Perth Voice Interactive

WHILE perusing parliamentarian speeches during January’s calm, a couple of long-time Chook staff got talking about some of the all-time great orations.

One contender by former president Teddy Roosevelt’s 1912 speech titled “Progressive Cause Greater than Any Individual” came to mind: Roosevelt delivered the monumentally lengthy speech after surviving an assassination attempt (the bullet penetrated his chest, but not his lungs. The .38 slug had been slowed down after first hitting his eyeglasses case and punching through his 50-page speech). 

But another speech trumped Teddy’s for being both historic and achingly current: Richard Nixon’s 1970 State of the Union address, which he used to call for unprecedented funding for environmental protection measures.

Nixon was a Quaker who grew up in poverty, became a lawyer, won the presidency, bombed Cambodia, thawed relations with China, then resigned in 1974 facing impeachment over his knowledge of the Watergate break-in. 

In the midst of that he ushered in protections for natural parks, restricted automobile emissions, led international efforts to end whaling, and brought in regulations ending the free-for-all dumping of industrial waste in lakes and rivers. 

While the environment is hardly ‘saved’ his actions are remembered by both sides of politics as a vital step in steering the natural world away from an apocalyptic nosedive set in motion by unchecked industrial pollution. 

Here’s an excerpt from that 1970 address:

Restoring nature to its natural state is a cause beyond party and beyond factions. 

It has become a common cause of all the people of this country. It is a cause of particular concern to young Americans, because they more than we will reap the grim consequences of our failure to act on programs which are needed now if we are to prevent disaster later.

Clean air, clean water, open spaces-these should once again be the birthright of every American. If we act now, they can be.

We still think of air as free. But clean air is not free, and neither is clean water. The price tag on pollution control is high. Through our years of past carelessness we incurred a debt to nature, and now that debt is being called.

The program I shall propose to Congress will be the most comprehensive and costly program in this field in America’s history.

It is not a program for just one year. A year’s plan in this field is no plan at all. This is a time to look ahead not a year, but 5 years or 10 years – whatever time is required to do the job…

…As our cities and suburbs relentlessly expand, those priceless open spaces needed for recreation areas accessible to their people are swallowed up – often forever. Unless we preserve these spaces while they are still available, we will have none to preserve. Therefore, I shall propose new financing methods for purchasing open space and parklands now, before they are lost to us.

The automobile is our worst polluter of the air. Adequate control requires further advances in engine design and fuel composition. We shall intensify our research, set increasingly strict standards, and strengthen enforcement procedures-and we shall do it now.

We can no longer afford to consider air and water common property, free to be abused by anyone without regard to the consequences. Instead, we should begin now to treat them as scarce resources, which we are no more free to contaminate than we are free to throw garbage into our neighbor’s yard.

This requires comprehensive new regulations. It also requires that, to the extent possible, the price of goods should be made to include the costs of producing and disposing of them without damage to the environment…

…With the help of people we can do anything, and without their help, we can do nothing. In this spirit, together, we can reclaim our land for ours and generations to come.

Between now and the year 5000, over 100 million children will be born in the United States. Where they grow up–and how will, more than any one thing, measure the quality of American life in these years ahead.

This should be a warning to us.