return to tranceaddict TranceAddict Forums Archive > Other > Political Discussion / Debate

Pages: [1] 2 
It doesn't matter what you do, Georgie
View this Thread in Original format
Shakka
It'll never be enough.:rolleyes:

Link This

quote:
U.S. to Unveil Plan to Harvest Methane With 7 Countries
By ANDREW C. REVKIN

The Bush administration plans to announce an agreement today with seven countries to slow global warming and harvest an otherwise wasted fuel by capturing emissions of methane, a heat-trapping gas, from landfills, coal mines and oil and gas fields and pipelines.

Climate scientists said it was a worthwhile effort, but criticized the administration for opposing restrictions in emissions of carbon dioxide, the dominant human-generated gas linked to rising temperatures.

The agreement would mainly work by funneling money and expertise from wealthy countries that have already started stanching their methane leaks to poorer ones, where small investments could quickly produce benefits, both in curbing climate change and conserving methane, a clean-burning fuel that now goes to waste, administration officials said.

Michael O. Leavitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said the administration would propose spending $53 million over the next five years, although he said the project had not yet been included in any budget request.

He said the goal of the participating countries - Australia, Britain, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico and Ukraine - would be to inspect sites for leaks and, by 2015, capture nine million metric tons of the gas annually, to sell (methane is the main ingredient in natural gas) or to burn directly as a source of heat.

Russia plans to participate as well, but has not formally joined the partnership, White House officials said.

Scientists and private environmental groups said there was still a need to cut carbon dioxide.

The administration is opposed to requiring reductions in carbon dioxide, focusing instead on slowing the growth of emissions through voluntary programs, Mr. Leavitt said.
JM
those tree hugging libs will always trash him, yet litter the streets, and facades with anti-Bush propaganda.

>JM<
imokruok
Yep, giving Bush (or any Republican) credit for something like this is impossible for any environmental group. They're not really environmentalists - they're left-wingers first, with the environment as one of their causes. Their votes can never be won.
Q5echo
i equate the world's disgust with the current administration with American football fan's disgust for the Dallas Cowboys in the 90's.

you know, they dominated in '92 and became "America's Team". i think thats when the hatred started. then again with the domination the following season coupled with a few "bad choices" so after that it was over for'em right, in the public eye, they could't do anything right. i mean don't get me started with Irvin:rolleyes: or Eric Williams then Lett (what a knucklehead). then who do they sign up to counter it all? ing Deon MutherF**king Sanders? oh dude, that was it. it was over as far as "America's Team", right? so they switch coaches with some bad blood to boot. have a ty ass season with the new coach followed by another Superbowl season, the whole time, everybody and their dog is is just frothing at the mouth livid at the mere mention of the "America's Team". come to think of it, by then noone reffered to them as "America's Team". not even in Dallas. i know. i lived there.

to this day, their is still animosity, though IMO not as much.

Who wants another beer?
St_Andrew
quote:
Originally posted by imokruok
Yep, giving Bush (or any Republican) credit for something like this is impossible for any environmental group. They're not really environmentalists - they're left-wingers first, with the environment as one of their causes. Their votes can never be won.


quote:
Climate scientists said it was a worthwhile effort, but criticized the administration for opposing restrictions in emissions of carbon dioxide, the dominant human-generated gas linked to rising temperatures.


He is ignoring perhaps the most important one.
LiquidX
WEll, getting out of the Kyoto treaty, and lowering the restriction to Energy plants, as well as wanting to exploit the Alaskan oil reserves among many other things is really an effort from the Bush administrations side to help the environment. Please.. this is probably the ONLY good thing he's done to the environemnt.. compared to the many negatives... pleaseeee!!! ..
Yoepus
quote:
Originally posted by LiquidX
WEll, getting out of the Kyoto treaty, and lowering the restriction to Energy plants, as well as wanting to exploit the Alaskan oil reserves among many other things is really an effort from the Bush administrations side to help the environment. Please.. this is probably the ONLY good thing he's done to the environemnt.. compared to the many negatives... pleaseeee!!! ..


ok so why are you pissed off about him doing it?
DaveSZ
Some radical leftists:


http://www.registerguard.com/news/2...eagle.0825.html

Mike Beagle is a Republican and chairman of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. He lives in the Rogue River basin in Southwestern Oregon.

quote:


August 25, 2004

Guest Viewpoint: Hunters, anglers: Beware of the GOP

By Mike Beagle

"Looks like snow," my 61-year-old father said to me ominously as I set up my tent. Snow in the high Cascades during the third week of October is nothing new. Nor is listening to forecasts that predict balmy weather for the next few days.

