One Utah

It’s hard to notice progress unless you know history. If you don’t know where you’ve been, you don’t know where you’re going. One of the best things about being a news junkie is you ingest so much information in your life, you detect changes, movement, improvement and deterioration. This past week was one of those weeks. Bush’s speech was the catalyst that got me thinking about the important things that are happening right now and whether there has been change or not, for better or worse. First, let’s all agree Bush’s knowledge of history is exemplified by the whole Vietnam/Iraq thing.

Now the news: Bush’s merely uttering the words “climate change” were an indication that he’s changing his mind about his destructive and regressive environmental policies. He even proposed measures, albeit not nearly enough, that would decrease fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, and increase alternative energy use. But these things have been going on without him and his government’s help for years. Alternative energy investment and use, hybrid car sales, “green businesses” are all flourishing without any incentive from the White House. In his speech, Bush seemed painfully and sadly behind the times: his measures and vision were puny and his lack of conviction palpable, as if sorry he was reading the words written for him by some obviously better-informed drone. Still, from someone as clueless, ass-shielding and self-serving as Bush is, THIS IS PROGRESS for him.

I feel better for him than I do for the country because, while his entire speech appeared to be delivered on valium, he appeared to be waking up to the environmental mess the human race has caused. What he has not and will not ‘fess up to is his administration’s conscienceless contribution to the problem and lack of significant policy change despite the evidence.

OK, so Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne noticed polar bears dying and “might propose” putting them on the threatened species list or something. This weird statement right after Christmas (perhaps inspired by a Coke commercial after a few Chardonnays) was confusing in that it recognized the polar bears’ plight but did not mention glacial melting due to global warming causing the bears to drown as the cause (bury the lead? Hell, they took it out). Like Bush’s fuel reduction plan, it proposes a solution to a problem that, to Bush and his cronies, officially doesn’t exist. Still, compared to everything else this administration has done to destroy public lands and allow oil, power and car companies to get away with murder, THIS IS PROGRESS- for them. But it’s not REAL PROGRESS because the vacuum between the government’s statements and reality continues to widen. Nowhere is that more evident than in Iraq.

War being the largest polluter humans have created, Iraq is an important environmental issue. In his speech and subsequent proposals, Bush made it clear that he alone makes the decisions about this war and his estimation is that we need to spend more money and lives fighting it. THIS IS NOT PROGRESS. This must be the valium. All the information from Iraq indicates the historical conditions in this sad country have not changed and will not unless we drive all the Iraqis out, which according to New York Times Magazine article this week, we are doing, though not by design. I don’t consider myself a Bush apologist (though I am compared to most bloggers). But it needs to be noted when he actually says and does things that resemble progress or reality. The problem is, after six years, and as his SOTU proved, his PROGRESS consists of words on a page. The REAL PROGRESS on the environment has been happening without him and, with the exception of his presidential directives on federal vehicles’ fuel economy, will continue to do so. He would do himself and the world a favor by applying his new environmental policy to Iraq: just talk about it without really doing anything, get out of the way, and wake up to realize that the only evidence of PROGRESS is REALITY. My head hurts. Pass the valium.

This entry was posted Sunday, January 28th, 2007 at 10:37 am and is filed under George W. Bush, Global Warming, Iraq, War. Both comments and pings are currently closed.