The administration's hot air over global warming

[struggle4progress]

June 13, 2005
Monday


Americans who care about our environment are suffering from more than a mite of "outrage fatigue."

These past five years, we have witnessed wholesale environmental plunder. We've watched the destruction of formerly protected lands, the relaxation of air- and water-pollution standards and the erosion of a network of federal laws and rules designed to protect species in danger of extinction.

But having endured this era of "personal greed trumps nature and science," I was beginning to think no new stunt could be outrageous enough to faze us. Then came perhaps the most outrageous act of all: the White House's duplicitous editorial spin on global warming.

If I were to write a fictitious account of special-interest manipulation of public policy, I could do no better than the following: "Longtime oil-industry lobbyist rewrites scientific government treatise to downplay the dangers of global warming. Systematically revises government report so as to nullify the now-proven dangers of global warming on the eve of U.S. president's meeting with British prime minister on global pollution control treaty." <snip>

http://www.sitnews.us/Columns/0605/061305_bonnie_erbe.html