Research Paper on:
History and Impact of Environmental Legislation

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
but also create a great deal of pollution. In decades and generations past, protecting the environment was less of a concern as there was less damage being done. Protecting  our environment is indeed a very important issue. Often, the damage that is done cannot be undone or can only repair itself over a great deal of time.  Furthermore, we rely on the environment for natural resources which are then transformed into a plethora of goods. Without those natural resources, the goods that are made from them  would cease to exist as well. Furthermore, doing damage to the environment poses many health risks and concerns as well. For example, when air and water become polluted, they  can often be responsible for birth defects and increased rates of cancer. Another example would be "poisoning" the land with chemicals, pesticides, and the like. When these chemicals  enter the bodies of humans, quite often they cause severe damage and, over time, can cause cancer and death. Therefore, it is increasingly important to find new ways to protect  the environment. That is the purpose of environmental legislation. There is a great deal of environmental legislation which already exists and a great deal more pending.  Environmental Legislation Environmental legislation actually began in earnest in the 1970s, when Congress enacted a series of laws which were designed to  "establish regulatory safeguards and enable environmentalists to use the courts, the bargaining table and even the marketplace to clean up our air and water, protect wilderness and wildlife, and improve  the safety of the food we eat and the water we drink" (Environmental Legislation, 2002). Some examples of this legislation include the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act