John Muir


Social issues John Muir addressed:
• Conservation / land preservation
• Pollution
• Animal welfare
Social issues that need to be addressed today:
• Land Preservation - Since passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964, 109 million acres of public lands have been designated as wilderness, less than five percent of the entire United States.*
• Air Pollution - Carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) is rising at an alarming rate. Since 2000, the rate has increased from 1.3 percent to 3.3 percent per year, with an estimated annual global CO2 emissions increase of 35 percent from 1990 to 2006.**
• Pollution - In the U.S., we produced 246 million tons of trash in 2005 alone.***
• Animal Welfare – 1,300 species of plants and animals are endangered in America, pesticides are a factor in endangering plants and animals.****
* http://wilderness.org/content/what-wilderness
** Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology http:// www.cleanairsys.com/airzone-blog/2007/11/10-pollution-fastfacts- statistics-to.html
*** http://greenliving.lovetoknow.com/United_States_Recycling_ Statistics
**** http://www.epa.gov/espp/poster/
