One goal of this blog is to look at the main stream media and contrast the actions of the government led by the Bush Administration with the growing threat of our degrading environment. Today I wrote an aggregation of the Georgia/Poland situation between the United States vs. Russia. The Bush Administration is tightly aligned with military violence to secure more fossil fuels to grow a wasteful economy instead of advancing policies to protect sustainable resources for a stable society.
From the Online NewsHour:
Huge swaths of the world’s oceans are too starved of oxygen to support shrimp, crabs, fish and other marine life, and these so-called dead zones are growing virtually unchecked, according to a new study.
Coastal waters worldwide contain more than 400 dead zones that, combined, make up an area the size of New Zealand, according to a study published online Thursday in the journal Science. Robert Diaz, a marine biologist at the College of William and Mary Virginia Institute of Marine Science and lead author of the study, said fertilizer runoff from farms is a major source of the problem.
Fertilizer, animal waste and car exhaust leach into storm-water runoff and spill excess nutrients, primarily nitrogen and phosphorous, into coastal seawaters. Algae and phytoplankton on the seafloor feed off the nutrients, which cause them to bloom wildly. As bacteria consume the blooms, they suck oxygen from the water, depleting whole stretches of ocean. Scientists call this oxygen depletion hypoxia.
“All of the systems are reacting in concert to a general over-fertilization of the rivers and bays in the coastal area,” Diaz said. “Most of this in the marine environment is due to excess nitrogen.”
Diaz’s research shows that the number of dead zones have roughly doubled each year since the 1960s. Dead zones alter the habitat for crab, shrimp, fish and lobster, often forcing them to shallow areas.
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First, here is the introduction to an annotated version of the speech:
Dot Earth, New York Times
July 17, 2008, 12:06 pm
By ANDREW C. REVKINFormer Vice President Al Gore gave a speech in Washington laying out his new approach to the entwined challenges of limiting risks from global warming and instability from rising energy prices and declining supplies of fossil fuels. He calls for the United States to produce all electricity from “carbon-free sources” by 2018. This represents quite a shift from his tight focus on the “climate crisis” as the great challenge of our time. The prepared text is below. Some Democrats in Congress weren’t thrilled with the timing, according to TheHill.com, given the focus now on pain at the pump.
In an article in The Times tonight by John Broder, Mr. Gore implied that his timetable and targets for de-carbonizing the country’s electricity sources were intentionally super-sized: “I see my role as enlarging the political space in which Senator Obama or Senator McCain can confront this issue as president next year,” Mr. Gore said.
Both presidential candidates responded to the speech tonight, according to the story:
Mr. Obama (written statement): “For decades, Al Gore has challenged the skeptics in Washington on climate change and awakened the conscience of a nation to the urgency of this threat. I strongly agree with Vice President Gore that we cannot drill our way to energy independence, but must fast-track investments in renewable sources of energy like solar power, wind power and advanced biofuels, and those are the investments I will make as president.”
Mr. McCain (a spokesman): “John McCain has been a leader in the fight against global climate change, working with Democrats on this issue since 2003, but no one has more successfully recruited Americans into this effort than Al Gore. This is a key issue, and John McCain has put solutions over partisanship to pursue meaningful, market-driven cap and trade legislation aimed at drastically reducing harmful carbon emissions.”
Now, the speech transcript:
Al Gore: A Generational Challenge to Repower America
Ladies and gentlemen:
There are times in the history of our nation when our very way of life depends upon dispelling illusions and awakening to the challenge of a present danger. In such moments, we are called upon to move quickly and boldly to shake off complacency, throw aside old habits and rise, clear-eyed and alert, to the necessity of big changes. Those who, for whatever reason, refuse to do their part must either be persuaded to join the effort or asked to step aside. This is such a moment. The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk. And even more - if more should be required - the future of human civilization is at stake.
I don’t remember a time in our country when so many things seemed to be going so wrong simultaneously. Our economy is in terrible shape and getting worse, gasoline prices are increasing dramatically, and so are electricity rates. Jobs are being outsourced. Home mortgages are in trouble. Banks, automobile companies and other institutions we depend upon are under growing pressure. Distinguished senior business leaders are telling us that this is just the beginning unless we find the courage to make some major changes quickly.
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First step: We should tax what we burn, not what we earn
Al Gore spoke about energy policy in Washington on Thursday.
New York Times
July 18, 2008
By DAVID STOUT
WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Al Gore said on Thursday that Americans must abandon electricity generated by fossil fuels within a decade and rely on the sun, the winds and other environmentally friendly sources of power, or risk losing their national security as well as their creature comforts.
“The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk,” Mr. Gore said in a speech to an energy conference here. “The future of human civilization is at stake.”
Mr. Gore called for the kind of concerted national effort that enabled Americans to walk on the moon 39 years ago this month, just eight years after President John F. Kennedy famously embraced that goal. He said the goal of producing all of the nation’s electricity from “renewable energy and truly clean, carbon-free sources” within 10 years is not some farfetched vision, although he said it would require fundamental changes in political thinking and personal expectations.
“This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative,” Mr. Gore said in his remarks at the conference. “It represents a challenge to all Americans, in every walk of life — to our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, and to every citizen.”
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“The time for action is now,” President Bush said from the Rose Garden as he announced that he was lifting a presidential moratorium on drilling.
New York Times
July 14, 2008
By STEVEN LEE MYERS and CARL HULSE
WASHINGTON — President Bush lifted a presidential moratorium on drilling for oil and natural gas on the Outer Continental Shelf on Monday, hoping to prod Congress to act to clear the way for exploration along the country’s coastline in response to soaring energy prices.
“The time for action is now,” Mr. Bush said as he announced in the White House Rose Garden that he was lifting an executive order, which was first issued by his father in 1990 and was renewed by Bill Clinton.
