You may have noticed that The Future Earth has not endorsed any presidential candidates. It's great that the movie An Inconvenient Truth has gotten all of the candidates to talk about global warming and to pledge some modest proposals for lowering greenhouse gas emissions, but none of them has proposed anything close to what scientists say will be necessary to prevent irreversible changes in the world's climate.
Further, climate change ranks only third in my opinion of the serious environmental threats we face. Number one is chemical pollution (this includes plastics, a favorite topic on The Future Earth). Number two is loss of biodiversity around the world. These other two issues need an 'Al Gore' to bring more public awareness to them.
Due to the Republican fanaticism about deregulation, any Democrat is a better choice from an environmental standpoint, however none of the democratic candidates has spoken seriously about environmental issues. It seems that so far, they feel it is not important enough to the public. As unfortunate as the pet food adulterations and the toxic toy scandals were this year, they are the kinds of news stories we need to bring this to the forefront.
"I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security. Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise, what is there to defend?" - Robert Redford
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Presidential Candidates and the Environment
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2 comments:
Well put, TFE.
It's true that no politician has taken a noteworthy stand on environmental issues. Perhaps that's due in no small part to the dollars each one has accepted from the oil industry, a colossal foe of the environment. (Thanks to Nikki for the link.)
And I certainly agree with your assessment about other, no less serious environmental threats. Even when Al Gores "2" and ""3 show up to publicize those dangers, I'll still be reading TFE... where I heard of them first.
The League of Conservation Voters has more information about the candidates' voting record here,
although they have not yet endorsed any particular candidate for president in 2008.
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