Poisonous Bush Invades U.S. - a commentary

Hang-on to your headgear America, the man in the Whitehouse with THE worst environmental record in history is about to poison the atmosphere even more with toxic hype about how much he loves the planet and all the wonderful things he and his minions are doing to protect it. The man who claims the presidency has already taken the nation on a corrupt corporate joyride that includes a major U-turn on the path toward even minimal environmental regulation. Instead, he’s given Big Auto, Big Oil, old King Coal and a host of other ecological criminals a free pass onto the expressway to environmental disaster. The list of amazingly stupid and destructive policy moves seems endless. Some examples include: undermining the fundamentals of the Clean Air Act; pulling out of the international Kyoto climate change treaty; shifting Superfund hazardous waste clean up costs from corporate polluters to taxpayers; promoting clear-cutting in pristine national forests; weakening controls for untreated livestock waste from corporate factory farms; undermining protections for national parks and national monuments; and supporting the mining industry’s dumping of toxic wastes in U.S. waterways. That’s just to name a few of the Bush Administrations’ ecological sins (for more see: http://www.nrdc.org/bushrecord/default.asp).
It may prove to be a real lesion in Orwellian doublespeak to hear how the man in the Whitehouse tries to sell his miserable record on the environment in the near future. If the results on the ground were not so disastrous for the Earth and her inhabitants the exercise might be laughable. However, given the stakes, the poisonous assault on the planet by the Bush Administration is actually the most serious crisis facing the health and well being of the nation and the world. As this observer has noted over the years: don’t take my word for it, just ask the vast majority of the world’s senior scientists. In the startling and under-reported 1992 World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity a group of Nobel laureates and internationally respected scientists stated: We are fast approaching many of the Earth’s limits….no more than one or a few decades remain before the chance to avert the threats we now confront will be lost and the prospects for humanity are immeasurably diminished.”
That was written ten years ago, leaving us in the critical epicenter of the scientists’ Warning. However, a chance remains to alter our disastrous course. The framers of the statement also state: “A new ethic is required….a new attitude towards discharging our responsibility for caring for ourselves and for the Earth. We must recognize its fragility. We must no longer allow it to be ravaged. This ethic must motivate a great movement, convincing reluctant leaders and reluctant governments and reluctant peoples themselves to effect the needed changes.” I doubt very much that the reluctant man from Big Oil sitting in the Whitehouse will be convinced. That being the case, he is better left to history while the rest of us get on with the task of making those needed changes.

For more information on what YOU can do see:
http://www.earthfirstjournal.org/efj/primer/formEF!Group.html
http://ruckus.org/about/index.html
http://www.greenpeaceusa.org/takeaction/
http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/
http://www.nrdc.org/action/default.asp
http://www.defenders.org/den/
http://www.greenpartyus.org/
http://criticalmasshub.com/
http://www.ienearth.org/

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