But backpacking into Oregon's gorgeous and rugged 58,000-acre Mount Thielsen Wilderness requires more than high-tech predictions, space-age toys and speculation. The physical and mental stamina required to make this backpack to 7,100 feet, just below the craggy 9,178-foot pinnacle, is both rewarding and unforgiving.

It is an age-old, mentally and physically challenging part of the natural history of the American West that indigenous people sought and enjoyed, as did such great historical figures as Lewis and Clark, James Clyman, Jim Bridger, Theodore Roosevelt and Oregon's own Republican hunter-conservationist, Judge John Waldo.

Sharing the experience with my father was beyond precious. It was the epitome of America's outdoor expe- rience.

Now it seems as if the "strenuous life," as Theodore Roosevelt once put it, is under attack by the very party to which he belonged. Yes folks, the Grand Old Party - the Republicans - is inadvertently supporting the soft breakdown of our society. This is the party built on "rugged individualism" and toughness. Or so it was. This attack is not overt in the way that we see things in our daily lives, but it is happening much like the slow and steady demise of the Northwest's legendary wild salmon heritage.

Because of the proliferation of fast-food "value" meals, an over-reliance on technological advancements and motorized equipment and a presidential administration that cozies up to extractive industries, our nation's health continues to deteriorate. With the exception of the U.S. Armed Forces and people who hunt, fish and hike in America's backcountry, the strenuous life that Roosevelt highlighted is being replaced by an obese, diabetes-ravaged and technologically dependent group of people who have no appreciation for the peace and solitude of the natural world. They want things the easy way, rather than earning them with their own sweat equity.

The list of public lands abuses by the current administration is long. It ranges from trying to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (designated by GOP President Dwight Eisenhower) to clear-cutting the Tongass National Forest in Alaska to opening of public lands along the Rocky Mountain front to oil and gas development, to stopping the reintroduction of the grizzly bear in central Idaho to the dismantling of the U.S. Forest Service roadless rule. Hunters and anglers are taking note of a party leadership and president who have absolutely no idea what wild, public land means to the American sports- man.

Take, for example, the Forest Service's roadless rule. After countless town hall meetings and accepting a record 2.5 million public comments over a three-year period, 90 percent of which favored protection, the current presidential administration has gutted this popular and fiscally conservative administrative rule. Promoting the "strenuous life'' in the tradition of Roosevelt? Absolutely not. Ignoring direct democracy? No question.

Under the mantra of allowing "input" from the states, the current administration has given the management responsibilities of more than 58 million acres of our publicly owned and roadless heritage to the states for their retention. All Americans own these lands, not just the residents in which these lands are located.

The current $10 billion backlog of maintenance on Forest Service roads is fiscally irresponsible and an environmental nightmare. It is not conservative. In the current situation, building more roads at taxpayer expense is beyond clueless.

More roads equal more taxpayer dollars flushed down the drain and less acceptable habitat for America's wonderful public asset: fish and wildlife. As a result, we have less terrain to hunt and fish without hearing the buzzing of off-road vehicles and, quite literally, stealthy contributions to our already pathetically soft society, which can't get past seeing the natural world from beyond a computer monitor, television screen or the soft, padded seat of a motorized vehicle.

I don't know where all hunters and anglers are when it comes to weighing in on these direct frontal assaults on our natural heritage. It is quite obvious that the GOP doesn't know or care. The only thing I can say is that the cherished moment that I shared with my father three years ago in the alpine forest beneath the looming spire of Mount Thielsen will not be forgotten come November.



http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS...environment.ap/

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0720-01.htm



quote:

Published on Tuesday, July 20, 2004 by the Associated Press
Republicans Blast President Bush on Environment
by Erik Stetson


CONCORD, New Hampshire - One of the Environmental Protection Agency’s earliest leaders, flanked by Republican state politicians, blasted the president’s record on the environment Monday during a news conference organized by an anti-Bush environmental group.

Russell Train, a Republican, was the EPA’s second chief under presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. But he said Bush’s record is so dismal he’s casting his presidential vote for Democrat John Kerry in November.

"It’s almost as if the motto of the administration in power today in Washington is not environmental protection, but polluter protection," he said. "I find this deeply disturbing."


Former EPA Agency Administrator Russell E. Train
Bush supporters defended the president’s record. Tom Thomson, owner of Thomson Family Tree Farm in Orford, praised the Healthy Forests Initiative as good legislation that protects loggers as well as forests. He predicted current policies would have positive long-term effects.

