Simple principles governed this golden age of environmental legislation: ban or severely limit the offending activity or substance and where possible, get the polluter to pay for the cleanup. As journalist Mark Dowie outlines in his history of the U.S. environmental movement, Losing Ground, the real-world results of this approach were concrete and measurable. “Tens of millions of acres have been added to the federal wilderness system, environmental impact assessments are now required for all major developments, some lakes that were declared dead are living again. . . . Lead particulates have
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