Opinion: Earth Day at 40 -- Looking Ahead

(April 22) -- Earth Day is a great time to come together to celebrate our environmental successes. It's hard to believe it's been 40 years since the first one.

Our country has seen a string of incredible environmental triumphs over the past 40 years. Citizens from across the country have repeatedly come together to demand better -- and we've gotten it in many cases. I can think of two major highlights very quickly: the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. Our skies are cleaner than they were 40 years ago, as is our water.

These successes should serve as a great inspiration to us as we reflect on what's to come in the next 40 years of Earth Days. We have many challenges ahead of us, not the least of these being global warming.

Back then many of us took action because our rivers were catching fire. These days, we're taking action because our planet is rapidly heating up.

Looking ahead to the next 40 years of Earth Days, if we want to have a serious impact on our country's global warming pollution, we need to end our dependence on fossil fuels.

To start, we need to stop using coal. Burning coal is responsible for 30 percent of our country's global warming pollution. And our U.S. coal-fired plants are dangerously outdated. Nearly half of our existing coal fleet began operating more than 50 years ago, and many of these plants lack modern pollution controls, making them major sources of mercury, soot, smog and global warming pollution.

We should not be spending millions to artificially extend the life of the outdated coal fleet. Rather, we should take the opportunity to diversify our energy mix and to expand investments in existing clean energy technologies that can provide power without the dangerous and harmful effects of coal.

It's also time to reduce our dependence on oil. Not only does the transportation sector contribute about a third of all U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, but inefficient vehicles and lack of public transit keep us chained to oil. We need to reduce vehicle miles traveled per person by increasing public transit use, fostering compact communities with transportation choices (rail, bus, walking, biking) and cutting the number of car trips taken.

Next, we need to become more energy efficient. For example, buildings contribute nearly half (43 percent) of all U.S. carbon emissions. Improving their energy efficiency lowers energy bills, eliminates the need for new power plants, increases our energy independence, reduces air and water pollution and cuts the carbon emissions that cause global warming.

We have to phase out the old and dirty ways of generating power and transition to clean energy technologies like wind and solar, which will secure our energy independence and create good-paying jobs for Americans.

Finally, we need significant action on global warming from Congress. We need a comprehensive global warming bill that cuts our carbon emissions, increases clean energy and makes polluters pay.

We can make all these changes and not hurt our economy. In fact, switching to clean energy creates jobs and boosts the economy -- clean energy technologies are available and already creating thousands of jobs around the country. According an October study from Yale University, clean energy investments will create as many as 1.9 million jobs nationally by 2020.

This Earth Day, let's look back on our successes as inspirations to the next 40 years of collective action for our planet. We must continue our work to clean the air and water, and protect wilderness. And now, as we face the environmental challenge of a generation in global warming, it is time to demand less pollution, more jobs and greater security.

Michael Brune is the executive director of the Sierra Club.


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