When the Bush administration’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency was asked to describe his goals, Gov. Mike Leavitt of Utah summed up his general approach by invoking the Latin term enlibra, which roughly means “in balance.” In typical fashion for the Bush administration, the choice of language is both elegant and misleading. Environmentalists understand balance, but Leavitt’s balance is… return to article
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Reader Comments (15)Page 1 of 1 pagesFirst of all- That is the perfect artwork for this piece! Bush with that pathetic smug look, pollution, kinda says it all in one shot!
Second of all- This is a great issue with which to attack him. Americans want environmental protection and he’s ain’t giving us any. Who is going to disagree with this piece except for logging companies and Limbaugh?
Unfortunately the economy does seem to be improving and that attack may not have the bite that we wish it would. But the Iraq war and environmental issues are two big dogs with bite.
Keep ‘em coming!
Posted by M. Tassen on Nov 21, 2003 at 9:07 PM I am struck by the reference of Karl Rove to Mark Hanna as one of Karl’s idols. Hanna, as I (hopefully without error) recall from my High School History class, was one of the primary evils against which the American Progressive Movement arose and prospered in the early 20th Century. May we hope for a repeat this time?
Posted by Jim Ward on Nov 21, 2003 at 10:16 PM With regard to energy issues only, (and our energy problems tie directly into our present posture in the international community), let’s leave off for a moment from bashing the Big Oil administration now in power. Remember that it was the terribly poor rhetoric concerning power and energy back in the 70s that is a major cause of our lamentable position now.
Let the World Nuclear Association avail you of some information:
We live in a world that has only begun to consume energy. Today India and China are gaining rapidly on Europe and America in per capita energy consumption.
During the next 50 years, as Earth’s population expands from 6 billion toward 9 billion, humanity will consume more energy than the combined total used in all previous history.
With carbon emissions now threatening the very stability of the biosphere, the security of our world requires a massive transformation to clean energy.
“Renewables” like solar, wind and biomass can help. But only nuclear power offers clean, environmentally friendly energy on a massive scale.
Fortunately, this urgently needed expansion can now build on a half-century of tremendous advance in the safe and secure operation of nuclear technology.
We are confident that an informed public debate - focused on facts rather than myths - will demonstrate that nuclear energy is indispensable to sustainable global development.Nuclear waste is small in volume and safely manageable. Compare it with dumping 25 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into our air each year, and you might decide that waste is nuclear power’s greatest comparative asset.
Solar energy has considerable logical and popular appeal. However, for electricity generation solar power has limited potential, as it is too diffuse and too intermittent.
Let’s cool the ideological rhetoric, and get pragmatic.
AA
Posted by Alex Ashley on Nov 22, 2003 at 6:57 PM Such a sad world we live in when our “leaders” show such disdain for the planet that sustains us. Werbach’s piece is right on the mark. Too bad it can’t be distributed in every newspaper in the country, including the one in Gillete, Wyoming. The public needs to wake up, but probably won’t as long as the mainstream media continue to harp on about “clear skies,” “healthy forests,” and other Bush administration lies of that ilk. What a world we’re preparing for future generations, but then, who cares? so long as the big bucks continue to roll in to GOP coffers.
Posted by G. M. Bush on Nov 22, 2003 at 8:00 PM AA-Sorry to inform you but you’re dealing with self proclaimed “Progressives” here. Nuclear energy, and your supporting facts, may make sense. But they will never, ever hear you out on it. This magazine is completely focused on defeating Bush…and they don’t care about anything else. Too bad they’re going to eat it…
Posted by Ty on Nov 23, 2003 at 4:20 AM “If a man walk in the woods for love of them half of each day, he
is in danger of being regarded as a loafer; but if he spends his whole
day as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making earth bald
before her time, he is esteemed an industrious and enterprising
citizen. As if a town had no interest in its forests but to cut them
down!”—Henry David Thoreau, ‘Life Without Principle’ available through Project Gutenberg
A shame more people that have read Thoreau don’t practice what he wrote of.
Posted by Taran on Nov 23, 2003 at 5:30 AM And what exactly is the significance of Adam Werbach’s having been elected president of the Sierra Club “at the age of 23”? You (he?) obviously think it is important for the reader to know this. Why?
Posted by Peter Kuhbach on Nov 24, 2003 at 2:45 PM I really ponder when I see and hear the environmentalists from my country strike up the chord of disdain and abuse by a mad administration.
As a matter of fact it has more to do with the complete identity of America.
Has history really shown any care for America? Foreigners later called Americans invaded America, stole the land, raped, and killed, and murdered innocent Native American Indians, and put them on Indian Reservations. A crime they still have not paid for!
Then they pound their patriotic chests and say what a good boy am I because I am for the cause of freedom!
When you want jobs you take away more of the planet. When you look at creating jobs by protecting the forest you have environmental tranquility.
People like Bush need to be arrested, imprisoned, and held responsible for the many abuses by a minority of Rich men who never have enough.
Nuclear power is not the answer, natural gas, and coal are not the answer.
