YOU DIDN'T LEAVE ME NO BUFFALO, I AIN'T LEAVING NO CARIBOU
 The Administration, House Republican Leaders, Oil and
Gas Interests, and
Organized Labor are on a Collusion Course.
WASHINGTON - The House vote last year to permit oil exploration in the
Arctic National
Wild- life Refuge (ANWR) is truly a national disgrace, according to a
spokes- person for the newly formed, Hands Across Antarctica: "The wildest
place left in the United States should be off limits to wildcatters.
Period." ANWR has been dubbed "America's Serengeti" by environmentalists,
a 19 million-acre
refuge for native species and visiting humans alike. Jim Spencer, a
Senior Fellow with the Senior Fellows
Institute, put it this way: "The bloom is off the ruse! Oil industry
whackos, most of whom seem to be environmentally challenged, continue to live in
the Dork Ages. The White House's idea of being ecologically correct would seem to
be some- thing on the order of legis- lation designed to protect the nation's
florists."
|
|
Regarding the drilling for new oil within America's
protected habitats, many say the refrain of the current House GOP is
simple, if not simple- minded: "Where there's a well, there's a way."
Related Story >>
So What About The Grainhouse Effect
COSTA RICA - It would take 17 planets
to feed the world's projected popula- tion of
10 billion people on the American diet of
eight ounces of grain-fed meat a day. The
ecological impact of the hamburger, even
today, is cause for alarm. The clearing of
six square yards of rain forest in Latin America
is required to produce one quarter- pounder, and
the U.S. has imported millions upon millions of
quarter pound- ers. Meat consumption is a
cause of deforestation.
|
IT'S THE (FUEL) ECONOMY, STUPID!
Time Now to Take the Bull___ By the Horns?
WASHINGTON - The House voted in August to
reject the fuel-efficiency amendment to the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge bill, killing a proposed
increase in CAFE standards on light trucks from
20.7 mpg to 27.5 mpg beginning in 2007. The author
of The Ire Next Time, Jon Holt, had this reaction:
"Apparently the results of the National Academy
of Sciences study fell on daft ears. It's hard to
follow the 'ploy-by-ploy action' of the Bush-Cheney
administration on this controversy." Moreover, The Natural
Resources Defense Council tells us that increasing
new car fuel-efficiency to a doable 39 mpg over the next
10 years would save many times more barrels of
oil ( 51 billion over the next five decades)
than even the rosiest estimates of recovery from
the Arctic refuge. Needless to say, it is recovery
of the refuge, itself, that is also very much at issue here.
SLEAZY RIDER: REPUBLICAN
STEALTH WEAPON OF CHOICE
Annual Aggressive Anti-environmental Ritual
WASHINGTON - An oft-used strategy in Congress
is to attack environmental safeguards by attaching
provisions, known as riders, to spending bills.
These amendments, that would otherwise not stand the light
of day, are often added at the eleventh hour, in a murky
attempt to become law sans meaningful (if any) deliberations.
Which is why polluters and their buddies in Congress resort
to using the annual appropriations process to direct
their last-minute offensive against environmental
and public health protections. |
 |
SCUTTLE DIPLOMACY: U.S. REJECTS KYOTO PROTOCOL
The Administration Is Left Out In The Cold On Global Warming
BONN - America, the world's largest producer of carbon-dioxide
and other so-called greenhouse gases, is now viewed by our
European friends as a "rogue state." The scuttlebutt turns on how
quickly supporters of the Kyoto agreement can develop a
protective shield against the threat of pollutants drifting in from this
part of the globe. One U.N. official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, declared: "When it comes to the evolution of global environmental
policy, the U.S. is still the 'control group.'" A British official chimed in:
"Indeed. This was a sync or swim situation. Unfortunately, there is no Planet B." Ally oops?
PUKEWARM REACTION TO EFFECTS OF SPRAWL
Populace Willing To Pay
For Mass Transit And
Green Areas
ATLANTA - Never mind those who traffic in drugs, what about those who
traffic
in traffic-- suburban developers, for instance. Some with a near-perfect
tract record for
channeling growth away from areas with existing infrastructure. Areas
now in dire need of a triple-bypass linked to air pollution, traffic
congestion, and
visual blight. "This is a major political issue," says J. Peters, author
of This Is
Your Wake-Up Sprawl, "and a key quality of life issue." Playwright Emma
Carson, best known for her work, "Aparkalypse Now," sees it this way:
"The term 'urban growth' has become a silly, and misleading, oxymoron.
What
we're witness to is denouement, not development. It should be made clear
to
Mr. Developer that putting curbs on suburban sprawl does not mean adding
new sidewalks." Perhaps a healthy dose of infraustructure is in order.
PLANNEDPLANETHOOD
GOES INTO ORBIT
There's No Such Thing
As a Free Launch
CALIFORNIA - Planned Planethood,
a satirical online monthly newspaper, which is billing itself as 'America's #1 Environmental
News Source' (sub- scriptions
are voluntary @ $10 per year) is the
brainchild of Russell Travis, a professor of sociology and social
psychology at Californian State University. Special features include: AmNasty International, Negatrends, Dear Gabby,
an Obituary page and, for the kids, Por Que Pig and Citizen Crane. A major theme of the
first issue concerns gaining the support of the President, the
people, and Congress for a proposed Endangered Spaces Act
(click for Open Letter to the President). Each issue is meant to
be a kind of memorial to the extinct, the endangered, and the threatened.
|
