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The Epa: Can It, Will It Save Our Environment? Essay

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The EPA: Can It, Will It Save Our Environment?

Pollution of our environment is an issue that concerns each and every one of us. "The threat of environmental degradation now looms greater than the threat of nuclear war." Patrick Henry said, "I know no way of judging the future but by the past." In the past man has trampled on the environment. "The word 'ecology' means 'a study of home.'" It means discovering what damage man has done, then finding ways to fix it.The Environmental Protection
Agency is trying to fix our home, the planet Earth. Destruction of forests, land degradation, atmosperic contamination, and water scarcity are some of the major environmental problems. In 1970, the EPA was created by President Nixon to
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The highest-risk problems to human health are air pollution, exposure to toxic chemicals, and pollution of drinking water. In '91, $25 million in fines was given by Exxon
Corporation and Exxon Shipping and the U.S. and Alaskan governments received
$100 million. They also estimated a $900 million redemption fund. In '93, the
EPA announced that secondhand smoke can cause cancer, which the tobacco industry representatives said were inconclusive. The Clinton administration then doubled the list of chemicals that must be publicly reported under community right-to- know laws in 1994. There was then a proposal to cut their budget by $1 billion from a Republican controlled Congress, to the level it was 15 years ago. "The Environmental Protection Agency has made the country a better place for people to live," according to EPA Administrator Carol Browner. But notice other comments that have been made about them. "The federal EPA is enmeshed in political controversy and a struggle for its very existence
." When it was created in December 1970, they have been embroiled in one drama after another- both environmental and political. "Congress distrusts it, businesses hate it, and even its friends criticize it. The EPA has made a commendable effort
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