Platform : Environmental Law: ‘We Need To Think About the Children’

Schools have been teaching environmental responsibility as a separate subject for a generation now, and in a recent newsmagazine survey, environmental issues were the No. 1 concern of many young people, beating out even crime and safety issues. JIM BLAIR talked with high school students about their own concerns and their opinions of congressional moves to change environmental law and with adults in the field about how real life works.

SHIANTI LEE, 17, senior, Bravo Medical Magnet High School, Los Angeles

When I go on vacation it’s all green and then you come back here and Los Angeles is all smogged out and nobody gets to really see how the natural environment works. So they need to be as strict as they can be.

We need to think about the children and their future before we think about what would help business or what would be good for government.

HEATHER LAWSON, 17, senior, Canoga Park High School

I listen to my parents, who grew up in the San Fernando Valley, describing how this used to be nothing but farms and open fields and how beautiful it was only 30 or 40 years ago. Now it’s covered with houses and pollution. If anything, there should be more laws. Right now [deregulation] might save us some money, but in the future it’s just going to cost us more.

SARKIS ROUCHANIAN, 16, junior, Reseda High School environmental science magnet

People can’t just talk about environmental problems. They have to actually take action and try to save it. I think the best way to handle this is through education. Start out at colleges. [Teach] college students about what’s going on and then they can teach high school students on how to treat the environment. Then the high school students would be helping out the junior high students and so on down to the elementary schools.

KIM NGUYEN, 16, junior, Reseda High School environmental science magnet

The government should realize if they cut environmental protections now, then later it’s going to be a bigger problem and the money needed to deal with it is going to be humongous. I would like to see all high schools start recycling programs. We should teach kids that recycling is part of their life--a habit.

MI’QUAEL COTTRELL, 17, senior, King Drew Medical Magnet High School

Government should set standards for the businesses and the businesses should take it upon themselves to have enough respect for their customers to protect the environment. This summer, I was doing research and I found out that a lot of the time, the environmentally safe way will save businesses money. So they should run their businesses and produce their products in the most environmentally safe way and protect themselves and their customers.

PETE DeSIMONE, Manager, Starr Ranch, National Audubon Society’s 4,000-acre research preserve in Orange County

In Orange County, the status quo is just to build and bring more people in because it’s a wonderful place to live. But we’re getting to a point where, for a number of reasons, that kind of mentality cannot be supported. We have too many cars. Air quality isn’t great. We have to import most of our water. We’re losing more habitat as more houses are being built.

I am an environmentalist, but I also try to appeal to people’s fiscal sense. As we face yet another large housing project, I ask: who will pay for additional schools, roads, sewage treatment, libraries, police, fire and emergency medical services--all the social benefi1953702000

CHRISTINE DIEMER, Executive director, Orange County chapter, Building Industry Assn. of Southern California

The earth is a precious commodity and there’s a finite supply of fresh water, clean air, trees and animals. We all realize there are limitations. At the same time, we have to recognize that all of us depend on a vibrant economy. The reality is that people need places to live. [But] the need for a place to live must be balanced with the need to preserve the environment, and that is how both builders and communities are looking at the future. The industry has been incorporating large green belts, open spaces, parks and bike trails in a lot of these developments. On a day-to-day basis, any community has to resolve how they are going to allow people to move in and live in these buildings and also be mindful of the need to take care of the flora and fauna.