Who's REALLY the Environmental Wacko?
Whenever someone complains that an industry is polluting our air, water, or land, conservatives immediately brand him an "environmental wacko", dismissing the complainant with name-calling or "the science is not absolute" argument.
President Bush and his administration adhere to this view of the environment: it's ours and we can do with it whatever is best for our friends and ourselves. We're in dire straits today, so we can ignore any environmental warnings or data and focus on what we need today.
Recent examples from this administration abound. Here are a few:
(1) the recent revelation that the air around the fallen World Trade Center was tainted for many weeks with high levels of asbestos. The EPA knew about this, but the White House edited a report about it to suppress this information, so that businesses on that end of Manhattan would get back to work sooner.
(2) the changing of the long-standing rules in regards to utilities, allowing them to make changes to high-polluting power plants without reducing their pollution levels.
(3) the changing of the rules regarding sites contaminated by PCBs, such that now those lands can change hands without requiring that the site be first cleaned up. Anyone want to guess when the first houses will be "accidentally" built on one of these sites?
(4) the repeated attempts by the administration to open the Arctic Wildlife Region to oil exploration and pumping, which would affect this environment in numerous unknown ways while only providing enough oil for a few years of USA consumption.
Putting aside all hyperbole about the possible pitfalls of treating our environment like -- pardon the pun -- dirt, I'm struck by the shortsightedness of so many people.
Earth has been here for about four billion years. In that time, numerous species have come and gone, landmasses have shifted positions, asteroids have collided with it, and the surface temperatures have risen and declined. Earth is still here. It's still fertile and capable of sustaining life.
Mankind, however, has only been in the neighborhood for about 100,000 years. Dinosaurs, by comparison, survived on Earth for over 100 million years. The creation and extinction of species is part of the cycle of life on this planet.
The question you have to ask yourself is this: are we hastening our own demise through our actions or are we adaptable enough to survive our own shortsightedness? Is "pissing in our sandbox" something that will inevitably cause our own extinction?
And are increasing corporate profits really worth the risk to our sandbox?
Everyone says "no", but conservatives act like the answer to that last question is "yes". So, who's really the environmental wacko?
President Bush and his administration adhere to this view of the environment: it's ours and we can do with it whatever is best for our friends and ourselves. We're in dire straits today, so we can ignore any environmental warnings or data and focus on what we need today.
Recent examples from this administration abound. Here are a few:
(1) the recent revelation that the air around the fallen World Trade Center was tainted for many weeks with high levels of asbestos. The EPA knew about this, but the White House edited a report about it to suppress this information, so that businesses on that end of Manhattan would get back to work sooner.
(2) the changing of the long-standing rules in regards to utilities, allowing them to make changes to high-polluting power plants without reducing their pollution levels.
(3) the changing of the rules regarding sites contaminated by PCBs, such that now those lands can change hands without requiring that the site be first cleaned up. Anyone want to guess when the first houses will be "accidentally" built on one of these sites?
(4) the repeated attempts by the administration to open the Arctic Wildlife Region to oil exploration and pumping, which would affect this environment in numerous unknown ways while only providing enough oil for a few years of USA consumption.
Putting aside all hyperbole about the possible pitfalls of treating our environment like -- pardon the pun -- dirt, I'm struck by the shortsightedness of so many people.
Earth has been here for about four billion years. In that time, numerous species have come and gone, landmasses have shifted positions, asteroids have collided with it, and the surface temperatures have risen and declined. Earth is still here. It's still fertile and capable of sustaining life.
Mankind, however, has only been in the neighborhood for about 100,000 years. Dinosaurs, by comparison, survived on Earth for over 100 million years. The creation and extinction of species is part of the cycle of life on this planet.
The question you have to ask yourself is this: are we hastening our own demise through our actions or are we adaptable enough to survive our own shortsightedness? Is "pissing in our sandbox" something that will inevitably cause our own extinction?
And are increasing corporate profits really worth the risk to our sandbox?
Everyone says "no", but conservatives act like the answer to that last question is "yes". So, who's really the environmental wacko?
posted by Andy @ 4:54 PM
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