In 1981, the United States inaugurated Ronald Reagan president. You remember Reagan? He is the man who told us pollution is caused by trees. He is the man who removed the solar panels that were placed on the White House by Jimmy Carter during the energy crisis of the late 1970s. He is the man who was going to handle global warming by wearing sunglasses and sunscreen. During his 8 years in office, the world got visibly browner on aerial photographs. I thought it couldn’t get much worse. I was wrong.
In 2001, George W. Bush was inaugurated as the 43rd President. In spite of the fact that he had no mandate from the people - in spite of the fact that polls show that 80% of Americans consider themselves environmentalists and rate the environment very high on their list of important issues - in spite of the fact that much of the world is embracing the concept of sustainability – in spite of all this, Bush has proven to be the most environmentally hostile President in history. In only 3 years, he has managed to exceed the record of the entire 8 year Reagan presidency for environmental disaster. He has allowed increased arsenic in our drinking water. He has allowed increased mercury emissions into the air we breathe. He has allowed roads to be built into wilderness areas, thereby excluding them from wilderness status under the roadless rule. He has advocated removing the hazardous designation from radioactive medical waste, making it cheaper and easier to dispose of. He does all this under cover of anonymity, by announcing his initiatives late Friday afternoon, knowing that the news gets far less notice on Saturday than on any other day of the week. And he cloaks many of his worst initiatives in friendly sounding names – Healthy Forests (designed to allow loggers unlimited access to some of our most precious national treasures without solving the problem the program claims to solve) and Clear Skies (a program designed to allow larger amounts of hazardous emissions into the air). He isn’t done yet. His vision for the future? A grim, gray one, where trees and animals are merely resources to be sold to the highest bidder, where oil wells dot the fragile tundra, and where big business makes money by selling us the water we so vitally need to survive – but only if we can pay their price. Yes, this president makes Ronald Reagan look positively green.
So, what’s the story with the Bush Ranch? Located in Crawford, Texas, the Bush ranch is a model of environmental planning. Within the confines of his ranch, Bush appears to be a different man. The ranch contains solar panels to generate electricity for heating water. He collects rainwater for landscape irrigation. His air conditioning system uses groundwater. He has a graywater recycling system. And the grasses he has planted on the ranch are natives. In short, to all intents and purposes, he would appear to be what Rush Limbaugh would call an “enviro-whacko”. Is Bush a tree hugger? A soil worshiper? Or a greedy tycoon bent on despoiling the natural environment for corporate profits? Would the real GW Bush please stand up?
I submit this hypothesis – there is absolutely no mystery to Bush’s behavior. Throughout the election and his term, he has consistently said one thing and done another. Granted, he is usually saying the environmental words and doing the anti-environmental thing, and his ranch would seem to be the opposite. I maintain that the ranch is just another set in the giant act that he is putting on. It is just another version of the flight suit and the Thanksgiving turkey. It is designed to create a pleasant diversion, allowing him to gut our environmental protections while we are looking at a red herring. How can I be hostile to the environment? Look at my ranch. So, Friday evening, announce you are opening the Tongas Forest to logging; then, on to a peaceful Saturday at the ranch – a photo op designed to make the environmentalists oooh and awe. This, his ranch, is just another phony prop, another plastic Turkey, another shock and awe. So don’t let appearances fool you – this garden of Eden has a very big snake.
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Global Warning Archives:
The Bush Ranch (Robin Buckallew, Apr 12, 2004)
Beef- It's What's For Dinner? (Robin Buckallew, May 11, 2004)
How Extinct Is Too Extinct? (Robin Buckallew, Jun 4, 2004)
Toxic Texas (Robin Buckallew, Jun 16, 2004)
Crying Wolf (Robin Buckallew, Jul 6, 2004)
Al Gore In My Mirror (Robin Buckallew, Jul 22, 2004)
When is Too Much Enough? (Robin Buckallew, Aug 5, 2004)
The Day it Rained Cats... (Robin Buckallew, Aug 15, 2004)
Is There Any Future For The Past? (Robin Buckallew, Aug 29, 2004)
Where is Howard Beale? (Robin Buckallew, Sep 13, 2004)
