SUVS adding nails to the coffin
Issue date: 4/29/05 Section: Opinion
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In his remarks near Great Smoky Mountains National Park last Friday, President Bush said Earth Day was a good occasion to "recommit ... to being good stewards of our land."
"We didn't create this Earth, but we have an obligation to protect it," he said.
Unfortunately, the president's obligations to protect special interests seem to outweigh his commitment to preserve the environment, as evident in his so-called clear skies initiative.
While Bush says the measure would cut power plant emissions 70 percent by 2015 and 2018 Environmental, health and labor groups argue emissions could be reduced by as much as 90 percent within three years under current law, if regulations were tightened.
Given his skepticism of the threat of global warming, it's no surprise that Bush's plan would be slow to enforce new emission standards.
After all, when the Environmental Protection Agency submitted its report on global warming to the United Nations in 2002, the president responded, "I read the report put out by the bureaucracy."
Bush isn't alone in disparaging the scientific evidence of global warming, which may threaten future life on Earth. Michael Crichton disappointingly joined the denial-crazed ranks with the release of his most recent book, State of Fear, in which he attacks global warming as a massive conspiracy cooked up by the government and a coalition of scientists-turned-terrorists.
Crichton's brand of propaganda is, as Jeremy Leggett wrote in NewScientist last month, dangerous fiction.
Meanwhile, global warming is a dangerous reality.
All climate changes once occurred naturally, and some still do - through volcanic eruptions and solar activity, for example. However, beginning during the Industrial Revolution, human activities have altered the chemical composition of the atmosphere through the buildup of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. The heat-trapping property of these gases is undisputed, but uncertainties exist regarding how they affect earth's climate.
"We didn't create this Earth, but we have an obligation to protect it," he said.
Unfortunately, the president's obligations to protect special interests seem to outweigh his commitment to preserve the environment, as evident in his so-called clear skies initiative.
While Bush says the measure would cut power plant emissions 70 percent by 2015 and 2018 Environmental, health and labor groups argue emissions could be reduced by as much as 90 percent within three years under current law, if regulations were tightened.
Given his skepticism of the threat of global warming, it's no surprise that Bush's plan would be slow to enforce new emission standards.
After all, when the Environmental Protection Agency submitted its report on global warming to the United Nations in 2002, the president responded, "I read the report put out by the bureaucracy."
Bush isn't alone in disparaging the scientific evidence of global warming, which may threaten future life on Earth. Michael Crichton disappointingly joined the denial-crazed ranks with the release of his most recent book, State of Fear, in which he attacks global warming as a massive conspiracy cooked up by the government and a coalition of scientists-turned-terrorists.
Crichton's brand of propaganda is, as Jeremy Leggett wrote in NewScientist last month, dangerous fiction.
Meanwhile, global warming is a dangerous reality.
All climate changes once occurred naturally, and some still do - through volcanic eruptions and solar activity, for example. However, beginning during the Industrial Revolution, human activities have altered the chemical composition of the atmosphere through the buildup of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. The heat-trapping property of these gases is undisputed, but uncertainties exist regarding how they affect earth's climate.
