Clive ThompsonDec 30, 2022

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

“Friend” link to NYT story: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/30/opinion/new-york-harbor-clean-water-act.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqYhlSlUYAybSRdkhrxqAwv7C3_ktgWX9aSicUzxF1aEeB4WJ_QLSbLZufZ461CjdRMNENPVnYs1O-dJlHh4nTRi08NzDkY4ZIi4xpMW5VD1s1JuUA_Vk-2awKzTlduo6zbfg7lfYaDG9WaKJ03N1cAl1sNAyIwHRrH8Mx6zBFOdz3cAvnqtyQ8AnGkpTIXWCrPLqCB5hON6ZbBi66gY-WOhRWzq7jsfLovtbM10UUQSaOSs5tWUs69pcOscVPLL8LXMjf8n-gLYQCA94PcyvKmMBXv9Vu1OojbRc8kM&referringSource=articleShare

Opinion | Once an Open Sewer, New York Harbor Now Teems With Life. Thank the Clean Water Act.

Bald eagles are back. So are humpback whales. And oysters. And more. Life has returned.

Show threadMax Ganz II 🇺🇦Dec 30, 2022
@clive I recall reading though poor legislation was central to the 1930s dust bowl in USA/Canada. I may be wrong, but I suspect as with it all things it's much easier to get it wrong, than right.
Show threadClive ThompsonDec 30, 2022

@maxganz

Yeah, good question -- what's the ratio of "getting it wrong" to "getting it right" with legislation?

Part of the problem is that in any society, there'll be disagreements -- some who think the legislation personally screwed them, others who are like no dude it helped many others

I doubt the companies who were saving a ton of money by dumping untreated waste into the river *liked* the Clean Water Act

Show threadClive Thompson

@maxganz

It's good to reflect on the true crapshows of legislation that had terrible second-order effects -- like that dust bowl example

US legislation to mandate an ethanol percentage in gasoline has, as I've read, been pretty much a mess

Hasn't really reduced emissions significantly, and it incentivized farms to monocrop corn, corn, corn, corn

Dec 30, 2022 at 5:26pmWeb