Meanwhile even the Publicans are getting pissed at his destruction of our environment....the man is a force of evil
Republican Enviros Blast Bush for Withholding Information
Environment News Service
Wednesday 02 July 2003
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico, July 2, 2003 (ENS) - Withholding of vital environmental
information is getting to be a bad habit with the Bush administration, REP America, the national
grassroots organization of Republicans for environmental protection, said today.
REP America reacted to published reports that the administration withheld an analysis
showing a Senate bill to clean up power plant pollution would be significantly more effective and
cost only marginally more than the administration's "Clear Skies" plan.
REP America President Martha Marks said, "First, the administration watered down language
about global warming in EPA's recent state of the environment report. Then, the administration
dismissed federal scientists' concerns in declaring that Yellowstone National Park is in no
danger. Now, we see that senators were not given vital information about cleaning up unhealthy
power plant emissions."
"The administration should treat the American people and their Congressional representatives
like adults and give them the unvarnished truth about the environment," she said.
REP America believes that reducing unhealthy pollutants and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions
together would be the most efficient way to clean up power plants, which are responsible for
one-third of CO2 emissions across the United States. CO2 is the major heat trapping
greenhouse gas responsible for global warming.
Bipartisan "four-pollutant" legislation requiring reduced power plant emissions of nitrogen
oxides, sulfur dioxide, mercury, and carbon dioxide through a market based approach is the best
solution, REP America says.
In addition, new legislation should give all power plants a deadline to meet modern pollution
reduction standards, the organization said.
"Thanks to enforcement of the Clean Air Act, our nation has made a lot of progress in
reducing unhealthy air pollution," Marks said. "There is more work to be done, however. It's not
fair that old, outdated power plants are allowed to emit more unhealthy air pollution than newer
plants. All power plants should have to meet the same standards."
"The U.S. must do more to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming,"
Marks said. "By addressing all these issues at once, we can get more emissions reductions per
dollar spent, protect public health, and give regulatory certainty to utilities and other power plant
owners," Marks said.
Senate Republicans supporting the four-pollutant legislation include Judd Gregg of New
Hampshire, and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island. Another bill is co-sponsored by Olympia Snowe
and Susan Collins both of Maine.
House Republicans supporting the four-pollutant legislation include Sherwood Boehlert and
Sue Kelly of New York, Wayne Gilchrest of Maryland, Nancy Johnson and Christopher Shays of
Connecticut, and Frank LoBiondo and Jim Saxton of New Jersey.
For more articles on the Bush environmental record;
Go to Original
Entire Rainforests Set to Disappear in Next Decade
By Marie Woolf
Independant UK
Saturday 05 July 2003
More than 23 million acres of the world's forests - enough to cover the whole of Scotland - are
disappearing each year because of logging, mining and land clearance for agriculture.
The scale of deforestation is so great that some countries, such as Indonesia, could lose
entire rainforests in the next 10 years. The appetite for wood for furniture, floors and building in
Europe and North America is shrinking the world's forests at a rate of 2.4 per cent every 10
years, official figures show.
Hilary Benn, an International Development minister, who released the United Nations
statistics, said that they did not take into account deforestation caused by "trade in illegal
timber".
According to the UN figures showing the depletion of forests between 1990 and 2000, the
worst-affected country was Haiti, which lost 5.7 per cent of its stock in that period. Saint Lucia's
forestry was eroded by 4.9 per cent and El Salvador's by 4.6 per cent. Other big losers included
Micronesia (4.5 per cent), Comoros (4.3 per cent) and Rwanda (3.9 per cent).
The habitats of the orang-utan, bonobo ape and lowland gorilla are under threat and the world's
rarest creatures, including the Sumatran tiger and rhino, are being forced to retreat into
Indonesia's ever- shrinking forests.
The figures follow the disclosure by The Independent of the alarming rate at which the Amazon
rainforest is being destroyed. Logging of Brazil's rainforests has leapt by 40 per cent in the past
year, with 25,500sq km felled in that time.
Andy Tait, the forests campaigner at Greenpeace, said: "The world bank estimates that the
lowland rainforest of Sumatra and Kalimantan in Indonesia, which is the home of the orang-utan,
has less than 10 years to go until it is completely logged out."
MPs called on the Government to put more pressure on international governments to use
wood produced in sustainable logging programmes.
Norman Baker, Environment spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said the Government must
stop using mahogany and sapele wood in its public building projects.
"Deforestation is an almost irreversible process. You cannot grow a forest overnight.
Excessive forest farming must be curbed. Otherwise the adage that 'forests proceed man,
deserts follow him' will sadly ring true," he said.
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