The 1990s ushered in the era of President Bill Clinton, whom many historians consider the most effective environmental advocate in the White House since Teddy Roosevelt. And there was still much to be done as the Century of Conservation drew to a close.

In 1993 flooding caused widespread damage to farms and towns throughout the Midwest. The floods were aggravated by human impact on wetlands and floodplains. Ecologists had seen this coming and issued warnings, but, of course, these were ignored. The EPA released data in the early 90s which indicated that each U.S. citizen (about 300 million of them) produced a ton of toxic waste per year. This was new and startling information. And the overwhelming majority of climate scientists by this time believed there was a connection between human activities and recent warming trends. And yet!

And yet Americans still built expensive homes on floodplains and riverbanks. They continued to generate outrageous amounts of toxic waste. And they continued to saturate the atmosphere with carbon, even developing a love affair with the new gas-guzzling sport-utility vehicle that persists to this day.

The story in the ocean was as bad if not worse. Coral reefs all around the world continued to die at an alarming rate, and what better "canary" for the health of the ocean than this diverse habitat. In many areas as much as 50% of reefs had been lost, and much of what remained was diseased. The cause was global warming and pollution and the prognosis was poor. The catch of commercial fisheries continued to decline, beset by overfishing and pollution. The Grand Banks, off the coast of Newfoundland, once the most prolific fishery in the world, were closed indefinitely to commercial fishing in the mid-nineties. They remain so today, nearly 20 years after the initial moratorium. In response the Canadian government initiated a program to relocate fishermen and their families from Newfoundland to Alberta, to work in the oil fields. Egads! Fishermen moving to Alberta. Newfoundland a "ghost province." The madness of it all.