earth day at the airport

yeah, i've picked the right job...

After graduation next year, I'll be entering the class of 2006 with the environmental organizing training program called Green Corps. I'll be fighting off bad guys like polluters and dumpers that make our world a less beautiful place to live.

It's easy to forget how much I care about the environment as I get lost in my day-to-day routine of school. Especially since I'm surrounded by like-minded liberal tree-huggers, on a college campus where Earth Day is celebrated like New Year's,which is located in one of the most leftist towns in the country (move over Berkeley!). But, I can thankfully rely on our president to remind me of my passion to change things for the better of the Earth.

Yesterday was Earth Day (although, Earth Day should be everyday), and our incompetent president was obliged to discuss his environmental policies. His speech was filled with the usual BS on how much he looooves the environment. In fact, he's so into nature, that he gave his speech on a beautiful airport runway in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Oh, Mr. Bush, how I love your rhetoric.

He tried to imply that Congress was the reason his eco-friendly proposals like the policy on reducing power plant emissions, the Clear Skies Initiative, weren't coming into effect:
"The initiatives we did through executive order are important, but it would sure be helpful if Congress passed the Clear Skies legislation, as well." Gee, well, maybe they'd pass it if it didn't exclude montoring the major pollutants that come from a power plant, like mercury.

Nowadays when women who are or plan to become pregnant are told to avoid eating fish because of dangerous mercury levels, how can anyone suggest that admitting mercury into the air isn't harmful? The EPA itself said inFebruary 2003 ("America’s Children and the Environment: Measures of Contaminants, Body Burdens, and Illnesses") that children born to women with high blood concentrations of mercury (about 5 million American women, according to their estimates) are at risk of adverse health problems, including reduced developmental IQ, problems with motor skills, and damage to the cardiovascular, immune and reproductive systems.

And, the source of this mercury is not so myserious. The EPA reports that U.S. electric utilities released 48 tons of mercury in 1999. This comprises about 40 percent of manmade mercury emissions in the U.S..

Now, please help me understand this next comment:

One of the initiatives I announced on Earth Day last year was to restore, improve and protect 3 million acres of wetlands over a five year period of time. The policy used to be no net loss. I thought we needed to be more aggressive on wetlands. And so the new goal is to restore, improve or protect 3 million acres of land [emphasis added].

hmm...

He went on to encourage Congress to speedily approve his nominee to head the EPA, Steve Johnson. According to the president, "He comes from the ranks of the EPA, he knows the agency [sic]." Well, of course, being my skeptical self, I ran over to grist.org -- an online journal of "environmental news and commentary" -- to see what the crazy liberals had to say about this guy. Surprisingly, he might acutally care about the environment.

He ascended the agency ladder swiftly under the watch of Carol Browner, who
headed the EPA during the Clinton administration. "I don't know if Johnson is a Democrat or Republican, but he's a very green guy, a truly committed environmentalist, from my experience." He didn't shy away from enforcing tough standards, safeguarding public health, and taking action against chemical companies when needed, said Browner. "One is almost left to wonder," she added, "if the Bush administration knew just how deep his commitment is to these issues when they decided that he was their man.

I am flabbergasted that someone who even likes the environment was appointed, but I'm not entirely convinced of this guy's commitment. Clearly, if he's on board with Bush adminstration policies, he can't be all that green. And if Carol Browner is right, and he is green, then he'll only have to shut off his ideals while he's in his new visible political position.

In short, the environment is still dying and the Bush administration is only helping its decline. Luckily for us, Bush has a lovely way of making us all think that he cares and that he's doing everything he can to help. Doesn't it just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? Oh, the power of shallow misleading rhetoric and a media that just eats it up.