It looks like the Government is not satisfied with controlling the environment on Earth. The EPA has already made it all but illegal to produce CO2. Did anyone tell them that humans produce this greenhouse gas simply by breathing?

Not to worry, we can all keep on breathing, but soon we may see this taxed. Automobile emissions are heavily controlled. Gasoline prices are sky high, partly because the Keystone Pipeline has been delayed indefinitely, supposedly because of environmental concerns.

Now, some members of Congress want to start controlling the environment on the moon. Just recently there has been discussion of putting national parks on the moon. The first law that would do this is called the "Apollo Lunar Landing Legacy Act," put forth with a bill introduced earlier this month in the House of Representatives.

Such a law would establish historic preservation sites where Apollo 11 through 17 astronauts touched down and walked on the lunar surface. Of course, the parks would contain all artifacts and footprints left on the lunar surface. Once enacted into law the U.S. would submit these sites to UNESCO in order to become World Heritage Sites.

If there is concern about preserving the environment outside the confines of Earth, why hasn't the EPA identified a new Super Fund Site, the near-Earth space that is filling up with junk produced by the international space program over the past 50 years?

Almost everyone is aware that low-Earth orbits are being littered with old satellites, discarded upper stages and all matter of man-made pieces and parts.

Even as you are reading this article, the commercial sector is trying to speed up plans for private tourist flights to space, private space stations and more. If we cannot clean up near-Earth space, how are we going to protect the moon and other areas of the solar system?

One day, companies may be strip-mining asteroids and other planets for valuable minerals. How can we be sure they will maintain local environments? Past history on Earth tells us this is going to be hard. If Congress really wants to do something useful in the environmental field, it should start with an already existing problem, cleaning up the junk in low-Earth orbits.