As high school student in the mid seventies, I raised the question then. I tried to raise a red flag, but was largely ignored. Now there is a looming global threat. Iam not going to say i told you so, but what i will ask, is why more attention was not paid to the effects of pollution on the ecosystems thirty years ago?. I fell that everyone knew, but largely ignored the scientific findings, until scientists themselves began to raise red flags. This is the only planet we have and as stewards of earth, we have failed.
2006-12-13 11:39:26 · 6 answers · asked by Lance C 1 in Environment
I'd start with finding out when the EPA came about and when they started making laws against polluting and fining companies for not complying....
2006-12-13 11:42:55 · answer #1 · answered by SMS 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't think they thought about it back in the 50's and 60's, but sometime after that is when people started paying attention to the problems of pollution. Since the 70's our levels of pollutants in the air and water have steadily decreased.
I don't really give the EPA all the credit, just more of an awareness to the problem by the general public.
This applies more to the US than the whole world. Our pollution levels are the lowest in the world, but we can't control what the do in other countries. I heard in India the pollution is eating away at the Taj Mahal. That's sad.
2006-12-13 11:52:44 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because human beings are ignorant and lazy creatures of habit that would rather ignore their problems then actually face them, its simply easier that way. We have been breed from the beginning to assume that if we ignore something long enough then A) it will go away; or B) someone else will solve it. We WILL go on ignoring the problem, I assure you of that and the worst part is that we will not have to pay for this ignorance, no rest peacefully it will not be YOU who pays the ultimate price. Instead it will be your children and their children. Hopefully ignorance is curable but I will re-frame from placing faith in that.
2006-12-13 16:00:09 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It wasn't totally ignored!
Some of the big wake up calls happened in the 70's. The English River mercury disaster was a 70's issue that raised environmental concerns immensely:
http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-70-1178/disasters_tragedies/grassy_narrows_mercury_pollution/
2006-12-13 12:02:32 · answer #4 · answered by Jerry P 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why is the world happily ignoring the massacre of millions of people in Darfur?
Why did the world ignore the slaughter of millions of people in Sudan?
Why does the entire family turn against the victim who bravely comes forward to say that Uncle Barney has been raping every child in the family for 30 years??????
Your "question" contains an ignorant and naive assumption...that people are not stupid animals.
2006-12-13 11:50:32 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Because it wasn't cost effective.
And this is not the only planet we have. We should have a global desire to explore space and settle other planets.
Right now it's feeling really claustrophobic here. If something happened we'd have no legacy.
2006-12-13 11:42:24 · answer #6 · answered by dgbaley27 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