Bush attacks environment 'scare stories' (secret emails give advice)

[kskiska]

Secret email gives advice on denying climate change


George W. Bush's campaign workers have hit on an age-old political tactic to deal with the tricky subject of global warming - deny, and deny aggressively.

The Observer has obtained a remarkable email sent to the press secretaries of all Republican congressmen advising them what to say when questioned on the environment in the run-up to November's election. The advice: tell them everything's rosy.

It tells them how global warming has not been proved, air quality is 'getting better', the world's forests are 'spreading, not deadening', oil reserves are 'increasing, not decreasing', and the 'world's water is cleaner and reaching more people'.

The email - sent on 4 February - warns that Democrats will 'hit us hard' on the environment. 'In an effort to help your members fight back, as well as be aggressive on the issue, we have prepared the following set of talking points on where the environment really stands today,' it states.

more…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1185379,00.html

[MikeG]

1. Wait till "The Day After Tomorrow" comes out at the end of May.

[Eye and Monkey]

2. "The Day After Tomorrow" - BushCo's reply to Clarke's pesky '01 questions.

[MikeG]

3. See "The Day After Tomorrow" is a movie about polar ice caps melting.

Causing sudden global climate change. I refer you to www.thedayaftertomorrow.com

[Eye and Monkey]

6. I know.

Get it?

[MikeG]

7. If this happens, the Pirates could take the pennant.

Most of the good teams are on the coasts.

[Eye and Monkey]

9. If this happens, maybe we both could join the Pirates.

Then we could take the pennant, the mast, and the whole dammned ship.

[RoyGBiv]

4. Speaking of Oil Reserves

I read this story when it was first published on AlterNet, and sort of thought "Hmmmm...Keep that for future reference."

<http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17312>

Of particular interest to me was the concept of Hubbert's Peak, the notion that worldwide oil reserves had peaked at or around 2000, and how this provides a rationale for various attempts to dominate Middle Eastern oil interests that goes beyond a pure profit motive. Note I'm not saying this rationale justifies anything the United States has done, rather that the strategic interest invoked if Hubbert's theory has merit is reminiscent of some of the Japanese self-justification for a preemptive strike on the US in 1941.

And that's more chilling to me even than BushCo seeking to line their pockets.

But, back to this news article: I'm curious about the emphasis on maintaining the fiction that oil reserves are a-okay, especially in light of BushCo's desire to open protected lands to exploration.

Tangled web here...

[MikeG]

8. If the oil runs out, expect mass sterilizations.

[bread_and_roses]

5. Didn't I read that the Pentagon

has already predicted possible catastrophic effects from environmental degradation and global warming only about twenty years from now? Or did I dream that up?