By Jimmy Carter "Arctic Folly"

[dajoki]

please read entire article, very good!!
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WPhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/12/AR2005091201347.html?referrer=email


Arctic Folly

By Jimmy Carter

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Congress is about to make one of those big decisions that marks an era. Unless wiser heads prevail, it may do it badly -- making the wrong decision in the wrong way and about the wrong place. At stake is America's greatest wildlife sanctuary, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. To dissuade Congress from this environmental tragedy, Americans must rally, and quickly.

Congress had its Pyrrhic energy victory this summer, with a new energy policy that ignores much-needed conservation measures and gives the oil industry large new tax breaks regardless of where it drills and pumps. Surely Congress has done more than enough to increase the profits of the oil industry.

Yet now, in a separate decision, the White House and Big Oil are pressuring Congress to allow drilling rigs to rip into the ecological heart of America's preeminent wildlife sanctuary. We must not confuse this with Prudhoe Bay, which lies west of the Arctic refuge and is already an industrial landscape resembling Houston more than Yellowstone.

With increasing gasoline prices bringing economic hardship and concern to many Americans, we must not be misled by oil lobbyists who are trying to convince us that our energy security is singularly dependent on sacrificing the Arctic refuge. They promote the false premise that development will touch just a few thousand acres when, in fact, it would introduce roads and pipelines spider-webbing across hundreds of thousands of acres on the fragile coastal plain.

[Mass]

1. Recommended

Thanks god, there are still some Democrats that believe that environmental issues are worth fighting for.

Kudos to Carter

[dajoki]

3. as soon as i read it...

i knew it must be posted.

[Wind Dancer]

2. Greats word by our former president.

Nominated!

[dajoki]

4. he has got to be...

the greatest former president ever. it's a shame the way he is treated by the right wingnuts.

[Wind Dancer]

6. Reagan and Poppy Bush destroyed the environmental movement.

Since President Carter left office, the RWingers have systematically destroyed alternative energy research, social programs, education and the sciences.

The Bushes will do whatever it takes to stay in power, don't ever forget how Reagan won the presidency.

Richard Nixon was a liberal compared to the fascists.

[dajoki]

7. i remember and i agree n/t

[bananas]

12. I've never forgotten

unfortunately many are unaware of it.

[klebean]

13. Rolling Stone: A Polluter's Feast

My son just spread this story on top of my desk while I was on the phone, and
reading this thread...

A Polluter's Feast


Bush has reversed more environmental progress in the past eight months than Reagan did in a full eight years

By TIM DICKINSON


What can you say about the environmental record of an administration that seeks to test pesticides on poor children and pregnant women? That argues in court that a dam is part of a salmon's natural environment? That places a timber lobbyist in charge of the national forests and an oil lobbyist in charge of government reports on global warming? That cuts clean-air inspections at oil refineries in half, allows Superfund to go bankrupt and permits the mining industry to pump toxic waste directly into a wild Alaskan lake?

Only this: It's about to get even worse.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/7605389?pageid=rs.Home&pageregion=single7

[dajoki]

15. how much more uncompassionate can they get?...

OMG, that is eye opening.
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and it scrapped plans to regulate lead paint in home-renovation projects, placing millions of children at risk for brain damage.

[OneGrassRoot]

5. recommended n/t

[snowbear]

8. And remember...

Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuse was left out of the recently passed energy bill...

Because...

When it comes up again for an up or down vote, there will be no filibusters allowed.

From what we keep hearing from Senators Stevens and Murkowski up here.. this is "it".. and they are both absolutely giddy about it. :mad:

[Benhurst]

9. Recommended. NT

[Gregorian]

10. We're not environmentalists. They're ENVIRONMENTAL VANDALS.

So this is why gas prices went up.


PS- Another neighbor cut down all of his trees this morning. My heart sank to a new low as I went past it. Environmental vandalism. But where else is the wood going to come from, one asks.

[dajoki]

11. i plant at least one tree ...

every year. and will do so until i run out of room.

[Mass]

14. kicked.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

16. This is such...

...blatant theft from our future generations.

http://www.karlandkinggeorge.com/Headstones_for_Humanity.html

[LiviaOlivia]

17. kick

[Stockholm]

18. Now there is a president.... n/t

[dajoki]

19. kick