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Ref.: Civic Events
Ref.: Arts & Education Events
Ref.: Public Service Notices
02.12 FiveBooks Interviews > Lorraine Adams on The Truth Behind the Headlines
Ref. : Letters to the editor
02.13 Dolphins beaching in record numbers on Cape Cod
02.13 Southern Californians at risk of death from air pollution, EPA says
02.13 EPA Sued by 11 States to Enforce Standards Limiting Soot
02.13 Congress nearly eliminates funds for lead poisoning
02.10 LET’S REMAKE THE WAY WE MAKE THINGS
02.09 Cancer rates triple among New York police officers who responded to 9/11
02.08 The seed emergency: The threat to food and democracy
02.07 Bill Gates backs climate scientists lobbying for large-scale geoengineering
02.04 Your Day at the Beach Could Soon Lead to a Night at the Hospital
02.03 Obama Won't Touch Climate With a 10-Foot Pole
02.03 Komen reverses decision to cut Planned Parenthood funding
02.03 Reforming EU Deep-Sea Fisheries Management
02.02 By defunding Planned Parenthood, the Susan G Komen Foundation betrays women
02.02 Ohio Tries to Escape Fate as a Dumping Ground for Fracking Fluid
Ref. Dollars for Doctors - How Industry Money Reaches Physicians
Ref. 2010 Comparative Price Report Medical and Hospital Fees by Country - Graphics
Ref. Health at a Glance 2011 - OECD Indicators
Ref. : Why is Healthcare Absurdly Expensive in USA (Part 2) [Graphics] (Part 1 is here)
Video Health Care Systems in Less Corrupt Countries
02.07 Did Obama make the economy worse? Not according to most statistics
02.02 ABC's Iran Propaganda
02.02 The Ongoing “Foxification” of the Wall Street Journal
Daily The Daily Howler
02.13 News Corp may face US inquiry after Sun arrests at News International
02.13 Why Was No One Punished for America's "My Lai" in Iraq?
02.05 Why the AGs Must Not Settle: Robo-signing Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg
02.04 THE CAGING OF AMERICA
02.03 Senate Votes To Ban Its Members From Insider Trading... Kind Of
02.13 Bill Maher: Republicans Divide America - video
02.13 The right's stupidity spreads, enabled by a too-polite left
02.12 Even Critics of Safety Net Increasingly Depend on It - Interactive Map: Where Americans Most Depend on Government Benefits
02.12 CPAC attendees more focused on the economy than their right-wing leaders - video
02.10 The Cancer in Occupy
02.10 How Opus Dei Influenced Rick Santorum
02.10 People Are Not Leaving the Labor Force
02.09 Obama, Explained
02.09 OPED: The White Underclass
02.09 EDITORIAL: A Terrible Transportation Bill
02.09 THE OBAMA MEMOS
02.06 Are Conservatives More Fearful Than Liberals?
02.04 Soaking the Poor, State by State
02.04 Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian's Rosy Outlook On The Future of Politics
02.03 SUPERBOWL XLVI: Are You Ready for Some Football???
02.03 Buffett rules: Sheldon Whitehouse introduces the Paying a Fair Share Act - video
02.02 Secrecy Shrouds ‘Super PAC’ Funds in Latest Filings
02.01 Rich Patrons Are Major Source of Romney’s Cash
02.13 EDITORIAL: The Big Money Behind State Laws
02.10 This is no bailout for Main Street America
02.10 Why the Foreclosure Deal May Not Be So Hot After All
02.10 Matt Taibbi assesses the $26 billion settlement designed to aid victims of foreclosure fraud - video
02.10 Foreclosure Deal to Spur U.S. Home Seizures
02.09 S.E.C. Is Avoiding Tough Sanctions for Large Banks
02.08 Banks Paying Homeowners to Avoid Foreclosures
02.07 App Stores Create 500,000 U.S. Jobs
02.07 The Payroll Tax Fight
02.07 Obama super PAC decision: President blesses fundraising for Priorities USA Action
02.06 How Privatizing Government Shovels Cash to Parasitic Corporations and Undermines Democracy
02.05 We’re More Unequal Than You Think – Graphic: Unequal rise in income
02.03 PRIVATE INEQUITY
02.02 The New American Divide
02.02 American Airlines proposes to end all four pension plans
02.01 Economics 101
Ref. We’re More Unequal Than You Think – Graphic: Unequal rise in income
02.03 What the Occupy movement must learn from Sundance
02.02 US plans to halt Afghan combat role early surprise Kabul
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ENVIRONMENT:
Trashing the Environment
A third of Bush's appointments to federal courts have worked as lobbyists for polluting industries, such as oil, gas, timber and mining. By May 2004, Bush had appointed over 100 former lobbyists and company lawyers to head agencies that regulate industry and the environment. These former lobbyists redefine policies to shift regulations in favor of their former clients, most often polluting industries.
Far-right Congressmen consider environmental protection bad for business profits and are attempting to repeal or seriously weaken the Wilderness Preservation Act, the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Endangered Species Act, as well as regulations that conflict with special treatment for private property and commercial development.
In February 2006, Karl Rove bragged that President Bush has transformed conservatism from "reactionary" to "forward looking" by incorporating liberal ideas into foreign policy. The GOP highlights Bush's environmental saving efforts such as increasing mileage requirements for SUVs by .03 miles per gallon and cutting taxes so people can buy larger cars.
In April 2006, studies revealed that the US was the world's biggest polluter in 2004, emitting more greenhouse gases—the major cause of global warming—than any time in history, a record 7.1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide. These increases are the result of greater consumption of electricity, increased industrial output and more traffic, which collectively accounted for 94 percent of carbon dioxide emissions. There are higher carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere now than at any time in the last 10 million years.
Carbon dioxide emissions lead to global warming, which continue to create new weather records. In May, the National Climatic Data Center announced that April in the US was the hottest since record keeping began in 1895. Dry conditions and severe drought persisted across 31 percent of the country, from the western high plains to the Missouri Valley. Phoenix recorded 143 days without rain, breaking the previous drought record of 101 consecutive days, set in 2000. Last year, parts of the Mississippi and the Ohio rivers filled with sandbars as the drainages experienced the worse drought since 1988.
Evidence from numerous sources reveals that Bush and the Republicans have been a complete disaster in preserving the environment. They reward polluters and blissfully trust unregulated "free enterprise" to curb oil consumption and voluntary regulation to halt pollution. These policies arouse little public outcry as long as easy credit and massive Chinese imports make life abundant, if pressured, for the average person, but the effects of the nation's gluttony for oil, automobiles, energy and an exorbitant standard of living has serious repercussions.
With only 5 percent of the world's population, the US consumes about 30 percent of the world's resources and faces increased disruption from hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, drought, and other climate changes that will increasingly impinge on our lifestyle. Global warming is irreversible, but the longer we wait to reverse policies and begin protecting the environment, the greater the climatic shifts and human dislocations will be and the more arbitrary and restrictive the changes necessary to curb the resulting damage.
In the meantime, the nation will continue to suffer man-made disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina. It's time to place environmental protection at the top of the priority list for national action.
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This story was published on June 2, 2006.
