Bush Blasts the Environment Again


I know a lot of people have a lot of reasons to either cheer or jeer President Bush. Any of you who read my blog regularly have probably come to understand that I tend to view the world holistically, and that damage to components of the environment eventually have impacts on the entire ecosystem. The environment is my number one hot button issue, whether it is crazy environmentalists or our own government on the offensive.

That's why I was saddened and a bit defeated when I got this letter in my mailbox today:

FROM THE NRDC:

As you may already know, our campaign to protect marine mammals against deadly
sonar and other man-made threats suffered a terrible setback last week in the
United States Congress.

Under the cynical pretext of protecting national security, the Bush
administration strong-armed the Senate Armed Services Committee into approving
the most far-reaching rollback of marine mammal protection in the last 30
years. It exempts the U.S. military from obeying core provisions of the Marine
Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act.

Because these unprecedented exemptions are part of a "must-pass" defense bill,
they were quickly approved by both the House and Senate, and President Bush is
sure to sign the bill into law.

Before I tell you what this setback will mean for marine mammals, I want you to
know one thing: we fought our hearts out to defeat these disastrous provisions.
Our legislative staff worked day and night to get Congress the facts and win
over critical swing votes. Two weeks ago, thousands of NRDC activists in the
key states of Virginia, Michigan, Arizona and Maine joined the fray by flooding
their senators' offices with pro-marine mammal phone calls.

Thanks to their selfless efforts, we came awfully close to pulling off a last-
minute victory. In the end, however, we just could not overcome a White House
that was shamelessly -- and erroneously -- claiming military necessity in the
midst of wartime.

What do these new exemptions mean in the real world? It will now be far easier
for the U.S. military to harass and kill whales, dolphins and other marine
mammals with high-intensity sonar and underwater explosives. The armed forces
will no longer be limited to harming or killing a "small number" of animals.

In another ominous change, the new law allows the military to entirely exempt
itself from all environmental review under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. In
the past, NRDC has used that process to block destructive activities like the
detonation of tons of explosives in sensitive marine areas.

Finally, the military will now be allowed to destroy the habitat of endangered
birds and mammals that live on 25 million acres of land under the Pentagon's
jurisdiction.

The Bush administration claims that these drastic steps are necessary because
environmental laws are compromising combat readiness for the war on terror.
Baloney! Even the EPA's own administrator testified last spring that she
couldn't name a single training mission anywhere in the country that had been
delayed or canceled because of environmental restrictions.

Make no mistake, this White House has cynically exploited the war in Iraq as a
convenient opportunity to try to give the Pentagon what it has always sought: a
free pass to trample our environment and carte blanche to harass marine mammals
in the course of testing its weapons and sonar.

It is a telling measure of this administration's hatred of the environment that
the bill was even more destructive to marine mammals than what the Pentagon
itself had asked for!


The only piece of good news I can share is this: the new exemptions are
unlikely to affect the courtroom victory we won in August when a federal judge
barred the U.S. Navy from deploying its deadly LFA sonar system across 75
percent of the world's oceans. That's because the Bush administration violated
so many different laws in approving that particular system that even an
exemption from the Marine Mammal Protection Act won't get the Navy off the
hook.

I am not going to soft-pedal last week's defeat. It is a tragic day indeed when
the White House oversees the evisceration of landmark laws -- passed by a
bipartisan majority in Congress -- that have helped save so many of our
planet's embattled populations of whales and dolphins.

But I would urge you to outrage and action, not despair. Let's put this setback
in perspective. Getting the military to stop injuring and killing marine
mammals is a monumental task, one that could take decades. We have already made
great strides in court, and the tides of change and public opinion are on our
side. More than 80 percent of Americans don't think the Pentagon should be
above environmental laws. If we harness that people power, we will one day
prevail.

In the months ahead, NRDC will be fighting in Congress to overturn these
disastrous new exemptions. We will partner with European groups to mount a
worldwide campaign of political pressure against dangerous, high-powered sonar
systems. We will pursue every opportunity to block lethal sonar systems in the
courts. And if the Bush administration does attempt to overturn our victory
against LFA sonar, we will go back to court and fight tooth and nail to defend
it.

Defending marine mammals on so many different fronts will require an
extraordinary amount of funding. If you would like to help further this NRDC
campaign against deadly sonar, please consider making an online contribution.
It will be put to work immediately and be deeply appreciated. Just go to
https://www.savebiogems.org/donate/lfa1103.asp

In the meantime, for the sake of whales and other marine mammals around the
globe, we're counting on you to stay the course with us. We need your idealism,
your energy and your activism. Thank you for all you've done.

Sincerely,

John H. Adams
President
Natural Resources Defense Council

Posted: Fri - November 14, 2003 at 03:46 PM          

©