Bush "has made progress over the last four years giving us cleaner air, water and land," Thomson said in a statement.

Officials with the state’s Bush-Cheney campaign said sulfur dioxide emissions are down 9 percent, while nitrogen oxide emissions are down 13 percent. They added that the 2002 Farm Bill set aside more than $40 billion in conservation funding.

Environment2004, the environmental group, released a report Monday titled "Damaging the Granite State." It criticizes presidential policies on energy, global warming, toxic waste and air and water pollution.

"It is the worst record in modern history, unfortunately," said Aimee Christensen, the group’s executive director. "They are systematically weakening our keystone public health protections and undermining decades of bipartisan leadership on the environment."

The report faults Bush’s energy policy, for example, for slashing renewable energy funding. According to the report, the cuts are holding back New Hampshire, which could produce 43 percent of its energy from wind power. The report also claims the state could add 5,000 jobs by 2020 with more renewable energy and efficiency investments.

The report cites such sources as federal and state agency reports as well as newspaper articles and advocacy-group studies.

The two Republican state politicians who spoke - Rep. Jim Pilliod, a pediatrician, and former Sen. Rick Russman, who once headed the Senate Environmental Committee, did not endorse Kerry. They said they participated to stress the importance of environmental issues.

Russman said funding was cut for cleanup work at two of the state’s 19 Superfund sites. He also said the administration’s standards would delay mercury emissions cleanup until at least 2018. Pilliod added that mothers and children are particularly vulnerable to mercury pollution.

Train also accused Bush of letting weakening the Clean Air Act. The record, he added, falls short of those set by former Republican presidents ranging from Theodore Roosevelt, who advocated creating national parks and forests, to George H.W. Bush, who supported new anti-air-pollution standards.

The Bush record is "appalling, with very, very few exceptions," Train said. He described presidential policies as "geared to rolling back environmental protections."

Environment2004 has been actively campaigning against Bush policies and has released a national report on its Web site criticizing them.
Renegade
You're quite right Shakka, it isn't nearly enough:

quote:
WASHINGTON July 28, 2004 — The United States will help poorer nations harvest their methane emissions and turn them into clean-burning fuel, which will reduce pollution that contributes to global warming, Bush administration officials announced Wednesday.

[...]

The plan involves spending up to $53 million over the next five years as part of an agreement with seven countries to help poorer nations harvest emissions of methane primarily from landfills, coal mines and oil and gas systems.

[...]

The administration, meanwhile, has opposed restricting emissions of carbon dioxide, the industrial gas most cited by scientists for warming the atmosphere like a greenhouse. President Bush had supported regulating that gas in his 2000 campaign.

Methane represents 16 percent of global greenhouse emissions; carbon dioxide is 74 percent, according to the administration.


http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20040728_865.html

$53 million over 5 years? Why are the words "token gesture" ringing in my head?

It's not even a $53 million outlay, it's corporate welfare:

quote:
Sharing is seen as a nice thing, especially in an election year, and so the administration announced the Bush plan for sharing methane-recovery technology with poor countries. This technology is routinely used in the U.S. to recover methane gas from landfills that is then used to fuel power plants. Bush said the goals of the program are to "increase energy security, improve environmental quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

But sharing means something different to the Bush administration than it does to you and me. The Bush plan is to give a $53 million subsidy to U.S. corporations to develop methane recovery technology that they can then sell to poor countries. The only "sharing" here is U.S. taxpayers once again sharing their hard-earned money with corporations.


http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/081004A.shtml

Given all the damage Bush has done over the past 4 years to the progress of environmentalism, it's going to take a lot more than this minor methane plan (heading into an election, no less - call me cynical... :rolleyes: ) to convince me that he cares in the slightest about sustaining our envirnoment.
LiquidX
quote:
Originally posted by Yoepus
ok so why are you pissed off about him doing it?


The whole rest of things he's done.

torontotrance
America is the world's foremost user of non renewable resources and the states has not done well with their waste at times. I find it ironic
NYGblue
quote:
Originally posted by JM
those tree hugging libs will always trash him, yet litter the streets, and facades with anti-Bush propaganda.

>JM<


Hey did you do the writeup for the facist senator in Vice City. Most of your posts sound exactly like him. When I put the voice to what you say it matches up really well

Now I have to find a guy that sounds like the dumb rich kid liberal wannabe.
CLICK TO RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE
Pages: [1] 2 
Privacy Statement