Balancing Regulations

Since the last election, there has been a lot of talk about government overreach and over regulation.  The Trump administration has promised to pull back many regulations.  Their reason is that regulations are stifling job creation and growth in our country.  While I am no expert in this field it seems to me that this is an over simplification. 

Last night I watched American Experience on PBS (my favorite channel).  It was a documentary about Rachel Carson, the author of "Silent Spring".  This book was published in 1962.  I have not read it but have added it to my list.  According to Wikipedia, Discover Magazine has this book listed as one of the 25 greatest science books of all time.  The book is about synthetic pesticides.  Not exactly the most exciting sounding topic but the documentary was really interesting.  I have attached the link below.  The show was almost 2 hours but it is definitely worth watching. 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/rachel-carson/player/

Before the book was published, DDT was in widespread use and people were not aware of the harmful effects as they are today.  This book eventually led to a ban on DDT and the movement that was started led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.  When DDT was in widespread use, companies were not rushing to be self-policing.  This was a billion dollar industry according to yourdictionary.com.  Pesticides were in such wide spread use then that worms were toxic even a year later and when birds consumed the toxic worms and you created a circle of poison.  The documentary said this was a time of the "arms race of pesticide use". 

This whole thing has me thinking about the Trump administration and how they want to roll back regulations.  It seems to me that they are in a race to see how fast they can make changes.  This race is could have dire effects if we're not careful.  Being concerned with job creation is fine but not if it leads us back to situations where companies have no regulations about the products they put out and their effect on our environment and ourselves.

According to yourdictionary.com Rachel Carson wrote "I suppose my thinking began to be affected soon after atomic science was firmly established...It was pleasant to believe that much of Nature was forever beyond the tampering reach of man:  I have now opened my eyes and my mind.  I may not like what I see, but it does no good to ignore it."  We must all be aware of our actions and the long term effects.  Rolling back one regulation may not seem like a big deal but it could have long term consequences for our health or the health of our planet.