Stopping Bush's Destruction of Our Environment
Democracy is working. At least that's the news for now from my friends at the Natural Resources Defense Council, which has filed a lawsuit against last-minute Bush administration plans to lease huge swaths of majestic wilderness in Utah for oil and gas extraction.
Late last night, NRDC and a coalition of environmental and preservation groups filed an agreement with the Bureau of Land Management that could save 100,000 acres of pristine land that are endangered. The deal temporarily prevents the Bureau from issuing leases on 80 contested parcels of Utah wilderness, including land adjacent to national parks, for 30 days (until January 19).
Although the Bureau will go forward with the auction today, based on the agreement it will not issue the contested leases. The delay will give a federal court time to hear the case.
As I've written previously, words alone cannot do justice to the beauty of these places, but they do capture the absurdity of the Bush plan. Oil and gas drilling in Desolation Canyon? Industrial development along the meandering Green River? The thought makes one wince.
Utah's Red Rock country is one of America's few remaining wilderness treasures. It's our land, it's our legacy, but will it still be here for our children and grandchildren?
The Bureau's agreement has delayed the potential destruction. We will now get our day in court and I know that NRDC, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) and their partners will continue to do all they can to protect Utah's unspoiled landscapes.
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Thank You. Thank You. Thank you Mr. Redford for using what influence you have to call attention to and at least delay the potential rape of our beautiful red rock sanctuary. There is nothing more valuable than maintaining this beauty for all time.
No one doubts that all unspoiled/undeveloped land is beautiful.
However, the only significant environmentalist rallying point is against mining our natural resources.
Shouldn't environmentalists complain about Mr. Redford's and other's personal development of any lands? Shouldn't all urban and suburban sprawl be stopped, regardless of the cause? (In)Consistency of one's position says a lot about the individual.
So does one who fails to take the "development" issue in context.
Your statement that environmentalism is all about anti-mining shows a deep misunderstanding of the entire issue?
If the mining industry actually paid for all the toxic damage it leaves behind, damage that ruins people's health and lives, it wouldn't be profitable. It depends on being able to tear up the land and leave a mess that it will never have to clean up. It is helped in these efforts by regulatory agencies that look the other way or simply don't have the funding to enforce lawful restraints. Mines kill people for centuries after the extraction is done.
The most scathing and appalling example of Un-Patriotic behavior is this Presidents gleeful attacks and destruction of the environment. He began in Iraq and has continued the trend on his own "ancestral" land. The idiotic and primitive "drill baby drill" mantra can only be attached to individuals who care for their own pockets, nest eggs and immediate comfort more than for their own heritage and that of others. The disdain this administration has for all others completely negates their devious invocations they demand from the rest of us in the form of their one favorite word: Patriotism.
I know...it seems to be the same peculiar mind set of "winky"... plunder, kill, destroy since the end is near. One wonders if that is why gw wasn't big on global warming.
Question: how many of you are willing to go without electricity or have it assigned for a few hours a day? You understand without electricity there is no running water in your house/apartment and no removal of sewage from your house/apartment. Keeping energy companies is responsible, but allowing no new energy will cause this country to collapse. Energy is responsible for supplying store shelves. Energy pumps clean water and filters dirty. Energy heats and cools our businesses and our homes. Before you hurry to stop all new energy understand there have been very few new energy productions in our country for the last thirty years. What was built back then is wearing out and is prone to breakdowns. While it is wonderful to sit in your clean homes and dictate what you want done, it is not practical if you want to continue to sit in your climate conditioned, clean home. Go take a tour of where your electricity & water originates. Take a look at where your sewage goes. Watch your rubbish being hauled away. All this takes energy and unless the citizens acknowledge this and plan accordingly, there will be a panic when no electric switches work and people demand that any thing that supplies energy to be put in production.
You miss the point. Those of us who are concerned about our planet and therefore, our very survival, do the following things; we plan all trips in a motor vehicle and share whenever we can. The thermostat at home and office is always at 60F regardless of whether it's 10 below and its off period in the summer. All appliances are unplugged when not used. Vacations and recreation is done without any fossil fuel, which means no RV's, snowmobile etc. No meat eating which contributes 30% to global warming. We use no fossil fuels for warming in our home. Right now it's 5 degrees and snowing and our small wood fire started early this morning has burned out until one more tonight. How many kids people "choose" to have is another concern. No need for for than one per family and adopted is always the best choice. I chose to be childless (had a foster child). If I were a self centered Repug, I'd say I don't have to care and can live the high consumer life as they do, but I won't. Change is here!
An incredibly one-eyed discussion. No one wants to stop all new energy. Where did you come up with that? More drilling is however, not a solution. Not using the leases already available and leasing adjacent to parkland makes no sense whatsoever. That investment would be better served in the development of alternative sources of power, ie, wind, water, solar, geothermal steam generators, even nuclear, and there are probably others that are yet to be developed. The technology and even the money to do it is out there. And that's where we will find the solution
Which is why a plan is needed for renewable resources like solar and wind. Thank goodness a new administration with progressive, intelligent thinking is almost here.