All Those "Other Living Things" (Robin Buckallew, Oct 3, 2004)
Don't Blame the Grinch (Robin Buckallew, Oct 17, 2004)
My Life as Roadkill (Robin Buckallew, Oct 31, 2004)
A World of Wounds (Robin Buckallew, Nov 8, 2004)
I Want My GNP (Robin Buckallew, Nov 15, 2004)
It's the Environment, Stupid! (Robin Buckallew, Nov 24, 2004)
Who Let the Dogs Out? (Robin Buckallew, Dec 8, 2004)
They Laughed at Galileo, They Laughed at the Wright Brothers...(They Laughed at the Marx Brothers) (Robin Buckallew, Dec 18, 2004)
I'd Like a Bowl of Brazil Nuts, Please (Robin Buckallew, Dec 31, 2004)
Look Who's Talking (Robin Buckallew, Jan 8, 2005)
Flirting With Disaster (Robin Buckallew, Jan 23, 2005)
"The American Way of Life is Not Negotiable" (Robin Buckallew, Feb 5, 2005)
Hurwitz Who? (Robin Buckallew, Feb 16, 2005)
Have You Been SLAPPed Lately? (Robin Buckallew, Mar 1, 2005)
The Uninhabited Land (Robin Buckallew, March 19, 2005)
An Odyssey of Irrelevance (Robin Buckallew, Mar 29, 2005)
The North Shall Rise Again (Robin Buckallew, Apr 11, 2005)
What Size Shoe do You Wear? (Robin Buckallew, May 7, 2005)
An Ugly Wind (Robin Buckallew, May 20, 2005)
Tink is Dead (Robin Buckallew, May 28, 2005)
American Idle (Robin Buckallew, Jun 5, 2005)
Pin the Tail on Dick Cheney (Robin Buckallew, Jun 15, 2005)
Are You Really Going to Eat That? (Robin Buckallew, Jun 26, 2005)
How Does Your Garbage Grow? (Robin Buckallew, Jul 5, 2005)
The Hummer of Countries (Robin Buckallew, Jul 17, 2005)
So You Say You Want a Revolution? We all Want to Change the World (Robin Buckallew, Jul 30, 2005)
My Little Corner of the World (Robin Buckallew, Aug 22, 2005)
Katrina and the Waves (Robin Buckallew, Sep 10, 2005)
Hey, Don't Hit That Snooze Alarm Again! (Robin Buckallew, Sep 30, 2005)
As the World Burns (Robin Buckallew, Oct 18, 2005)
Eat Where You Live (Robin Buckallew, Nov 3, 2005)
Toward a New Pro-Life Ethic (Robin Buckallew, Dec 12, 2005)
The Seven Deadly Sins (Robin Buckallew, Dec 30, 2005)
HELL, I'LL DO IT* (Robin Buckallew, Jan 9, 2006)
Hey You, Keep Yer Butt in de Car! (Robin Buckallew, Jan 15, 2006)
Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? (Robin Buckallew, Feb 7, 2006)
Go Ahead, Ignore Me (Robin Buckallew, Feb 26, 2006)
What Price Eden? (Robin Buckallew, Mar 5, 2006)
Nothing Seems Right in Cars** (Robin Buckallew, May 14, 2006)
A Shoving Leapord (Robin Buckallew, Jun 4, 2006)
Sate of the Union (Robin Buckallew, Jun 11, 2006)
The Revolution Will Not be Motorized (Robin Buckallew, Jun 27, 2006)
Inside, Outside, Upside Down (Robin Buckallew, Jul 29, 2006)
Good Evening, Ladies and Germs! (Robin Buckallew, Aug 9, 2006)
Monsanto on my Mind (Robin Buckallew, Nov 21, 2006)
Shining City on a Hill? (Robin Buckallew, Dec 9, 2006)
Letter From the Earth (Robin Buckallew, Jan 1, 2007)
Toast of the Town (Robin Buckallew, Jan 28, 2007)
I Read the News Today (Robin Buckallew, Feb 15, 2007)
Apathy Is At Fever Pitch* (Robin Buckallew, April 3, 2007 )
Walk Softly and Carry A Big Stick (Robin Buckallew, April 25, 2007)
It's Time To Get Off Our But (Robin Buckallew, June 5, 2007)
Hey, Mehitabel, Can You Get Archy For Me? (Robin Buckallew, July 10, 2007)
A Pocket Full Of Mumbles (Robin Buckallew, August 2, 2007)
Unanticipated Consequences of Global Warming (Robin Buckallew, Mar 3, 2008)
Evil Monkeys (Robin Buckallew, May 4, 2008)
For the Benefit of Mr. Kite (Robin Buckallew, Jun 16, 2008)
Follow the Yellow Brick Road (Robin Buckallew, Aug 5, 2008)
Where Are We Going, and What Are We Doing In This Handbasket? (Robin Buckallew, Aug 18, 2008)
A Nation of Whiners (Robin Buckallew, Sep 8, 2008)
In The News Tonight... (Robin Buckallew, Sep 20, 2008)
The ABCs of the Environment (Robin Buckallew, Sep 29, 2008)
Ecolonomics (Robin Buckallew, Oct 17, 2008)
Goodbye From the World's Largest Polluter (Robin Buckallew, Nov 8, 2008)
I'M SORRY (Robin Buckallew, Dec 18, 2008)
If it Walks Like a Lame Duck, and Quacks Like a Lame Duck..... (Robin Buckallew, Jan 3, 2009)
Fatal Distraction (Robin Buckallew, Jan 28, 2009)
Howl (Robin Buckallew, Mar 19, 2009)
A Challenge to President Obama (Robin Buckallew, May 26, 2009)
MT (Robin Buckallew, Jul 2, 2009)
WalDonald's (Robin Buckallew, Oct 11, 2009)
Next Time, Don't Sell the Car to Buy Gas* (Robin Buckallew, Dec 28, 2009)
Some Questions for President Obama (Robin Buckallew, Mar 8, 2010)
The Fracking Truth (Robin Buckallew, May 2, 2010)
Silence of the Clams (Robin Buckallew, May 23, 2010)
Nobody told me there'd be days like this (Robin Buckallew, Jun 14, 2010)
Kookie, Thorstein, and Spongebob (Robin Buckallew, Aug 3, 2010)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Robin Buckallew, Aug 20, 2010)
Fishable, Swimmable, Drinkable (Robin Buckallew, Aug 28, 2010)
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