By itself, the move will have little impact, because Congress enacted a moratorium in 1982 that remains in place. But the step underscores the rising political pressure to address high oil and gasoline prices in the middle of an election year.
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By Del Quentin Wilber and Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, July 11, 2008; 3:41 PM
A federal appeals court today threw out a major component of the Bush administration’s effort to reduce unhealthy levels of air pollution in Eastern and Midwestern states.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled unanimously that the Environmental Protection Agency had overstepped its authority in instituting a rule in 2005 that would have established a cap-and-trade system for soot and smog. It also found serious flaws in how the EPA had set pollution limits under its Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), which were to begin taking effect in coming years.
“More than several fatal flaws” forced the court to strike down the entire rule, the judges found.
“No amount of tinkering with the rule or revising of the explanations will transform CAIR, as written, into an acceptable rule,” the court ruled.
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Mr Bush’s agreement, after more than a year of promising to commit to a long-term goal without proposing what that goal should be, moves the climate change debate forward significantly.
By David Pilling in Toyako and Fiona Harvey in London
Published: July 8 2008 04:23 | Last updated: July 8 2008 19:25
George W. Bush bowed to pressure from other world leaders on climate change on Tuesday, agreeing for the first time to a long-term target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The decision to set a goal of halving emissions by 2050, in line with scientific advice, at the Group of Eight meeting of industrialised nations in Japan, marked what is likely to be the US president’s final contribution to the climate change debate.
The G8 leaders agreed to “consider and adopt…the goal of achieving at least 50 per cent reduction of global emissions by 2050, recognising that this global challenge can only be met by a global response”.
Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said the agreement was “very positive in that it talks about an ambitious economy-wide goal”.
However, he warned that a long-term goal was insufficient without shorter term commitments too: “What I completely miss in this is any reference to what the G8 countries want their emissions to be in 2020.”
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By Krishna Guha and David Pilling in Toyako
Published: July 7 2008 19:18 | Last updated: July 7 2008 19:18
Members of the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations on Monday night sought to damp down expectations that they could rescue the global economy from the impact of high oil prices.
Soaring crude prices are expected to feature heavily in discussion at today’s G8 heads of government meeting.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, on Monday reiterated a call for oil producers to boost output. But José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, said there was not much G8 leaders could do to influence the price of oil in the near term.
“Honestly, we have to recognise the limits of action,” Mr Barroso said, adding: “We have to put an end to chronic dependence on fossil fuels.”
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said little could be done without engaging emerging economies that are rapidly increasing their consumption of energy.
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Agency Was Responding to Ruling About Clean Air Act
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 26, 2008; 8:42 AM
White House officials last December sought to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from submitting a proposed rule that would limit greenhouse-gas emissions on the grounds they pose a threat to public welfare, agency sources said yesterday. And upon learning that EPA had hit the “send” button just minutes earlier, the White House called again to demand that the e-mail be recalled.
The EPA official who forwarded the e-mail, Associate Deputy Administrator Jason Burnett, refused, said the sources, who insisted on anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations.
The proposed rule was EPA’s response to an April 2007 Supreme Court ruling that the agency had violated the Clean Air Act by refusing to take up the issue of regulating automobile emissions that contribute to global warming.
Burnett, who resigned from the agency this month, sent the e-mail to the White House Office of Management and Budget at 2:17 p.m. Dec. 5 and received the call warning him to hold off at 2:25 p.m., the sources said. The EPA is expected to release a watered-down version of its original proposal within a week, highlighting the extent to which Bush administration officials continue to resist mandatory federal limits on emissions linked to global warming.
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Officials Again Cite Executive Privilege
By Spencer S. Hsu and Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, June 21, 2008; A04
The Bush administration yesterday invoked executive privilege and refused to turn over key documents sought by a House investigative committee, escalating a fight over the White House role in U.S. policy on greenhouse-gas emissions and ozone air quality standards.
Rep. Henry L. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, called off a threatened contempt of Congress vote against Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson and a White House budget official while congressional Democrats decide how to respond.
Lawmakers say the two Bush administration officials refused to respond to subpoenas for documents about communications between the White House and EPA. The papers concern White House intervention in Johnson’s December decision to overrule EPA officials who were in favor of granting California and 17 other states permission to mandate a reduction of vehicle emissions by 30 percent by 2016.
In March, the EPA also issued tougher health standards for smog, but they were not as strict as levels recommended by an EPA science advisory board after President Bush sided with the White House Office of Management and Budget in opposition.
“Administrator Johnson has repeatedly insisted he reached his decisions on California’s petition and the new ozone standard on his own, relying on his best judgment,” Waxman said. “Today’s assertion of executive privilege raises serious questions about administrator Johnson’s credibility and the involvement of the president.”
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Washington Post Staff Writers
By Steven Mufson, Juliet Eilperin and William Branigin
Friday, June 6, 2008; 12:51 PM
Senate Republicans today effectively killed a global warming bill that would have required the United States to make major cuts in greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades.
The bill, which had bipartisan support, fell a dozen votes short of the 60-vote threshold it needed to overcome a GOP filibuster and move to final consideration. The 48-36 vote for the climate bill came after bitter debate in which opponents charged that it would damage the U.S. economy and drive up gasoline and other energy prices. Democratic supporters of the measure accused Republicans of spreading misinformation about it.
President Bush had vowed to veto the bill, known as the Climate Security Act of 2008, even if Congress had approved it.
Today’s vote left Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) with no choice but to withdraw the bill, a spokesman said. Reconsideration of the proposed legislation thus appeared likely to be postponed until next year after a new Congress and president take office.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), would have introduced a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases as part of provisions to cut emissions linked to global warming nearly 70 percent by 2050.
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