Earth Day Stewardship of Land and Oceans

President Bush Commemorates Earth Day 2007, Calls for Good Stewardship of Land and Oceans Fact Sheet: Earth Day 2007 and In Focus: Environment

As we observe the 38th Earth Day this Sunday, we celebrate the rich blessings of our Nation's natural resources, and we renew our commitment to protecting our environment so we leave our children and grandchildren a flourishing land.

By encouraging cooperative conservation, innovation, and new technologies, my Administration has compiled a strong environmental record. This Earth Day, harmful air pollutant levels are down more than ten percent since 2001. Millions more Americans are drinking cleaner, safer water. We have removed hazardous fuels from more than 19 million acres of federal land.

We have created, restored, or protected more than 2.5 million acres of wetlands, and we have conserved almost 200 million of acres of habitat through Farm Bill conservation programs. And we are taking positive steps to confront the important challenge of climate change. Our work is not done. We also have a responsibility to pass on to future generations our commitment to the environment.

To do so, we must ensure that future generations have a strong connection to nature. This will require working together to protect and conserve not only nationally significant natural wonders but also local parks, ponds, and working lands where parents and mentors can teach young people about the outdoors through recreational activities such as fishing, hunting, biking and nature watching. And we must also encourage Americans of all ages to get involved in conservation-related volunteer activities.

I call on all Americans to commemorate this Earth Day by recommitting to being good stewards of our land and oceans. When we do so, we take an important step forward to a more vibrant future for our country. # # #

Technorati Tags: President Bush and White House radio address or Earth Day and environment

Freedom Calendar 04/21/07 - 04/28/07

April 21, 1926, Death of George Murray, former slave who served as U.S. Rep. (R-SC) from 1893-97.

April 22, 1981, President Ronald Reagan establishes first annual Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust.

April 23, 1971, Republican appointee Herbert Choy becomes first Asian-American federal judge, named by President Richard Nixon to U.S. Court of Appeals.

April 24, 1974, James M. Rogers, Jr. is first African-American selected National Teacher of the Year, by President Richard Nixon.

April 25, 1975, Appointed by President Gerald Ford, Dick Yin Wong becomes first Asian-American to serve as judge on a U.S. District Court.

April 26, 1999, Legislation authored by U.S. Senator Spencer Abraham (R-MI) awarding Congressional Gold Medal to civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks is transmitted to President.

April 27, 1822, Birth of Republican President Ulysses Grant; championed and enforced Republican legislation to safeguard civil rights of African-Americans.

April 28, 1971, Rear Admiral Samuel Lee Gravely becomes first African-American to achieve Flag Rank in U.S. Navy, promoted by President Richard Nixon.

"Much can be done by law towards putting women on a footing of complete and entire equal rights with man — including the right to vote, the right to hold and use property, and the right to enter any profession she desires on the same terms as the man...Women should have free access to every field of labor which they care to enter, and when their work is as valuable as that of a man it should be paid as highly.”

Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States

Technorati Tags: President Bush and Freedom Calendar or NAACP and Republicans or African-Americans and 13th Amendment or right to vote and Civil Rights or Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass or 40 acres and a mule or Brown v. Board of Education and Martin Luther King or Dred Scott