Governments at all levels can develop policies, programs and procedures for protecting the environment. Yet the success of these policies ultimately depends on the daily choices of our citizens. Beginning with the nation's youth, people need to understand their relationship with the environment. They need to understand the importance of sustaining and enhancing their surroundings for themselves and future generations. If we are able to achieve a healthy environment, it will be because citizens understand that a healthy environment is critical to the social and economic health of the nation.
Government has a role in educating people about stewardship of natural resources.
One important way for government to promote individual responsibility is by rewarding those who meet their stewardship responsibilities, rather than imposing additional restrictions on their activities. We have got to move forward with these principles, because there are other vistas that need to be cleaned and other challenges we are going to have to meet. We are on to something big - bigger than the Grand Canyon and bigger than our homelands in the West. We are on to cooperation, not compulsion, a way to exceed incentives, not just beat a system. We can not only change the way the air looks, but change the way our people act in the 21st Century.