Jim Fowler Quotes
Preserving a river or a creek can bring a lot of revenue.
Fowler, Jim. Interview. Falls Church News-Press, 2007.
The major reason for not yet harvesting waste is the labor, caital, and energy costs of recycling relative to the value of the resource is too high. Technology improvements and greater shortages continuously change the equation in favor of harvesting more and more resources.
The emergency was what was called the “Dust Bow” which was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands in the 1930s. Over 350,000 people left the Great Plains. The phenomenon was caused by severe drought combined with a failure to apply dry land farming methods to prevent wind erosion. What makes this quotation important is that it illustrates a remarkable practice of Mrs. Roosevelt that no other first lady as every done. Here the First Lady of a sitting President was overtly whipping up public opinion to complain that the government, led by her husband, was doing nothing to cope with a national emergency. This was very common and Mrs. Roosevelt was way out ahead of the President and his administration on most issues of the day. The President seemed to like the idea and it may have been one of the great public strategies of a Presidency. The First Lady would publicly advocate major reforms. The President could then observe the public reaction, judge the newspaper and pundit pronouncements, see how different special interests reacted. Then he could decide to embrace the reform or ignore it saying that it was just the opinion of his very independent wife. FDR had a very strong ego and had no problem with his wife publicly criticizing him.
James Mark Fowler was an American professional zoologist and host of the acclaimed wildlife documentary television show Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.