If you were a regular reader of the comics pages inside any of the hundreds of newspapers across the country in the era of the nineteen fifties and sixties, you were no doubt aware of the antics of “Pogo.” The popular comic strip was created by the outrageously talented cartoonist Walt Kelly, who had a knack for making people laugh while making a point. The strip was centered around Pogo Possum and his animal friends who resided in South Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp.
One April day in 1971, Pogo sat at the edge of a polluted, junk-strewn swamp and sadly declared, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” It was the first anniversary of Earth Day. The inaugural Earth Day was prompted by a number of events — some good, some bad.
On Christmas Eve 1968, as NASA’s daring Apollo 8 manned spacecraft mission orbited the moon, astronaut William Anders recorded the breathtaking “Earthrise” photo showing the blue and green Earth above the stark lunar surface. That iconic photo is credited by many as helping to launch the modern environmental movement. Anders later observed, “We set out to explore the moon and instead discovered the Earth.” It’s been a bumpy ride since then.
A 1969 oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California killed thousands of seabirds, dolphins, seals and sea lions. In June of that year, a Cuyahoga River fire near Cleveland, Ohio, was featured in a Time Magazine article. It became a nationwide symbol of environmental degradation.
The Environmental Protection Agency was created by President Richard Nixon in December 1970.
During his tenure as the nation’s chief executive, Jimmy Carter protected more than 100 million acres of land in Alaska and more than doubled the size of the National Park System. President Carter had solar heating panels installed on the roof of the west wing of the White House in 1979. Those panels were removed and put into storage during the administration of his successor, Ronald Reagan, in 1986. It would be another 17 years before the White House would benefit from another solar system — this one installed under the watch of George W. Bush.
Much of the EPA’s authority was dismantled during the Donald Trump administration, with more than 100 climate or environmental policies and rules governing clean air, water and wildlife rolled back.
The 2024 U.S. presidential election could have a profound impact on the environment for years to come. President Joe Biden reentered the United States into the Paris Climate Accords. His administration has taken steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, advance clean energy and promote solar and wind alternatives. His presumptive Republican opponent in this year’s presidential race has ridiculed climate change science. Donald Trump has claimed that windmills cause cancer. Trump has also promised that, if voters return him to the White House, one of his top priorities will be to “Drill baby drill.”
And what’s the status of Pogo’s supposed home today? A mining firm has applied for government permits to extract titanium and other minerals from ancient sand dunes on the Okefenokee Swamp’s eastern border. Twin Pines Minerals would pump 1.4 million gallons of groundwater a day from the Floridan Aquifer. The firm says the swamp will not be harmed. Environmentalists are sounding the alarm that one of nature’s wonders could be irreparably damaged.
“We have met the enemy, and he is us.” Seems to me that we could learn a lot from a little Okefenokee Swamp possum.
Even if strings are attached that the Miners must preserve a specific place as not to damage any part of these natural swamplands, they’ll find this impossible. These swamplands are a dynamic ecosystem where no specific place set aside for mining is stagnant and isolated. Any disturbance to the Okefenokee will have a ripple effect that downgrades a priceless, ancient ecosystem established over hundreds of thousands of years. Industry should not be competing with the survival of nature !