Bushwhacked Again!
By Loren on Oct 1, 2008 in Uncategorized
For eight years Federal regulations have been tumbling down. The consensus from all those stern-faced analysts is that we may be in for very hard times ahead as a result. My retirement account is down 18 percent this year. Yours probably is too. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t know very much about the economy, so I won’t offer an opinion of what is happening on Capitol Hill right now. I am however, reasonably well versed on environmental issues, where the same devious practices have been going on for the past eight years at an even more egregious pace.
The Bush administration has worked feverishly to erode the protections given to public lands. At the same time American citizens are losing the money we need to survive in retirement, our wildlife has been losing the habitat and protection it needs to survive in a world increasingly degraded by human activity. The environmental disaster is perpetuated by President Bush who has been quoted as having great admiration for President Teddy Roosevelt, who established the Republican Party as the party committed to conservation. Teddy Roosevelt greatly expanded the National Parks system and started the National Wildlife Refuge System. President Bush is fighting for oil drilling in the heart of the most spectacular National Wildlife Refuge and fighting for additional off-road traffic in National Parks. In our own backyard the administration is working quickly to shrink the amount of land set aside for the critically endangered Peninsular Big Horned Sheep. The Bush administration has been selling off public land quicker than cheap plastic toys sell at a flea market. During this administration you got what you wanted if you had a business card from an oil company but if you happened to be a scientist, chances were good your research would be discounted, purged or misquoted to accomplish handouts to big business. On climate change the administration can only be described as having obstructed the work which must be accomplished. The specific examples of environmental felonies are so numerous they boggle ones mind. They are too plentiful to list here, so I’ve added two links at the end of this post. They will take you to the respected Wilderness Society site and to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Please explore the sites to see how the banking industry is only part of the vast damage done during the Bush years. Our environment has suffered and it must stop.
What do you think? Do oil, recreation, timber, mining and highways trump nature? Do you wish Bush had gone further to privatize nature?
Thanks for tuning in, logging on and speaking up.
http://www.wilderness.org/Library/Documents/BushRecord.cfm
http://www.nrdc.org/BushRecord/
I am not being silly but why is it called a winter storm when we are still in the start of fall? My second question is how far is it inland when you say the coast will be at such and such temp before you are inland? Thank you for any help you can give me on these questions. I watch you all the time.
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christine | Oct 3, 2008
It’s BIG business as usual. Especially in CA. Example… the voter-approved zero emission law gets repealed with the help of big business lobbyists and weak leadership in Sacramento. Example… SDGE is running a pathetic 3rd place amongst CA’s Big 3 power companys in their effort to meet the state’s renewable energy mandate.
Big business controls policy through their powerful lobbies. Making greenbacks and going green just haven’t reached the necessary harmony in our society.
We the people are expected to “vote” with our pocketbooks, but when BIG Business controls the market and the policies that govern we are left powerless. We voted for zero-emissions and the law gets wiped-out. Mandates are made for more renewables and the Power Company scoffs. We want more MPG and Detroit pumps out more SUVs because their market research says that’s what we really want.
I say take some of that $700bn in bailout money and put solar panels on everyone’s rooftop.
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Scott Moon | Oct 4, 2008
Couldn’t agree with you more Loren. Unfortunately, until our government starts working for us instead of Corporate America, deregulation will continue and people and the planet will suffer!
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JJ | Oct 6, 2008
Sometimes the priority can’t be mother nature. I’m so tired of sheep and tumble weeds being at the top of some left wing agenda. Get real people!!!
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Marty | Oct 8, 2008
Well written Loren. Sorry to feel we are in the minority though…Hopefully change will come.
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Paul | Oct 8, 2008
Loren you are 180 degrees out in the wrong direction. It is not deregulation that is at the root of the financial uncertainty, it is regulation. Our financial institutions, through the law known as CRA (Community Redevelopment Act), and the Fannie and Freddie charter to promote housing, that are causing otherwise prudent lenders and investors to cease doing their own “due diligence” when loaning money to risky borrowers. These lenders and investors see that the taxing power of the US government is backing these poor risk loans, so their usual prudence in loaning to low credit score borrowers, or those without solid cash flow history, is tossed aside.
Of course, they are right mostly. Your earned income, and mine, will pay for the regulations impact on fiscal responsibility.
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Bill Stoops | Oct 10, 2008
It is difficult to exagerate the damage done by the Bush administration, not only to the environment, but in many areas. Mr. Bush and his associates are not thoughtful people, and they clearly lack moral knowledge.
But perhaps the problem runs deeper. Perhaps all of us bear responsibility not only for how we treat God’s earth and his creatures, but for our economic difficulties as well. Perhaps we all lack moral knowledge. Ours has been a culture of unrestrained consumerism, self-indulgence, limitless excess, and foolishness. These things are also called sin in a Christian context. But whatever we call them, they are unsustainable, wrongheaded, “wrong-hearted,” and will lead to destruction - in this world, as well as the next.
Yes, the Bush administration has behaved horribly, and they will be called to account for their sins, hopefully in this world as well as the next. But if we want to find the real root cause of our problems - ecological, economic, or otherwise - we need to look in the mirror. Christianity also contains something called “repentance.” It’s where we admit that we have been wrong and change - change our attitudes, values, and behavior. All of us, including me, have an awful lot of repenting to do. We best get started soon. Either we do it freely now or we, or perhaps our children, will be forced to do it by circumstances and the environment. We cannot continue as we are.
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John Mustol | Oct 11, 2008