Bush Trashing the Environment

**Fragony** · 12-22-2008, 14:24

"The results of this investigation paint a picture of something akin to a secret society residing within the interior department that was colluding to undermine the protection of endangered wildlife and covering for one another's misdeeds,"

Now I know you are a frog Luigi but common this has PETA written all over it.

**Louis VI the Fat** · 12-22-2008, 14:57

Originally Posted by Fragony

Now I know you are a frog Luigi but common this has PETA written all over it.

Quod non.

This is about Julie MacDonald, former interior minister under Bush. She already resigned in 2007 after an internal investigation found that she had tampered with scientific findings and violated federal rules by giving government documents to oil industry and property rights lobbyists.

A full report about it has now been published. It is damning in the extreme.

What is so damning about it? The tampering with science is. Bush is quite open in his policies: a full War on the Environment. Fine. If the American electorate wishes to undo in eight years all the efforts their ancestors made in the previous hundred years to protect America's stunning National Parks, then fine.

But...at stake is the science and honesty of this War on the Environment. It is frought with lies, deceit, corruption. And deliberate anti-science. Nonsense non-science.

Special interest groups have bought America's government. This government, Bush, has next abused its power to silence independent science.
The result is that America's national treasures have been sold for a pittance to businesses closely associated with the Bush administration. Here's Wikipedia, for a brief synopsis:

MacDonald is the deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks in the Department of the Interior. That is, the one responsible for them.

On 30 October, 2006, the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit group that advocates scientific integrity, alleged that McDonald had "personally reversed scientific findings, changed scientific conclusions to prevent endangered species from receiving protection, removed relevant information from a scientific document, and ordered the Fish and Wildlife Service to adopt her edits."

According to the Inspector General, "MacDonald has been heavily involved with editing, commenting on, and reshaping the Endangered Species Program's scientific reports from the field."

MacDonald resigned on 1 May, 2007, one week before a House congressional oversight committee was to hold a hearing on the Inspector General's findings.

In November 2007, a followup report by the Inspector General found that MacDonald could have benefited financially from a decision to remove the Sacramento splittail fish from the federal endangered species list.

The Washington Post called the events leading to MacDonald's resignation "the latest in a series of controversies in which government officials and outside scientists have accused the Bush administration of overriding or setting aside scientific findings that clashed with its political agenda."[9] In the aftermath of her departure, many endangered species designation denials which had been issued during her tenure were reversed.

The report. It is not a PETA or lobby group report. It is from the Inspector General Earl Devaney. It confirms the allegations, in no uncertain terms, that led to MacDonald's resignation last year.

**Fragony** · 12-22-2008, 15:22

a full War on the Environment.

Now I do understand that I kinda deserved that, but isn't that taking it little far?

**Louis VI the Fat** · 12-22-2008, 17:58

Originally Posted by Fragony

a full War on the Environment.

Now I do understand that I kinda deserved that, but isn't that taking it little far?

Sorry, the harshness of my words wasn't meant for you, my dearest.

My choice for the phrase War on the Environment is quite deliberate. It and the War on Terror are both fought with the same means: misinformation, lies, deceit and intimidation. With the same disastrous result. The difference is, that Bush has been rather less succesful in weeding out terrorists than America's natural treasures.

Bush does not simply state that he will give preference to the industrial interests of befriended businesses over the American environment and the health and safety of the American people. It is far more devious and perverse than that.
The Bush administration doesn't simply pass environmentally unfriendly legislation. It simply orders a 'scientific' report that will state that species X is no longer endagered, or that mining in nature reserve Y has no detrimental effect on the environment. Next, with these 'scientific' results in hand, the administration grants mining concessions. Who needs new legislation?

African dictators would be embarrassed about a scheme like this. This is how mining corporations operate in the Congo. You buy a president, you buy a scientific report, and presto.

Bush' concessions and legislation have usually been based on 'proven and scientific fact' that they have no detrimental effect on health and nature. Alas, the full scale of the Bush administration's involvement with faked, political science is now becoming clear. It is a complete disgrace. A mockery of democracy and science alike.