"RaBi" wrote in message
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"Larry" wrote in message
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On 12 Aug 2003 12:15:26 GMT, (Wwj2110) wrote:
excuse in 1989, the plants were backflushed into the river creating an
environmental disaster that the river still feels to this day, 14
years later. The river smelled just like the sewer for over a year
before the tide finally flushed it out enough it didn't just stink.
They dump about 14,000,000 gallons of "treated wastewater", whatever
the hell that means, into it DAILY. The Ashley River IS the
sewer......

Probably the US in general is not really up to date when it comes to
protecting environment? I'm just thinking about the rotten cars that you
find in many backyards, plastic & foam stuff wrapped around the burgers,
countless plastic bags, cars with low fuel efficiency, no wind/solar
energy
concept, the refusal to sign the Kyoto protocol, ...


I think you check, you'll find that the US is ahead of the most of the world
in environmental protection (with the notable exception of Kyoto). We don't
have all the dirty, particulate-spewing diesel-powered passenger cars. Our
cars are not fuel efficient on average but they're clean -- in the rest of
the world they may be more efficient but they're dirtier. For example,
catalytic converters were introduced in the US in 1974 but weren't required
by law in Europe until 1993:

http://www.uyseg.org/catalysis/catalytic/cat1.htm

And, in fact, the US environment is far cleaner than it used to be. Waters
are much cleaner than a generation ago, air also. Huge amounts of forest
have regrown in the last century. Sewage discharges remain a problem in
some areas, but they're not nearly the problem they once were.
Double-crested Cormorants, once a threatened species in the era of DDT are
now becoming a nuisance in the Great Lakes and Bald Eagles are now a fairly
common sight. Even the range of large predators are expanding (wolves,
bears, mtn lions).

Mark