Excerpts from Senator Mondale's Speeches on the Environment and Conservation

"We are a nation bedazzled by technology and addicted to crash solutions. We are a pragmatic people, one whose first response, in facing any dilemma, is to look for an instant answer. But this kind of mentality will no longer serve us, if we are to build an environment worthy of a man in this place, in this age." 91st Cong., 1st sess., Congressional Record 115 (July 8, 1969) at 18716.

"The central issue of our time is not how many board feet of lumber are cut from the forests; or how many barrels of oil are pumped from beneath the American earth; or how many kilowatt hours are generated by how many dams, important as these things are.

The real question facing us today is not the quantity of life, but its quality...." 91st Cong., 1st sess., Congressional Record 115 (January 15, 1969) at 898.

"What we owe are reparations to nature-and to our children-for what we have done to our world. And we seem to be overwhelmed by the burden of these reparations. Think of the enormous cost of atoning for our past crimes and repairing our water, our land, our air, our cities, and our children that have fallen victim to something we call progress....

In fact, many of us have been pointing out, the costs I have cited are not all that great. The question is really one of priorities-whether the preservation of our water is really worth only about half as much as the next step in an unworkable ABM ... whether the control of air pollution is really worth less than the beginning of space shuttle for our next space spectacular ... whether federal programs to provide food for hungry children is really worth only two-thirds of what we will spend on a new supersonic transport?

Is $100 billion-to clean and preserve all our waters-a vast amount of money? Sure-but it's less than we've poured into the jungles of Southeast Asia without even counting the cost of 50,000 dead American boys." 91st Cong., 1st sess., Congressional Record 116 (October 9, 1970) at 36031.

"It [the proposed area of Voyageurs National Park] is one of the most magnificent locations of natural beauty that one can see, but more than that there is probably no place in this country that has a more unique historic setting than this. It was the location, the transportation route, of the famous Voyageurs, it was the area through which the first white man came and visited and traded with the Indians, and I can't think of anything that I would rather have my Senate career stand for than the proposition that I was helpful in adopting and preserving this magnificent location for my generation and for generations that follow."

U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. Voyageurs National Park: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Parks and Recreation. 91st Cong., 2nd sess., December 4, 1970.

"I believe each of us feels very deeply a sense of horror and outrage at the neglect that has transformed once idyllic rivers and lakes in America from scenic wonders into contaminated wastelands. Witness what has become of the Hudson and Delaware Rivers, the Chesapeake, the Potomac, the Savannah, the Mississippi, the Columbia, and even the remote rivers in the state of Maine. Our lakes, including Lake Erie, Michigan, Tahoe, and thousands of smaller fresh water lakes are in need of urgent care....

But for the most part, we have had far too much talk about the need for stringent standards and enforcement and far too little action. At stake in this issue is the most precious and limited natural resource in America today." 92nd Cong., 1st sess., Congressional Record 117 (November 2, 1971) at 38834.

"In the Lower St. Croix, we have a chance to break the chain of destruction that has claimed other urban rivers. We should make our commitment, protect the river and, for once, take heart in the saying: how we care for our natural treasures will someday determine our worth as a nation."

U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. Designating a Segment of the St. Croix as Part of the Wild and Scenic Rivers System: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Public Lands. 92nd Cong., 1st and 2nd sess., October 23, 1971 and April 14, 1972.

"At the beginning of my statement I quoted Mark Twain, who said of the Mississippi:

'And it is all as tranquil and reposeful
as a dreamland, and has nothing this
worldly about it—nothing to hang a
fret or worry upon.'

Unless we do a bit of worrying about rivers like the Mississippi and translate our concern into action, the tranquility and repose of which Twain so eloquently spoke could all too literally become but dreams and distant memories."

U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. To Amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Public Lands. Part 4. 93rd Cong, 2nd sess., June 20, 1974.