In Chapter 6, we learn yet another issue that the big, bad Europeans brought to America. The Europeans set a precedent for dumping all our wastes off into our natural bodies of water. The chapter then continues to explore the various legislative measures that government tried to take in an attempt to alleviate some of the stresses we were putting on our bodies of water, however these laws were not all that successful in fixing the problem. As noted by the Regional Plan Committee, “government regulation alone cannot remedy conditions unless public sentiment is ready to demand a strict enforcement of the nec- essary laws.” It comes down to innate human selfishness- we don’t live in the water, so what if marine life is suffocating due to lack of oxygen; we’ve got plenty of oxygen to breathe up here on land. People often equate oxygen to air, so they may overlook the fact that oxygen is essential to marine life just as much as it is to life on land.
In the second to last paragraph of the chapter, McCully mentions that some environmentalists see development as inevitable and think that compromise is the best way to preserve and restore wetlands, however, other environmentalists refuse to compromise and think that compromise would lead to a net loss of wetlands, which is completely against their agenda. I agree with the former of the two groups of the environmentalists; development is inevitable and those who are completely against it will not be taken seriously and ultimately end up not being able to do anything to promote the wetland movement. Sure, urban developments will undoubtedly cause more problems to the natural environment, however, if the people in charge of the development cooperate with the environmentalists, the effects of these problems can be planned for and minimized.