The answer is in wind generation, solarization, and Hydrogen fuel cell technology.
Forests need to be swept periodically or we can only wait to allow nature to release its lightening to burn the old growth from existence.
I love my new home in China now because America is going to unravel, as all the mighty heavy weights of power have done.
To think we are still raping the earth without regard to the real owners namely the Native American Indians, is I regard justice coming to the shores of the damned.
Heave ho Bush baby! May you reap the carnage you unfold!
Posted by Dominic Jermano on Nov 24, 2003 at 4:08 PM Oh Ty, are you really a progressive? The benefits of renewable energy diversification (ie: nuclear, solar, atmospheric, hydroelectric, hydrogen cells, etc.) far outway the regressions. To dismiss nuclear power is to dismiss a constant, clean, and proven source of natural energy. Yes the by products are inherently deadly and the risk of contamination must be taken into account, but you must know that the nuclear plant in Zion produces no less than 15% of the power fed to Chicago and the burbs, the computer you typed your message on is in part powered by nuclear fission.
In These Times is a magazine that promotes knowledge and awareness of the world in which we all live. It seeks to enlighten and inform in an objective way, something other periodicals seemingly are unwilling to do. The fact that they slam Bush and his minion with regularity is just an example of the rampant and virtually uncontested illegal acts committed by his administration and Congressional and corporate allies.
Today it is COLD in Chicagoland. I would rather endure that 365 days a year, every remaining year of my life than 4 more years of Bush. If the National Enquirer runs stories about this piece of shit administration and it pushes votes to Dems, PRINT THEM…
Posted by Brian on Nov 24, 2003 at 10:01 PM I saw a show on T.V.(CBC) about the destruction the drilling in Wyoming is doing and warned about what might happen in Alberta.
Posted by Strank on Nov 25, 2003 at 10:13 AM Nuclear Power is no answer to our energy needs. The risk of fission, and the waste it produces is not to be taken lightly. Waste is also known to be used for dirty bombs, and the mass confusion of developing nuclear energy in developing countries or nuclear weapons is like wearing not one shoe but a pair.
Do we forget Love Canal, Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl? Hydrogen power is better than nuclear power, and it cleans the air. It has zero pollution, and is the most positive resource known to man, yet is the less used.
I can see it now an American Nuclear Site decides to build a bomb without the authorities knowing it and threatening to wipe out the entire East Coast or West Coast if the government does not wage war on Saudi Arabia.
If you trust the government with nuclear shit, you are crazy. Look what Bush wants now mini nuke bombs known as bunker busters.
So a kid took the bunker buster to school from his fathers locker and blew away the entire town right?
Wise up! America. Getting rid of Bush and his mental contamination to the nation is a worthy goal.
God love those who oppose Bush, and his Criminal Guard!
Posted by DJ on Nov 25, 2003 at 12:40 PM Those who promote ‘clean hydrogen fuel cell technology’ leave me wondering. Do they think about where the hydrogen will come from? There is virtually no free hydrogen on earth. You split water with electricity to get hydrogen. You won’t get more electricity burning it than you put into producing it, and that’s that. So electricity has to come from other sources. Hydrogen technology, though, is good since concentrated energy production is more efficient (sometimes).
Posted by A. Tykhyy on Nov 26, 2003 at 1:44 PM So the debate turns into revealing the secrets of hydrogen technology!
A free bee you want!
O.K. so we use wind generation, and solarization to create hydrogen.So we create hydrogen at the same time it creates electricity to split more molecules to create more hydrogen.
O.K. so we have a huge ocean that moves with the tide to create water generators that will produce electricity.
And there are other ways to split water, like sitting on a bike and peddling a generator. Just think of all the fat clubs in America that could hook up to cook out our hydrogen.
But we’d rather kill Iraqis for Oil instead, and bring a whole colloquial of political excuses to why its good to kill Saddam.
I can use the same argument! Look at all the oil it takes for you to get the oil! It takes alot of energy to run those pumps, to change it into gas, to pump it through a pipline, to have oil move the ship across the ocean, to pump it off the ship, to pump it in a truck, to drive the truck to pump it into a big reservoir, to have it pumped into a truck again to be driven, and driven , and driven to be pumped into a gas station, to be used.
Seems to me, if I can make my own hydrogen at home from my own well outback, it sure saves alot of PUMPING!
It sure stops the madness of that dinosaur Oil fossil. Why do you think it is called fossil fuel? It is an old no good, useless scheme that men are blind to.
I cringe when I see oil rigs off the coast from any country, trying to find oil miles below the ocean, when you look all around and see a huge vast resource of untapped water that never needs drilling.
These idiots on oil rigs are the morons of the world.
And please lets not forget all the wonderful oil spills we have wittnessed.
Whats better arguing about how hydrogen won’t work, or cleaning up more spills, sinking ships, breathing unclean air, and the list goes on. Hydrogen does work.
Posted by DJ on Nov 26, 2003 at 3:35 PM Ty,
They’re going to eat what? What will they eat when Bush loses?
Posted by neil on Nov 28, 2003 at 10:46 AM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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