50 years ago, the harbor of New York City was a sewer, filled with human trash and pollutants
But congress passed the Clean Water Act and it helped enormously, so …
… today wildlife has staged a remarkable comeback, and the water quality is high. They’ve seen humpback whales in the Hudson River one mile from Times Square, and there’s a thousand breeding pairs of heron
Smart ecological legislation works
@clive I love this! much slower progress here in Baltimore / on the Chesapeake but progress is happening nonetheless. Check out Mr. Trash Wheel if you're not familiar...
It's great, eh?
I'll check out the Chesapeake stuff ... it'd be great to see more ecological revival there
@clive the big problem here as I understand it is ag runoff. NYState is lucky they don’t have that as much. But when you’re the watershed for the chicken producers for all of America… it’s a challenge.
That said, the EPA’s consent decree forced the city of baltimore to plug enough leaks that the river down the street from me is full of fish and other wildlife and it’s a delight
Yeah, I don't think runoff is as big an issue up here any more
That is great about the fish!
Clive Thompson
Christopher Mims