EXCLUSIVE: In honor of Earth Day, Energy Secretary Chris Wright released a video retelling his own experiences growing up in a much dirtier world in Denver, and watching wildlife and greenery return to the mountains as he grew older, and how the effects of smarter energy were at the forefront of that continuing change:
Wright was a young kid in Denver when the first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970, on Belmont Plateau in West Philadelphia.
But, while the green movement was getting its roots in industrial Pennsylvania, Colorado was dealing with similar air quality struggles in its capital city.
“We couldn’t see the mountains from my house one out of three, one out of four days, air quality, lung issues were quite common,” Wright says in the video, obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital.
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VP JD Vance, left, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, right. in Greenland. Wright honored the 55th anniversary of Earth Day on Tuesday. (Reuters)
“Since then, Denver has exploded in population and economic activity, but the air’s gotten dramatically cleaner. That’s technology and wealth at work.”
Wright said the six explicitly-named pollutants in the Clean Air Act — carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ground-level ozone and particulate matter — have all dropped by about three-quarters in the past 55 years.
In that time, he said, “economies have expanded, population has grown, travel and leisure have sprung up all around the world.”
“But yet, in wealthy societies, we’ve made cleaner air, cleaner water, and a return of large wildlife,” Wright added.
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Snow covers the landscape surrrounding I-75 facing west towards the Rocky Mountains. (Photo by Tony Savino/Corbis via Getty Images)
As a natural outdoorsman growing up in the Rocky Mountain State, Wright rarely saw large wildlife while adventuring out as a kid.
But, when he returns home, it’s not uncommon for him to see moose, mountain lions or bears — a development he ascribes to the difference Earth Day and responsible energy development have had on the country.
“The return of wildlife, the cleaning up air, the cleaning of our water are truly something to celebrate, and they’ve been driven by wealth and by increasing energy available in societies,” he said.
“Are we done yet? Heck no.”
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A trail sign at Clingmans Dome, a major scenic viewing point along the Appalachian Trail, is viewed on May 11, 2018, near Cherokee, North Carolina. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park straddles the Tennessee and North Carolina borders in the heart of the Appalachian Mountain Range. (George Rose/Getty Images)
He lamented that in much of the world, people are unable to enjoy clean and reliable energy or water, particularly in impoverished countries.
Wright said that while Westerners use stoves or grills, 2 billion people worldwide still rely on animal dung, wood or incinerated waste to cook — which in turn creates indoor air pollution that kills 2 million people per year, per the WHO.
“So of course we’ve got progress to be made,” Wright said.
“But let’s keep our eyes on the big picture: healthy humans, long opportunity-rich lives, clean air, clean water, and thriving ecosystems. Wealth and a handily energized society are the key to achieving those goals.”