Fellow Earth dwellers, this week offers an opportunity to reflect on the disease and destruction that we humans hath wrought on our poor planet. As we consider ways to cut down on waste and general abuse in our own lives, MuckRock would also like to encourage you to check in on what sorts of environmental havoc our own government has encouraged here and abroad.

In 1969, Congress enacted the National Environmental Policy Act to give some guidelines to how the federal government can affect its environment. From the government’s website:

Send us your suggestions for federal projects, and we’ll submit a request for all of the materials the Environmental Protection Agency has gathered so far surrounding its environmental impact.

“All environmental assessments, environmental impact statements, files, reports, communications regarding potential or real environmental effects, and other relevant material and evaluations prepared as part of National Environmental Policy Act requirements regarding [insert entity here] located in [insert location here].”

Some of the more recent EISs are already online. You can get an idea of what other projects need to submit materials there. Just last week, the final EIS was entered in for the “Continental Divide Creston Natural Gas Development Project”, which is planning thousands of new wells in Wyoming. There’s also a list of statements that are open to comment.

We’ll be collecting your ideas materials on projects - big or small - at this link, where all completed requests will live in perpetuity. Dig in to how environmental policy is created in the name of the American people, and show your stake in our continued coexistence.

¡Viva la Tierra Madre!

Image by Coolcaesar via Wikimedia Commons and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0