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I don't think I read it but I know there was terrible pollution. LA was horrible with smog, may still have some but not like it was; experienced it first-hand on vacations. NYC on a summer visit felt like a canyon with the smell of diesel fuel. For miles and miles along the major highway (no interstates then) going east along the southern part of Pittsburg, it smelled terrible, like burning rubber.

And streams were polluted; the great lakes were bad. We didn't have eagles, Canada Geese, pelicans then. Some of it is due to migration and changes in habitat due in part to humans crowding them out, but I believe we have made progress in cleaning up the environment. We still have fish and bird kills but most now seem to be from sudden runoff from confinement operations and spills, and we have people contracted or hired to get right on it and try to clean it up .

The Rocky Mountain Arsenal groundwater was terribly contaminated; I saw a sample of it. I am assuming they have tried to clean that up as much as possible.

They say the old way of farming with cross pollinated hybrid seeds required more dangerous chemicals than the roundup and other stuff we are using now. I can't speak to what was used before as to chemicals and weed control but am not convinced roundup and other chemicals are any safer. Something has killed all our honeybees.

I don't use chemicals on my lawn unless almost forced to. I have sprayed roundup myself and liked the effectiveness of it. I got this horrible clover in some compost and we scattered 2-4-d which did get rid of the nasty stuff before it went to seed, but now I'm told that it is the same active ingredient used in agent orange.

This stuff can't be good for our birds and pets. Or us.

I refuse to close my mind to some of these things, come from a Republican but conservation-minded family.