The Dusty Dog

Black Fridays and Depraved Indifference

I am an environmental professional. I work my ass off every day in attempts to maybe have some positive effects on my tiny bubble of our one and only home, Planet Earth. My job involves dealing with the public, governments at various levels, and non-governmental agencies, otherwise known as NGO's. I am an idealist, and I work hard, as I said above, my ass off, because I believe very strongly in what I am doing.

I was once having lunch with some people who seem to side with a very narrow view of coastal zone management, that being it should protect their homes. Period. In fact, the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 is really more about protecting the environment, and about making sure that anyone who gets federal funding for projects, or does anything within the coastal zone is doing so in a manner consistent with the purposes of the CZMA, that being, protecting the coastal zone. Anyway, one of these lunchers I was sitting with mentioned that I was following "lock-step" in my boss' view of environmental politics. He meant it as an insult, of course, because he hated my boss. My response, "Yes, and I do so with conviction." What an asshole, this luncher was/is. Like a good, republican, property rights-are-everything advocate of wise use (talk about an oxymoron), he advocates lots and LOTS of federal expenditures to go towards protecting poorly located homes along the oceanfront, and in harm's way, suseptible to any and every coastal storm that makes it way to the area.

Anyway, I digress somewhat from my original intent to post this article. I did so just to emphasize that in fact, I am an environmental professional, and I do care. ALOT. But, my original intent is to discuss Black Fridays.

The Natural Resourses Defense Council has this article wherein they articulate all the anti-environmental legislation that the dubya dummies have enacted on fridays, when the public at large is concentrating on their weekends, when their guards are down, when they are not paying attention. It's certainly modus operandi for this administration. They make me sick. In fact, they are making all of us sick, including their supporters. Following is a list of the actual years and actions that the dubya dolts have enacted. If you go to the NRDC's website, you can click on the dates of the eighty seven legislative actions to get more info about each of these evil actions. Yes, dear readers, you read this correctly. He past 87 separate laws that blatantly favor corporate interests and greed over the health of our home.

2005

1/28/05 -- More pollution at national parks promised by Bush drilling juggernaut
1/28/05 -- FWS removes federal protections for imperiled mouse

2004

12/17/04 -- White House institutes controversial 'peer review' process
12/10/04 -- BLM auctions forest tracts and lands near park to drillers
12/10/04 -- Judge orders Forest Service not to salvage live trees
12/03/04 -- Siding with industry, EPA challenges court ruling on mine waste
11/26/04 -- EPA stifles internal agency dissent over roadless rule
11/05/04 -- FWS fires biologist for exposing bad science on Florida panther
10/22/04 -- Southern California to receive more water at the expense of imperiled fish species
08/13/04 -- Prairie dog no longer candidate for ESA protections
06/25/04 -- BLM holds largest federal lands auction in Utah history
06/18/04 -- Forest Service broke laws over fire retardant use
05/28/04 -- Corps loosens clean water, stream protections for mountaintop removal mining
04/30/04 -- Pentagon misses deadline on perchlorate report
04/23/04 -- Court questions industry-friendly EPA fertilizer rule
04/09/04 -- Fish and Wildlife Service less protective of bald eagles than local Florida officials
04/02/04 -- Corps proceeds with Missouri River management plan
04/02/04 -- Mining company gets price break on federal land
03/26/04 -- Montreal Protocol shirked for U.S. pesticide interests
03/19/04 -- BLM okays energy exploration in sensitive Utah lands
02/27/04 -- More drilling slated for Padre Island
02/13/04 -- EPA promises more security, less information on industrial facilities
02/13/04 -- EPA lets power plants pollute Theodore Roosevelt National Park
01/30/04 -- EPA's mercury pollution plan mirrors industry's recommendations
01/23/04 -- Forest Service to boost logging in Appalachian forests
01/23/04 -- Forest Service drops "survey and manage" rule for loggers
01/09/04 -- Pentagon to seek more environmental exemptions
01/09/04 -- Forest Service curtails logging appeals process

