodents’ urine in the soil. The rodents are mammals that have leptospires, infectious bacterial disease causing pathogens, in their urine. They urinate on the ground and floods spread those pathogens. This transmission is the only

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water-borne epidemic-prone infection which transmits pathogens directly from contaminated water. Transmission occurs through contact of the skin and mucous membranes with water, wet soil, and plants. Major water-borne diseases that related flooding are typhoid fever, cholera, leptospirosis and hepatitis A. Major Vector-borne diseases that related flooding are malaria, dengue and dengue haemorrhagic fever, yellow fever, and West Nile Fever.XV Therefore, mitigating greenhouse emission by using more sustainable energy sources and finding ways to accelerate dispersed carbon dioxide’s absorbing process is crucial for public health.

What are other disadvantages of constructing more highways? Highways have been blocked wildlife animals’ natural paths and caused massive damages on vehicles and endangered animal species. Vehicle-animals collisions costs about $8 Billion per year and about a million animals die by motor vehicles per day in the U.S. 21 endangered species are in risk of extinction by road kills. They are: key deer, bighorn sheep, ocelot, red wolves, desert tortoises, American crocodiles, and Florida panthers.XVI Wildlife crossing structures have been built in the past 30 years. These have been used to protect mountain goats in Montana, spotted salamanders in Massachusetts, bighorn sheep in Colorado, desert tortoises in California, and endangered Florida panthers in Florida.XVII However, the U.S. is still spending about $8 billion per year for animal collisions on highways. 25 state departments of transportations reported that construction of wildlife crossings range from $1 million to $8.5 million. The average cost is $2.3 million.XVIII With $2 billion, U.S. can build about 200 wildlife crossing structures and the problems of road kills can be eliminated within a generation.XIX However, the U.S. cannot just keep building more and more highways and wildlife crossings. Petroleum is not going to last forever and petroleum demands surpassed the supply.XX In order to deal with air quality, substantial population growth and increasing traffic congestion in sustainable way, light-rail systems need to be implemented on metropolitan areas. Portland, Oregon successfully promoted light rail system. San Diego, California adopted a law which links land-use planning, transportation, and the reduction of greenhouse gas emission and made a regional plan based on that law in order to accommodate up to 1 million additional residents.

Even though the U.S. has spent more money on environmental protection than any other nation since 1970, it is the second largest greenhouse gas contributor for current climate change. The investment on green infrastructures, mass transits, and smart growth for minimizing negative impacts of climate change has fallen well short of the target after the subprime mortgage crisis according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.XXI Human health and well-being are both dependent on ecosystems and are important outcomes of ecosystem management.XXII We should raise the fund to protect foods, water supplies, lands, plants, wildlife, and humanity with careful planning, regulation, diligence, and trusts.

I DanielTom. 2014. “The Environmental Planning Handbook.” Chicago & Washington: the Amercican Planning AssociationII Wikipedia. December 3, 2015. “Laissez-faire” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laissez-faire. Retrieved November 27, 2015III LandTrustAlliance. 2010. “Land Trust Census.” https://www.landtrustalliance.org/land-trusts/land-trust-census. Retrieved November 27, 2015 IV

National Conference of State Legislatures. October 2015. “TATE RENEWABLE PORTFOLIO STANDARDS AND GOALS” http://www.ncsl.org/research/energy/renewable-portfolio-standards.aspx. Retrieved November 27, 2015V Dowie, M. American Environmentalism at the End of the Twentieth Century. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995, p. 87.VI Trust for Public Land. “LandVote.” 2012. http://www.tpl.org/what-we-do/policy-/landvote.html. Retrieved November 27, 2015VII State of New Jersey. 2007 State Hazard Mitigation Plan. Appendix t, New Jersey Open Space Programs Potential Funding Sources. 2007. http://www.nj.gov/njoem/pdf/mitigation/appendix.pdf. Retrieved November 27, 2015VIII Wikipedia. November 6, 2015. “conservation easement” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_easement Retrieved November 27, 2015IX Wikipedia. November 16, 2015. “Green roof” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_roof Retrieved November 27, 2015 X Rain garden network. “What is a rain garden?” http://www.raingardennetwork.com/ Retrieved November 27, 2015XI U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Washington, DC (1999). "Storm Water Technology Fact Sheet: Vegetated Swales." EPA Document No. 832-F-99-006. Retrieved November 27, 2015XII Burke, L., K. Reytar, M. Spaulding, and A. Perry. Reefs at Risk Revisited. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute, 2011. http://www .wri.org/publication/reefs-at-risk-revisited. Retrieved November 28, 2015XIII NOAA. (July 12, 2014). “2013 State of the Climate: Sea level”. climate.gov: http://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/2013-state-climate-sea-level. Retrieved November 28, 2015XIV KintischEli. (April 4, 2014). In New Report, IPCC Gets More Specific About Warming Risks.

“Science”, Page: 21.XV World Health Organization. “Flooding and communicable diseases fact sheet”. Humanitarian Health Action: http://www.who.int/hac/techguidance/ems/flood_cds/en/ Retrieved November 28, 2015XVI Twisted Shifter. 2013. Amazing Animal Bridges Around the World. “Twisted Shifter”XVII Kaushik. 2012. Wildcrossings Around The World . “Amusing Planet”.XVIII AASHTO. 2014. “Center for Environmental Excellence”. One Stop Source of Environmental Information for Transportation Professionals: http://environment.transportation.org/environmental_issues/wildlife_roads/decision_guide/manual/2_1.aspx. Retrieved November 28, 2015XIX ARC. 2014. “WHAT’S BEEN DONE ABOUT ROADKILL, AND WHY ISN’T IT ENOUGH?” NEW SOLUTIONS : http://arc-solutions.org/new-solutions/ Retrieved November 28, 2015XX Nick A. OwenR. Inderwildi, David A. KingOliver. March 10, 2010. “The status of conventional world oil reserves—Hype or cause for concern”. ScienceDriect:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421510001072. Retrieved November 29, 2015XXI Bloomberg New Energy Finance. April 14, 2015. “Fossil Fuels Just Lost the Race Against Renewables”. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-14/fossil-fuels-just-lost-the-race-against-renewables. Retrieved November 30, 2015XXII Bunch, M. J., K. E. Morrison, M. W. Parkes, and H. D. Venema. 2011. Promoting health and well-being by managing for social–ecological resilience: the potential of integrating ecohealth and water resources management approaches. Ecology and Society 16(1): 6. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol16/iss1/art6/