Climate Politics
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Wolfowitz at the Door
As part of the Defense Department’s ongoing effort to exempt the U.S. military from environmental regulations, the Pentagon’s Paul Wolfowitz has called on military service heads to provide examples of situations in which President Bush should invoke national security to trump eco-protections by fiat. In a memo to the chiefs of the Armed Forces, Wolfowitz, […]
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The Spoils of War
The war against Iraq that began last night will lead to “massive and possibly irreversible” environmental damage to the Persian Gulf region and contribute significantly to global warming, experts cautioned this week. Environmentalists who have been monitoring the situation say the ecological destruction could be radically worse than the damage sustained during the 1991 Gulf […]
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Senior Citizen Diss-count
Anti-war protestors have accused President Bush of placing too little value on human life. Now the Bush administration is trying to literally devalue not Iraqi lives but American ones. The White House is pushing federal agencies to cut the dollar value they place on a human life when determining the costs and benefits of policy […]
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The Bush administration lost credibility over Kyoto, and can’t get it back over Iraq
Every European poll shows enormous percentages of people who oppose the pending war on Iraq: 70 percent, 80 percent, 90 percent. That’s an extraordinary consensus; it’s rare when 70 percent of people agree about anything. Taking their anti-Bush sentiments to the streets in Prague. Photo: Punchdown.org. The consensus is all the more extraordinary because people […]
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Chop Goes the Weasel
Timber companies will be given the chance to chop down many large, old trees on millions of acres in national forests if they also remove the undergrowth, brush, and small trees that fuel forest fires, thanks to a provision snuck into a massive spending bill that President Bush signed last month. Enviros are calling the […]
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Storm Troopers
The Bush administration announced on Friday that oil and gas companies will not be bound by new regulations that require storm water runoff plans to be developed for small construction sites, a means of keeping dangerous chemicals and metals from contaminating waterways. Saying it needs more time to study the situation, the U.S. EPA has […]
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Defense Offensive
Citing the specter of impending war in Iraq, the Bush administration asked Congress this week to exempt the Pentagon from a wide range of environmental laws. Congress rejected a similar request last year, but now, war looms and Republicans control both the House and the Senate. Under the plan proposed by the administration, the Pentagon […]
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Watery Grave
The environment, public health, and global political stability all stand to suffer from shrinking freshwater supplies around the world, according to a report released yesterday by the United Nations. In the most complete appraisal of global water resources to date, the U.N. found that the average per-person water supply will decline by one-third in 20 […]
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Sticking Out Their Tongass
It’s a big bummer, but not a big surprise: The Bush administration ruled on Friday that it will not provide wilderness protection for any additional land in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, a move that will open up hundreds of thousands of acres of old-growth forest to logging. Public opinion was overwhelmingly in favor of creating […]
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Out to Luntz
Worried that their party is vulnerable on environmental issues, some Republicans in recent months have been trying to foster a gentler, greener image. An influential memorandum penned last fall by GOP strategist Frank Luntz advises Republicans to sprinkle terms like “balance” and “common sense” into their environmental speeches, and to stick to the word “conservationist,” […]
