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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mephisto who wrote (3753)	4/21/2002 3:07:44 AM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

No Greens Need Apply Editorial The New York Times August 19, 2001 From The New York Times While Congress and the country have been debating high-profile environmental issues, like whether to drill for oil in the Arctic, President Bush has been quietly filling key subcabinet posts with conservative activists and industry lobbyists who have spent their careers criticizing the laws they are now sworn to uphold. These appointments should dispel any doubts about Mr. Bush's intention to weaken the strong environmental protections he inherited from the Clinton administration. Unlike his father, who reached into academia and even the environmental community for some of his appointments, Mr. Bush seems determined to return to the Reagan era, when ideologues like James Watt ran the Interior Department and most of the important regulatory jobs were filled with representatives of the businesses being regulated. Nowhere is Mr. Bush's strategy clearer than at Interior, the agency most responsible for protecting the country's natural resources. The department's new deputy secretary, J. Steven Griles, was a top lobbyist for the oil, gas and coal industries, which contributed heavily to Mr. Bush's campaign last year and this year helped shape an energy strategy that would open the public lands to drilling. The new solicitor, William Myers III, was a senior employee of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association and represented the nation's grazing interests in lawsuits challenging federal policies that he will now be required to uphold. Bennett Raley, the new assistant secretary for water and science, is likewise a longtime servant of the big landowning and irrigation interests. Lynn Scarlett, the new assistant secretary for policy, was president of the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank opposed in principle to most government regulation. All four have won Senate approval. However, there are others with similar professional or ideological pedigrees who have yet to be approved for jobs that wield great power over day-to-day policy. Senate environmentalists will want to pay closer attention to these nominees lest they wake up one morning to find a fox in every coop. Among the most controversial is Donald Schregardus, nominated to be Christie Whitman's enforcement officer at the Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. Schregardus has encountered ferocious opposition from environmentalists and several senators because, they say, he did a poor enforcement job when he ran Ohio's E.P.A. This nomination, foisted on Mr. Bush by Senator George Voinovich of Ohio, cannot have pleased Mrs. Whitman. Among other things, Mr. Schregardus strongly opposed a 1998 Clinton administration plan to reduce smog-forming emissions from Midwestern utilities, which Mrs. Whitman endorsed along with other Northeastern governors. Industry's tentacles are everywhere. The nominee for the Agriculture Department's top natural resources post, with authority over the Forest Service, is Mark Rey, an influential Senate staffer who spent nearly 20 years as a lobbyist for the timber industry. Mr. Rey was an architect of the infamous 1995 "salvage rider," which effectively suspended environmental laws and accelerated clear-cutting in old-growth forests, and a determined enemy of President Bill Clinton's plan to place one-third of the national forests off limits to new roads. Over at Justice, meanwhile, the vital job of enforcing the nation's environmental laws awaits Senate approval of Thomas Sansonetti, a member of the Federalist Society, a property rights group, and an energetic lobbyist for coal mining operations and other industries seeking access to public lands. Mr. Sansonetti, who has a low opinion of the Endangered Species Act, once said admiringly of Gale Norton, another libertarian who now runs the Interior Department: "She understands the system. There won't be any biologists or botanists able to come in and pull the wool over her eyes." Tough-guy sentiments like these would sit well with Mike Parker, whom Mr. Bush has named (at Senator Trent Lott's insistence) to oversee the Army Corps of Engineers. In 10 undistinguished years as a Mississippi congressman, Mr. Parker thrice earned zero ratings from the League of Conservation Voters, and was openly contemptuous at a 1998 hearing of Mr. Clinton's efforts to shift the Corps' focus from navigation and flood control to projects like restoring the Everglades and protecting endangered salmon. Mr. Parker, who became a lobbyist for barging interests after he left Congress, said he found it "astounding" that anyone would put environmental missions ahead of commercial projects. That seems a fair summary of the views of many of Mr. Bush's important nominees. nytimes.com

To: Mephisto who wrote (3753)	4/26/2002 4:46:22 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

World's weather hotter than ever Temperatures in the south of England will resemble Bordeaux in France by 2080, say scientists, and most of Britain will be snow-free Paul Brown, environment correspondent Friday April 26, 2002 The Guardian The world was warmer in the first three months of this year than at any time in the past 1,000 years, it was revealed yesterday, as scientists released reports predicting British weather would get rapidly warmer and more unstable. Rising sea levels and storm surges threaten the south-east of England, the latest research shows. It was disclosed that work had already started on how to replace the Thames barrier and strengthen 100 miles of sea defences around the Thames estuary, where the sea level could rise by 86cm (3ft) by 2080. The east of England is sinking at the same time as sea levels are rising - the port of Immingham, in Lincolnshire, which faces a damaging storm surge once every 50 years, can expect to be flooded for nine years out of 10 by 2080 unless sea defences are raised. The predictions of climate change for Britain, temperature rise, and rainfall are the first since 1998 and far more detailed than any released elsewhere. Hot summer days in the south would reach 40C (104F). Margaret Beckett, the environment secretary, said the situation was far more urgent than previously thought. "We thought we should plan how to deal with this for our children's sake, now we realise we have to do it for ourselves," she said. "This is happening in our lifetime and we must work to avoid these dangers and threats." Because of the carbon dioxide already released into the atmosphere, climate change would continue even if we stopped emissions, although this is presently impossible. Winters will be mild and very wet with frequent flooding, and most of Britain will be snow-free. Even the Scottish mountains will have 90% less snow. Summers will be far hotter and drier everywhere. Crops in the south will have to grow with 50% less rain and need constant irrigation to thrive. The growing season may have to move to earlier in the year, as in Mediterranean countries, because some crops may not survive the summer heat. Geoff Jenkins, head of the Hadley centre for climate change, which is part of the met office, said temperatures worldwide in January and March were the warmest recorded and the three month sequence was 0.71C higher than the 1961-90 average. "These are significant figures and together with other trends show that global warming is really here already," he said. The report, a joint venture by government and climate change researchers, used computers to predict climate change for the UK based on the latest measurements and research. By 2080 temperatures will increase by between 2C and 3.5C, depending on how much carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere, but inland in the south, away from the cooling effect of the sea, this may be as much as 5C. A very hot August, as experienced in 1995 when temperatures were 3.4C above normal, will occur every two years in three in 2080, and may be even hotter, the report says. But while there may be bonuses for the tourist industry with weather in the south resembling the Bordeaux region of France, it is bad news for the water industry, which faces supply shortages. Summer soil moisture may be reduced by 40% making life difficult for gardeners and farmers. But the winter rainfall will cause most problems. Deep depressions with high winds are expected to dump up to 35% more rain on Britain, leading to more frequent flooding. This combined with higher tides and sea levels could cause severe disruption in the south where most of the extra rain is expected. guardian.co.uk