Loads of chemicals and hazardous wastes have been introduced into the atmosphere that didn't even exist in 1948. The environmental condition of the planet is far worse than it was 42 years ago.

Of the 55 refineries closed in America in the last 10 years they were all closed for economic reasons mostly oil company mergers. Not a single one was closed for environmental purposes or objections.

Despite Arizona's remarkable growth in recent years we have met the current federal health standards for ozone pollution and the Environmental Protection Agency recently approved our dust control plan.

I reflect back 35 years ago and look how far we have come in America with our environmental policy to improve the conditions of our air and water and we have had some real successes.

The main environmental challenge of the 21st century is poverty. When you don't know where your next meal is coming from it's hard to consider the environment 100 years down the line.

Federal elections happen every two years in this country. Presidential elections every four years. And four years just isn't long enough to dismantle all the environmental laws we've got in this country.

I decided that now is the time to start doing the things that really interest me and I find important. It was in the 10 years of the MacArthur grant that I began working on my first book... and I began putting more work into environmental history.

I don't think it's too hippie to want to clean up the planet so you don't wind up dying of some kind of cancer when you're 45 years old. It enrages me that these big cancer-research organizations can't be bothered to man the front lines of environmental protest.

I'm a latecomer to the environmental issue which for years seemed to me like an excuse for more government regulation. But I can see that in rich societies voters are paying less attention to economic issues and more to issues of the spirit including the environment.

All we can hope for is that the thing is going to slowly and imperceptibly shift. All I can say is that 50 years ago there were no such thing as environmental policies.