Two For The Planet
I might not be happy with all that the Obama Administration is doing (or not doing), but 80beats gives us a quick reminder that elections do matter: halting uranium mining claims and halting more logging in Oregon’s old-growth forests.
The Interior Department has called for a two-year hold on uranium mining claims near the Grand Canyon National Park.
The move reverses a decision by the George W. Bush administration to open the land flanking the park to hard-rock mining. That ruling, which opened the way for lucrative mining of uranium ore, was opposed by some in Congress and within the National Park Service over concerns about the toxic heavy metal’s potential effect on the park’s watershed, wildlife, and cultural and archaeological resources.
The halting of opening up large amounts of land in western Oregon to logging is good news as well.
The move scraps a Bush-era decision to rezone 2.6 million acres of Bureau of Land Management forests, which would have tripled current logging production and opened old-growth forests to clear-cutting. The attempt prompted a lawsuit by 13 environmental groups after the rule was finalized late last year.
Now before the 21%ers get all spotted-owl and shit, with the recent news that the American Conservative Union’s pay-for-play story, do they even have a leg to stand on when it comes to environmental issues anymore?
DaveJ at OpenLeft brings up this point regarding the spotted owl debate:
I started thinking about this back when the “conservative” position was pro-logging. Remember how they mocked the spotted owl? (The spotted owl is an “indicator species,” or a shorthand way to judge the health of an entire ecosystem.) I wondered why the logging industry was a cause for conservatives, but not the fishing industry, which was greatly harmed by the logging practices advocated by conservatives. The answer turned out to be that a guy who ran a corporation that had made a ton of money looting S&Ls (how come no one remembers the S&L Crisis?) had bought a lumber company and was destroying all the old-growth redwoods was hooked into (i.e. paying) the conservative movement. (Please read the links and follow the links there!) And so the “conservative” opinion became that logging old-growth forests was a good thing. Cash payment was the reason for this core pillar of conservative ideology. (The whole thing ended up paying off even more handsomely, probably thanks to more conservative movement backscratching.)
As the debate continues on climate warming, the environment and other scientific fronts, can we not trust the Radical Right position and organizations as time after time they have been proven to be fronts for corporate America?
The Canadians will be glad to sell the rest of the world all the uranium and lumber they need. Maybe America can sell hot air?
The United States produces approximately 4 to 5% of the world’s uranium behind Canada, Australia, Kazakhstan, Niger, Russia, Namibia and Pakistan.
As of 2001, Canada harvests less than half the timber than the United States. The timber production list goes as follows: United States, India, China, Brazil, Canada with Russia right behind our northern neighbors.
Thanks for playing callerRick.
When have facts ever stopped them?
How any sensible person can favor this assault on the economy is beyond me. Uranium mining is the key to clean electrical energy independence and logging is just another form of farming. It is well managed and makes the forests healthy. These are just more jobs being sent overseas where the forests may not be managed.
Dumb and Dumber took the top two spots in the nation Interior and EPA apparently.
Please just change your name to Clueless David.
It is quite clear where we are now firmly headed:
No phone, no lights no motor cars,
Not a single luxury,
Like Robinson Crusoe,
As primative as can be.
Farsider, you going on a three-hour tour?
Pretty please.
Sure, just waiting for my car to charge, should be fully charged in 10-12 hours. Then only two more charges to get to the shore.
David: If nuclear power is so swell, why can’t I buy radiation insurance for my home? In fact, it’s the most heavily subsidized form of energy.
Oh, never mind. Pearls before swine.
Lets see
No to Drilling, No to Mining, No to Nuclear, No to Oil, No to natural gas, no to coal.
Wind Turbines kill birds and even T Boone has given up on the that.
Solar only functions when the sun is out. Plus all those nasty chemicals in the panels and batteries.
Ethenol consumes too much power and water to create – plus there is that pesky starving the people who rely on corn for food.
GeoThermal is a bit limited for cars and trucks.
I guess we’ll just dress warmly and skateboard our way around.
You caught me farsider, you caught me.