The Bush administration has decided not to take any new steps to regulate greenhouse gas emissions before the president leaves office, despite pressure from the Supreme Court and broad accord among senior federal officials that new regulation is appropriate now.Democracy is utterly dependent upon an electorate that is accurately informed. In promoting climate change denial (and often denying their responsibility for doing so) industry has done more than endanger the environment. It has undermined democracy.
There is a vast difference between putting forth a point of view, honestly held, and intentionally sowing the seeds of confusion. Free speech does not include the right to deceive. Deception is not a point of view. And the right to disagree does not include a right to intentionally subvert the public awareness.
8 Squandered Years
This first 8 years of the 21st century will, no doubt, be considered by future generations to be crucial squandered years when the effects global climate disruption such as the melting glaciers, killer hurricanes, record droubts, record fires in California were ignored. This is tragic considering there are concrete steps on the shelf right now to reduce CO2 emmissions.
I tend to have more hope. 8
I tend to have more hope. 8 years were lost, and plenty of inaction has been had across the board, but, things are moving in the right direction (even if there still is plenty more inaction to come). Only the most ideological and ignorant, deny that CO2 is a greenhouse gas which acts like a green house gas. So I tend to think we are still better off than where we were 8 years ago. Things are moving in the right direction, new president, either one has committed to doing something about greenhouse gas emissions, so....glass is half full...
Agreed
However, I think if the Bush administration had taken a lead from the beginning on this issue, as the world's largest superpower and the largest polluter, we would be in a far different place than we are today.
Heck, the American economy would probably be in a better place too.