There are two things to go over in this blog, one is a news story from Washington Post about how George Bush, in his final days of presidency, setting up a natural preserve out in three areas of the Pacific ocean, and the other is an article from Salon.com on all of Bush's environmental sins.
The first article I am going to explain is the one from the Washington Post. This first one goes over, as stated earlier, how he is declaring 3 areas out in the Pacific a marine national monument. Now this is great and all, but what information you have so far doesn't explain the whole story. George Bush is now doing what no person has ever done before, believe it or not. The article from the Washington Post says "Bush's decision to safeguard far-flung areas totaling 195,280 square miles ... by the end of his term he will have protected more ocean than any person in history." This is great. These "monuments" he just set up will protect from fishing, oil rigs, and any other sort of damage you could imagine.
The second article on the other hand, shows all of George's other environmental flaws while in office. The "Seven Sins" listed are...
1. "Bush Sin 1: Blew hot air on global warming"
This means that Bush ignored the mandatory greenhouse gas emission reduction, prompting other countries to do this as well.
2. "Bush Sin 2: Failed to regulate greenhouse gases at home"
Meaning he vetoed any law that congress tried to put in place to regulate emissions.
3. "Bush Sin 3: Failed to develop clean energy sources"
According to the article Bush promoted the idea that we will all be driving eco-friendly cars by 2020, then goes on to say that he hasn't promoted the individual eco-friendly powering systems enough, while promoting coal and oil.
4. "Bush Sin 4: Abandoned endangered species"
George Bush has apparently never declared a species of animal endangered.
5. "Bush Sin 5: Carved up the American West for oil and gas excavation"
According to the article, "Since Bush took office, an area slightly larger than the state of Kentucky has been leased for oil and gas drilling on public lands in the United States; almost 27 million acres have been designated to be plundered for their hydrocarbons." Make what you will of it.
6. "Bush Sin 6: Not seeing the forest or the trees"
Bush has created a policy that has enabled forest "thinning" in order to help prevent wildfires, but ends up being a deforestation process.
7. "Bush Sin 7: Choked our clean air standards"
This part of the article claims that Bush has been trying to back up any regulation on clean air, creating more and more emissions.
Both of these stories have legitimacy to them, so the big question is what choice makes the biggest impact? All of these choices that he made impact the world, and influences their choices as well. Because of our leniency on gas regulations, other countries have become lenient as well, but the national monument system can possibly encourage other countries to do the same and save one of the only environments left barely touched by humans.
So, is George Bush environmental enough for us?
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