C H A EEnnvviirroonnmmeennttaall R I T Y & Protection P H I L A N T H R O As the most successful species that ever lived, some six billion P H people have populated the planet. Yet from their emergence, Y U people have changed their environment. From the conclusion N L of the Ice Age until the 21st century, people have been E A responsible for widespread extinctions. They have used S H polluting fuels to power factories and for transportation. Oil E D spills have damaged coastlines while pesticides have harmed fi sh and fowl. Yet people have also made enormous E n contributions in the efforts to protect the environment. Animals v i r have been rescued from the brink of extinction. Cleaner burning o n fuels have been discovered. Best of all, individuals have m e learned that they can make a difference and maybe even help n t save the planet. a l P r o t e c t i o n John Bankston Environmental Protection cover.indd 1 8/5/14 2:39 PM Environmental Protection John Bankston P.O. Box 196 Hockessin, DE 19707 Environmental Protection book.indd 1 8/5/14 2:51 PM Conquering Disease Emergency Aid Environmental Protection Helping Children with Life-Threatening Medical Issues Helping Our Veterans Preserving Human Rights Around the World The Quest to End World Hunger Support for Education Copyright © 2015 by Mitchell Lane Printing 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Publishers Library of Congress All rights reserved. No part of this book may Cataloging-in-Publication Data be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. Printed and bound in the Bankston, John, 1974– United States of America. Environmental protection / John Bankston. pages cm. — (Charity and philanthropy PUBLISHER’S NOTE: The facts in this unleashed) book have been thoroughly researched. Audience: Ages 9-13. Documentation of such research can be found Audience: Grades 4 to 8. on pages 44–45. While every possible effort Includes bibliographical references and index. has been made to ensure accuracy, the ISBN 978-1-61228-573-3 (library bound) publisher will not assume liability for 1. Environmental protection—Juvenile damages caused by inaccuracies in the data, literature. I. Title. and makes no warranty on the accuracy of the TD170.15.B35 2015 information contained herein. 363.7—dc23 The Internet sites referenced herein were 2014008297 active as of the publication date. Due to the eBook ISBN: 9781612286112 fl eeting nature of some web sites, we cannot PBP guarantee that they will all be active when you are reading this book. Environmental Protection book.indd 2 8/5/14 2:52 PM Contents Introduction ............................................................................ 4 CHAPTER 1 DEATH OF THE DODO ....................................................6 Lions and Tigers and Bears! Oh My! ..................................13 CHAPTER 2 CONSERVATION, PRESERVATION, AND THE AMERICAN STORY .................................................14 Parks and Recreation .........................................................21 CHAPTER 3 THE EARTH’S SPECIAL DAY ...........................................22 DDT and Mosquitoes ........................................................29 CHAPTER 4 HOT ENOUGH FOR YOU? .............................................30 NASA Scientists Disagree on Global Warming .....................37 CHAPTER 5 THE FUTURE COULD BE BRIGHT ...................................38 The Market vs. Mandates ..................................................41 What You Can Do To Help ...................................................42 Chapter Notes ......................................................................43 Further Reading .................................................................... 44 Books................................................................................... 44 Works Consulted ................................................................... 44 DVD .................................................................................... 44 On the Internet ....................................................................44 Periodicals ............................................................................ 45 Glossary ............................................................................... 46 Index ................................................................................... 47 Environmental Protection book.indd 3 8/5/14 2:52 PM Introduction Charities and philanthropic organizations provide all kinds of help for those in need. Some may offer food to the hungry, from families in US cities to the children of refugees in nations coping with war. Others protect animals by fi nding homes for rescued dogs and cats or working to protect primates from medical research. All of these organizations rely on motivated volunteers and donations. They also rely upon good will. Yet controversy can challenge any philanthropic organization. Few face as much controversy as those that protect the environment. Part of the reason environmental protection is so controversial is because it involves trade-offs. In order to reduce pollution, for example, people have to make sacrifi ces. Although it is a worldwide problem, individuals can potentially make a difference. You could choose to walk or ride a bike to a nearby store because using a car contributes to pollution while using a limited natural resource. Choosing a more fuel effi cient vehicle can also reduce pollution. This is a trade-off. Smaller cars usually use less gas, but are rarely 4 Environmental Protection book.indd 4 8/5/14 2:52 PM as safe in collisions as larger vehicles. Walking or riding a bike to the store might mean lugging back a heavy bag of groceries. Adults make trade-offs to protect the environment every day. Water can be used for farming but it might also ensure the survival of an endangered species. When it is diverted to help the endangered species, farmers are not the only ones who suffer. If farms produce less food, grocery prices might increase. Similarly, a large company may make the choice to get their energy from a less polluting source. This could mean paying more money for energy and laying off workers to compensate. The issue of environmental protection is complicated in part because many of its most vocal supporters are also quite wealthy. When someone who relies on a limousine tells others to take a bus or drive a small car, their message is often lost. When families pay more for food or to heat and cool their home, environmental protection becomes less popular. Yet despite the controversy, for over fi fty years people have given more and more of their time and money to environmental causes. From Earth Day to the Environmental Protection Act, the story of charity and philanthropy is in many ways the story of America. It is the story of a few brave people taking risks despite an organized opposition in hopes of changing the way we all live. 5 Environmental Protection book.indd 5 8/5/14 2:52 PM CHAPTER 1 DDDDDDDDDeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaattttttttthhhhhhhhh ooooooooofffffffff ttttttttthhhhhhhhheeeeeeeee DDDDDDDDDooooooooodddddddddooooooooo The dodo was unafraid. Flightless and fi fty pounds, it resembled a pelican or as author Clara Pinto-Correia describes it, “a weird, mammoth turkey with the face of a warrior pigeon, an ugly joke of nature. It was a slow, heavy, clumsy creature that was seemingly silent and couldn’t even fl y . . . Round as a sack it had an immense head and its black bill ended in a great snubbed hook.”1 Feeding on fallen fruit or using its large beak to split open nuts, the dodo laid just one egg at a time. Unable to nest in trees, it raised its single offspring in the woods. It did little to shelter or protect it. The dodo was unique. There was no other bird on earth like it. It lived on an island lying along Africa’s southeastern coast in an island chain in the Indian Ocean. The best known of these islands, Madagascar, lies more than 500 miles west of Mauritius, where the dodo evolved, living in splendid isolation. Over forty different species of birds once called Mauritius home, but there were no mammals. For thousands of years, the birds were safe from dangerous predators. That changed in 1505. Men had discovered Mauritius. The fi rst arrivals were Portuguese sailors and traders. When they landed on Mauritius, they noticed the fat bird that, instead of fl ying, merely waddled, its belly dragging along the ground. The Europeans discovered that besides being easy to catch, the dodo was a great meal. A single bird fed a whole table of men. The new arrivals brought more than just their appetites. 6 Environmental Protection book.indd 6 8/5/14 2:52 PM Plentiful, flightless and with few natural predators, the dodo bird lived for thousands of years on the island of Mauritius. Just over 150 years after the first Portuguese explorer turned one into a meal, the dodo was extinct. 7 Environmental Protection book.indd 7 8/5/14 2:52 PM CChhaapptteerr 11 They also brought along monkeys, pigs, and rats that had stowed away. The animals feasted on dodo eggs. When the fi rst people set foot on the island, dodos numbered in the thousands. The last confi rmed sighting of a dodo was in 1662. After that, the dodo went extinct. There were no more dodos alive anywhere on the planet. 8 Environmental Protection book.indd 8 8/5/14 2:52 PM