Back in the 90s, California’s coastline was an absolute cesspool. The degradation destroyed coastal property values, magnified a number of natural disasters, and depleted critical fishing stocks and other agricultural reserves.

The state hasn’t done an amazing job of fixing any of that (go check out True Detective Season 2 to get an artistic taste of the ugliness that is Vernon California or just pickup a book/tune into one of the many podcasts that have covered Leonis C. Malburg). But they’ve at least curbed the worst impulses of the Reaganite Era.

I do wonder if states like Ohio or Texas or Florida will ever see their economies undermined by the pollution and illegal dumping and horrifying mining and agricultural practices to the point where they finally have to implement their own statewide environmental initiatives. Or if this is something reserved to the World’s 7th Largest Economy.