2003

12/05/03 -- BLM wants to weaken grazing protections to help livestock industry
11/14/03 -- Bush administration seeks increase in use of ozone-depleting pesticide
10/31/03 -- EPA tricks public, treats industry on dangerous pesticide
10/17/03 -- EPA will not regulate dioxins from sewage sludge
10/10/03 -- New EPA dam proposal threatens salmon
10/10/03 -- EPA further delays long overdue Clean Water Act enforcement upgrade
09/12/03 -- Private contractors to determine endangered species' future
08/08/03 -- Bush administration offers to double logging in Northwest
07/18/03 -- Bush asks Supreme Court to overturn roadless protections
06/20/03 -- DOD reneges on plan to test for perchlorate pollution at U.S. bases
05/30/03 -- White House buries mountaintop mining regulation
05/30/03 -- White House forest-fire plan axes environmental protections
05/30/03 -- Park Service opens Maryland seashore to Jet Skis
05/23/03 -- BLM opens fragile dunes ecosystem to off-road recreation
05/23/03 -- Bush administration cuts wildlife protection, boosts logging in Northwest forests
04/25/03 -- White House says "ready, aim, shoot" on wilderness
04/11/03 -- Bush administration rolls back wilderness protections
02/28/03 -- Bush administration rejects wilderness protection in Alaska's Tongass
02/07/03 -- Bush administration pushing for pesticide exemptions from international environmental treaty
01/31/03 -- New EPA air rules for ocean vessels too weak
01/10/03 -- Despite scientific concerns, Interior Department approves power plant near Yellowstone
01/03/03 -- Forest Service loosens logging restrictions for small-scale projects

2002

11/22/02 -- EPA proposes weakening of Clean Air Act
11/22/02 -- Bush administration opens national park to drilling
11/01/02 -- Bush officials suppress science on Klamath River policy
10/25/02 -- U.S. EPA fails to meet deadline for handing over air documents to Senate
10/04/02 -- BLM approves oil and gas drilling in Utah
09/27/02 -- Bush administration revives controversial California gold mine
09/13/02 -- EPA backs off issuing strong antipollution standards for off-road vehicles
08/23/02 -- Bush administration abandons California water plan
07/26/02 -- Bush uses national security to gain corporate secrecy and immunity
07/19/02 -- Bush administration opposes renewable energy requirement
06/07/02 -- Bush administration refuses to crack down on diesel pollution
05/24/02 -- Bush administration lets construction companies off the hook for protecting environment
05/10/02 -- Bush administration agency secretly fights mine reforms
05/03/02 -- Corps of Engineers' plan threatens to pollute Florida Everglades
05/03/02 -- EPA to let mining industry dump waste in waterways
04/19/02 -- Bush administration ousts top global warming scientist
04/12/02 -- Forest Service wants to circumvent environmental laws
04/05/02 -- Bush administration scales back habitat protection for endangered butterfly
03/29/02 -- BLM proposal could doom California dunes
03/29/02 -- Forest Service reverses mine approval
03/29/02 -- Pentagon seeks exemption from environmental laws
03/15/02 -- Gas drilling returns to Padre Island National Seashore
02/22/02 -- BLM rule could block federal land protection
02/15/02 -- National Forest in Missouri opened to drilling
02/15/02 -- Bush backs Yucca Mountain for nuclear waste dump
01/18/02 -- Coming Soon: More logging in the Pacific Northwest

2001

12/14/01 -- USFS guts protections for undeveloped forest lands
12/14/01 -- DOE weakens standards for Yucca nuclear storage
11/02/01 -- Corps of Engineers ignores "no net loss" wetlands policy
09/07/01 -- Bush backing away from pledge to clean up federal facilities
08/17/01 -- Bush administration appeals federal judge's decision to ban drilling off California's coast
07/13/01 -- Bush outlines an 'all talk, no action' approach to global warming
06/15/01 -- BLM upholds "non-controversial" portion of hard rock mining rules
05/04/01 -- Bush launches a "sneak attack" on the Roadless Area Conservation Plan
03/30/01 -- Bush administration suspends "the contractor responsibility rule"
03/16/01 -- Bush administration seeks to roll back Roadless Area Conservation Plan
03/09/01 -- President nominates J. Steven Griles as deputy secretary of Interior

Other great websites and articles that are watching this administrations adverse environmental impacts are BushGreenWatch, a great article written by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a Rolling Stones article, called "Crimes Against Nature", and TruthOut Environment. There are many, many more, which are linked from all over the place. I suggest you bookmark these and any other links you may find, and visit them from time to time. If the dubya dummies' environmental record isn't on your radar screen, it should be. They are making a deliberate conserted effort to destroy our planet in the name of greed, corruption, and disdain. The term depraved indifference also comes to mind. People die from these cavalier and greedy actions, and that IS depraved indifference.

posted by Dusty Dog at 1/08/2006