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Glitzy eco-conferences may not mean real change
by Dan Bacher
Glitzy eco-conferences like the Global Climate Summit hosted by Gov. Schwarzenegger this week in Beverly Hills – punctuated by a video talk by President-Elect Obama – are a welcome sign attitudes about climate change are changing, but they often don't translate to real change, said Wes Rolley, a Green Party environmental expert, on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the same "Green Governor" who is grandstanding about green energy continues his war on fish and the environment. While Central Valley chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, threadfin shad, juvenile striped bass populations collapse because of water exports and declining water qualilty, Schwarzenegger is pushing for new dams and a peripheral canal that would exacerabate the already deplorable condition of imperiled fish species. At the same time, the Governor refuses to fund the Department of Fish and Game sufficiently to do its job conducting research on salmon and other fish, apprehending poachers and working to restore collapsing fish populations. "Gov. Schwarzenegger is once again raising our expectations for a better future, something he is good at selling," said Wes Rolley in reference to the Beverly Hills confab. "We can only hope that this future is not like the past, filled with press conferences followed by little action.