Baldimo wrote:
I understand where you are coming from, but as a Colorado resident the fires of 2 years ago were devastating on the forests as well as on the health of Colorado citizens. The National Forest Management Act was not done under Regan, it was done in 1976. Forest management in this area was a failure. We had several forest fires that year and they were large fires that spread very fast. The largest of the fires was the Hayman fire, it burned about 140,000 acres becoming the largest fire in Colorado history. With out thinning of this area it allowed old dead trees to act as gasoline and fuel the fire. In the last several years many states have seen an increase in fires due to drought, but they would be as bad if these forests were allowed to be thinned and the old and sick trees to be removed.
Could it be that the reason he is described as "the scary little man" has to do with Bush not bowing down to special interest enviro groups? I don't see a need to defend his policies on the environment. He is trying to run a prosperous country and most enviro work gets in the way of this. If we were talking about the dumping of chemicals into lakes and streams, like what was happening over 20 or 30 years ago, then I would see an issue. Most if not all of these issues have been resolved and the govt has placed plenty of controls over these types of concerns. Any company that is stupid enough to do something like that now days, is just asking for trouble.
I happen to think that humanity is more important then nature. If humanity needs to spread in order to prosper then so be it. There is enough open land in the US that we shouldn't have to be careful of any animals. Look at ANWR in Alaska, there is so much land up there, that the area of land that they want to drill is very very very minimal. 2000sq miles is nothing in Alaska. I don't see the policies of the enviro groups doing anything to help humanity, but instead I see them as a way to control humanity. They don't like it when humanity has the control and doesn't listen to them. They happen to turn into groups like ELF and do more damage then they do help.
I don't mean to sound rude but could you please not call me Baldy? I prefer anything but baldy. Call me Baldimo, dimo, even just B but not Baldy. And before you ask, I'm not bald. I'm gray early for my age but I'm not bald. :wink:
Ok, B, the The National Forest Management Act was done in 1976. I stand corrected. But Bush's administration has rolled back so many environmental laws, weakening the protection of our country's air, water, public lands and wildlife. He's squandered so many of our nations resources, and the outcome will be horrendous unless he is stopped. He is a scary little man. The agencies entrusted to protect Americans from polluters are laboring to destroy environmental laws under Bush's command. Penalties imposed for environmental violations have plummeted. The EPA has proposed eliminating 270 enforcement staffers, which would drop staff levels to the lowest level ever. Inspections of polluting businesses and criminal cases referred for federal prosecution have dropped. The EPA measures its success by the amount of pollution reduced or prevented as a result of its own actions.
The White House has masked its attacks with euphemisms that would have embarrassed George Orwell. George W. Bush's "Healthy Forests" initiative promotes destructive logging of old-growth forests. His "Clear Skies" program, which repealed key provisions of the Clean Air Act, allows more emissions. The administration uses misleading code words such as streamlining or reforming instead of weakening, and thinning instead of logging. It's simply bad policy. You say humanity is more important than nature. Well fine. I think Bush agrees with you.
Are you, by any chance, expecting the rapture to come soon, too, B? That is my guess to why our president has so little concern for environmental issues.
