What about the environment?
It’s not surprising President Bush didn’t say a word about the environment during his State of the Union speech. After all, he has supported widespread logging, drilling, mining … and that’s just for a start. He’s declared war on the environment, but it’s a silent war.
What was extremely disturbing was that neither National Public Radio commentators nor Democratic leaders said anything about the environment, either.
Sen. Tom Daschle and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, in the Democratic rebuttal, were far more concerned with questions of national security and the economy than of the environment.
What about us? Daschle asked about small-town residents who want more jobs. I would ask that same question about dozens of species facing habitat destruction and genocide. The Bush administration’s refusal to allocate anywhere near enough money to environmental agencies, particularly the Fish and Wildlife Service, is crippling their ability to defend animals on the endangered species list.
Daschle also talked about the need for every child to go to a good school. But what about the need of every child to breathe? Asthma in children is reaching epidemic proportions, thanks in no small part to the EPA’s retraction of “new source review.” Now, according to a study by ABT Associates, the 51 coal-fired power plants that were in process of being prosecuted under new source review – and have now been entirely let off the hook – kill 5,000 to 9,000 people and cause hundreds of thousands of asthma attacks every year.
Of course the American people want lower taxes and better health care and education and more jobs and freedom from fear. But we also want a clean environment.
It’s about time we let our government know that. We need to call our leaders, or write or e-mail, and demand that they fight the war for the environment as well as the war on terror.
Lynnwood
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