Make America Polluted Again

People on BlueSky are reminding each other why the Environmental Protection Agency was created (by the Nixon Administration, no less). 

In its first six years, the agency sent out photographers to document the smog and water pollution that existed. Popular Science compiled some of the photos in 2017. The whole archive exists on Flickr.

People commenting on BlueSky gave other examples from the 1970s, including the burning Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, and two images of the Nashua River, added by Minnesota blogger Bob Collins. He wrote a few words about them.

The paper mills in my town dumped untreated chemicals 24/7. Dioxins and dye. Most of the time the river was a bright orange. The Nashua River ran to the Merrimack, and then to the Atlantic, right where the fish we ate were:



The river today:

One commenter described the right-wing push to dismantle the EPA this way:

It reminds me of schizophrenics who stop taking their meds because they feel better mentally but have minor side effects. The environment is clean now, surely we don’t need the EPA any more…but the economic side effects are much less than the real pollution effects.