Uh huh.
So, energy supplies store shelves and pumps water. But without intact ecosystems, we won't have stuff to put on the shelves or clean water to drink. So how do we find the balance?
Apart from geothermal energy, which is a negligable factor in most places, all the energy we have is solar: current solar energy, or fossilized solar energy in the form of coal or oil.
We're burning through the fossil energy very quickly.
We're going to have to invent a new society, a new economy, based on efficiency and creativity instead of competition and consumption.
We westerners have the clout and must exercise leadership as Redford has in terms of protecting the environment as I don't see the leadership coming out of NYC and DC. Lawsuits, education of citizens, water/air purification, and preventing future destruction by oil/coal/nuclear companies are essential. Our western states should host an annual Environmental Protection Summit (much like
Reford's Sundance Film Festival has grown beyond a showcase for indie films) and issue a list of demands and suggested legislation, plus issue a list of corporations, individuals and agencies which are promoting environmental degredation so that we can correct their excesses.
Some of us in this country are tired of being dependent on Middle East oil. Nobody, including Bush, wants to destroy our natural resources to get to our oil. It can be extracted without ruining your precious landscape.
Oh boo hoo. Some of us are aware that Bush would sell his grandmother if he thought he was "paying back" those who might have stopped him from the drill drill drill mentality. Anybody else but him might be able to be negotiated with on these issues. He is bent on tearing down all things. This is not about oil independence.
Exactly. This is about profit profit profit and the ideology of profit at any cost!
These are the "Oil Barons" and their original ideology that has been going on for over a hundred years. What did we expect when we "elected" two Oil Barons?????????
Repeating the same tiresome argument...
The US uses 25% of the world's petroleum and has domestic resources of 2%. How the H are we going to drill our way out?
Wake up and smell the democracy.
Nobody ever claimed that we would get all of our oil needs from drilling at home. Drilling here will cut down our dependency on foreign oil. Even Obama knows that.
Spoken like a true RadicalConservative. How thought provoking and informative.
Spoken like a true R.a.d.i.c.a.l.C.o.n.s.e.r.v.a.t.i.v.e.
The fact that you use the phrase "Your precious landscape" makes me think you are a typical selfish GOP neo con who has divided this country.
It is OUR precious land.
One part of me says, Of course we need to save our environment, and that includes Utah.
Another part of me says, Those folks in Utah have consistently voted for Republicans and against their own interests, so let them suffer the results of Republican environmental decisions.
Since everyone likes to enjoy the wilderness of Utah, and not just the fools who live there, I guess we should save them from themselves.
This isn't about politics...they are Americans like the rest of us and the govt is plundering a beautiful area for the sake of corporate greed.
I share your sentiment, but when they are trashed, they are trahsed forever, for everyone. This makes as much sense as chopping up your house for firewood in order to save the national forests. Oh wait - if I 'm a republican, I get to keep my house, but chop up yours instead.
This is the BLM doing this (a federal agency), not Utah the state. So it's the will of all of us (or the twisted hostile takeover of OUR government in 2000 and 2004, whichever you prefer) that's causing this, not just the voters in UT.
Surely they were aware of the "drill baby drill!" philosophy, yet Utah voted for McCain by a margin of 63-34. If the people in their own state don't seem to care, why should we?
I'm part of the 34. These lands belong to all American citizens.
Yes, if it wasn't land that belonged to all of us, I would say "let Utah have it". But they are public lands and we do own them. They are, however, too precious to rape and raze. Good for you goodwith wood......for being part of the 34.
Thank you. This still comes under the heading of making the best of a bad situation, but it would've been much worse without your and the NRDC's efforts.
Perhaps somewhere in that acreage there's a rock spire that can be renamed "Hey, Dubya! Lease THIS!"
Tourism campaign the likes of the Obama campaign...a flood of visual awareness maybe.
Thank you Robert. Americans should be outraged for what Bush has done to this Country, but they won't because they are not told the truth by our media. Americans are to stressed out trying to make a living, they don't have time to find the truth either. Then of course we have the right wing hacks like Sean, Bill, and Rush to contribute to the ignorance including their own.
I truly hope Obama becomes radical in change and I mean radical in a good way. If these things are reversed immediatly, it won't matter anymore, they are already saying Climate change is effecting our planet allot more than what they thought. After 8 years completely wasted by Bush, it may be to late already.
Dear Mr. Redford, thanks for the update and again for your vigilance.
Thank you Mr Redford for all you do, you are truly and inspiration and an antidote to those who disparage the 'Hollywood Elite'.
We are the ones we have been waiting for.
Thanks so much for all of your hard work Mr. Redford! Congratulations too!
I wonder if he will call for limiting immigration? Immigration is the main cause of population growth in this country. The late senator Gaylord Nelson was the father of Earth Day as we know it, and he called for immigration limits. A growing population has a negative effect on the environment, and most people are scared witless to say it. And I can just hear the comments now: What does immigration have to do with this? I just told you.
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