*Ø* Blogmanac | WHAT Environment?

MIA in the SOU
Bush stops pretending that he cares about the environment.
By Timothy Noah
Posted Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2004, at 8:45 PM PT

In a famous memo to Republican politicians about how to talk about the environment, pollster Frank Luntz warned against using the phrases "risk assessment" and "cost-benefit analysis," and urged them to instead use the words, "safer," "cleaner," and "healthier." But in President Bush's State of the Union address, the words "cleaner" and "healthier" were never uttered, and the word "safer" was spoken only in the context of the overthrow of
Saddam Hussein.

Here are some other words and phrases that did not appear in the speech: "environment," "pollution," "natural resources," "global warming," "clean air," "clean water," and "Clear Skies," which is what Bush calls his main initiative on air pollution. The word "conservation" appeared once in a plea to pass the energy bill, which takes various steps to encourage more oil drilling. This in a speech where Bush found time to call for an end to steroid abuse in professional sports, an issue completely outside the realm of government at the federal, state, or local level.

Apparently Karl Rove has decided that the environment isn't even worth paying lip service to anymore. [Emphasis added. -v]

SOURCE


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The Earth's life-support system is in peril
by: Wire Services
1/21/2004
Excerpts from Margot Wallström, Bert Bolin, Paul Crutzen and
Will Steffen's article in the International Herald Tribune

Our planet is changing fast. In recent decades many environmental indicators have moved outside the range in which they have varied for the past half-million years. We are altering our life support system and potentially pushing the planet into a far less hospitable state.

Such large-scale and long-term changes present major policy challenges. The Kyoto Protocol is important as an international framework for combating climate change, and yet its targets can only ever be a small first step. If we cannot develop policies to cope with the uncertainty, complexity and magnitude of global change, the consequences for society may be huge.

Evidence of our influence extends far beyond atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and the well-documented increases in global mean temperature. During the 1990's, the average area of humid tropical forest cleared each year was equivalent to nearly half the area of England, and at current extinction rates we may well be on the way to the Earth's sixth great extinction event.





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[See also related article.]