The Atlantic

A Forgotten Legacy of George H. W. Bush

He was an architect of one of the most important environmental achievements of the past three decades.
Source: Dennis Cook / AP

Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney will deliver one of the four eulogies for President George H. W. Bush at his state funeral Wednesday.

This is fitting, and not only because the two men were close friends. Mulroney and Bush were joint architects of one of the most important environmental achievements of the past three decades: the great reduction of acid rain.

In the late 1980s, lakes and waterways across the northeastern United States and Canada were doused in rain laden with sulfuric acid. Acidic water killed trees, threatened wildlife.

[Franklin Foer: The]

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