Was Bush the Worst Environmental President in History?

Climate Change denier tot he extent that he edited reports to aligne with the views of big business and oil and coal exporters.

Documents provided to the Committee and testimony by Philip Cooney, the former CEQ Chief of Staff, revealed that Mr. Cooney and his staff made hundreds of separate edits to the government’s “strategic plan” for climate change research. These changes injected doubt in place of certainty, minimized the dangers of climate change, and diminished the human role in causing the planet to warm. Other key government reports — including EPA’s Draft Report on the Environment and an annual report to Congress called Our Changing Planet — were subject to similar edits and distortions. The extensive edits to EPA’s Draft Report on the Environment so undermined its scientific integrity that EPA Administrator Christie Whitman opted to remove the entire climate change section from the report.

http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1214

Opened up fishing ground sin Alaska to drilling

Today, the Bush Administration lifted the Executive Withdrawal of Bristol Bay to allow oil and gas exploration and drilling, overturning decades of bipartisan protection. Bristol Bay is the backbone of Alaska’s fishing economy as well as home to critical habitat for numerous endangered and threatened species.

http://www.pacificenvironment.org/article.php?id=2...

Statistics that have worsened:

Superfund cleanups of toxic waste fell by 52 percent.

Fish-consumption warnings for rivers doubled.

Fish-consumption advisories for lakes increased 39 percent.

The number of beach closings rose 26 percent.

Civil citations issued to polluters fell 57 percent.

Criminal pollution prosecutions dropped 17 percent.

Asthma attacks increased by 6 percent.

There were small increases in global temperatures and unhealthy air days.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1013-12.ht...

Yes its a green site but it has good points.

And think of the time and money wasted when he could have acted on climate change. Stopped whaling, reduded illegal and unreported fishing, helped stop deforrestation. He failed on the environment.

After barely more than 60 days in office, President Bush has placed a distinctive mark on U.S. environmental policy, rolling back campaign promises on clean air, reversing Clinton administration initiatives on drinking water, and promoting new oil exploration in previously protected regions. And now the White House is taking steps to have the U.S. withdraw its support for a landmark 1997 global warming agreement signed in Kyoto, Japan. Environmental Protection Administrator Christie Todd Whitman told reporters the president had "no interest in implementing it." White House spokesman Ari Fleischer was even more blunt.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/jan-jun...

Yeah, from day one he was an environmental hardcase.

http://www.alternet.org/story/11054/

The objections are not against thinning out

That is what elephants do and is part of the concept.

But indigenous forests full of life ,are replaced by mono cultures planted for profit rather than Environmental reasons .

Diversity is exchanged for what has been called green deserts , which require fertilizer,much more water ,depletes the soil of nutrients and pollutes it .

The only life that thrives are singular pests ,that need to be controled with pesticides even further contaminating the ground.

And all trees are planted for the chain saw.

There have been much worse world leaders ,with far less sympathy for Nature ,than Bush.

Gengis Kahn burned all the trees and filled the wells with sand ,turning whole countries into desert.

You are thinking of Jimmy Carter as all time worst leader. Nice man that does good things but a terrible president. Bush is doing ok considering leading a country through 9/11 and the aftermath with liberals putting him down all the time.

Yes ... Bush is the worst for environmental causes.

Thinning the trees of the last virgin forests.

Pushing for coal burning.

Blocking the whole world on Kyoto.

The Iraq mistake, burning the landscape.

Wasting the american wealth of generations that should have led for solutions and stealing an election from a much more competent president that could have been a huge difference.

For not admitting all the mistakes and not even now are aware of them.

Bush is/was not a good president, but I don't think he was the worst enviro president in history. He could have done more, but so could all of us! We all really need to take a stand in this country. Not that I am accusing you in this question, but a lot of us need to stop whining about how much GW, Hillary, and everyone sucks, and bring about some changes! If they are not going to do the right thing, let's just do it ourselves!

Hardly, Bush is the President that changed federal regulations on Drinking Water to allow "zero detectable" uranium, compared to Clinton's requested mere reduction on allowable uranium. And Bush is the president who grew sufficient gonads to actually designate Yucca Mountain as the official national nuclear waste storage sight, opening the door another notch to getting the backlog of onsite nuclear waste at power plants put away safely.

After the dog's breakfast that Slick Willy and his buddy Al made of the forests, the forests DID need thinning. Take a look at the number of fires and number of acres burned IN the fires in the last few years.

I have before and after pictures of a ridge that burned back in 2001, part of it had been selectively logged within the last 5 years, the rest had not been touched. In the before pictures, you cannot tell where the logging was done, as it was selective thinning logging, not a clear cut. (which I agree are not good.) In the after photos, the area that was selectivly logged still has quite a bit of green on the trees since the fire raced across it due to the lower fuel loads, and the rest looked like a precursor of Armageddon, with nothing alive or green to be seen. (f.y.i. Science supports THINNING, which requires cutting out some of the large trees as well, otherwise you end up with a stagnated forest.)

If, by your reference to CO2 emissions, you are referring to President Bush's refusal to sign the Kyoto Treaty, you do of course realize that that treaty will reduce Greenhouse gas emmissions 0.5% in 10 years, right? Also, Kyoto requires that the US and other 1st world countries PAY China money. China has surpassed the US as the number 1 producer of green house gas in recent times. hmmmm....

As far as being "environmental", President Bush has poured more money into Alternative fuel research than any other president in history. This is an especially good thing after the shameful way that the Bubba and Al show cut out almost all of the federal funding into alternative fuels during their reign.

On your 9/11 bit, exactly how was President Bush, or anyone else supposed to know that known wack jobs were going to ram commercial jet liners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon? If they had known this, (which it has been shown that they did not), two questions come to mind. First, where is it written in the job description of the President that he is personally responsible to notify people in this country that the air quality is unsafe?

Second, how could he have gotten word to them if he had wanted to? All of the phone lines were jammed, land lines, and cell phones at that time.

I should point out that at one point I worked on heavy lift helicopters, both on logging work and putting out wild fires. The pictures are from this time. Also, the selective thinning was done by helicopter, which does not disturb the ground the way skidding the logs out with a bulldozer does. As for the rest of this information, I would be hard pressed to find all of the articles that I cited in this, since I am an avid reader and subscribe to many magazines and more than one newspaper. Sufice to say, that google would provide you with most of this information in a short period of time.

There is still plenty of dead trees out there left over from President Clinton. Still more thinning is needed

My opinion only. He and his group are the worst illness that has befallen the Earth and the USA. His flutter of wings will and has set into motion horrors that will last beyond our lifetimes even that of a baby born today.

I think Eisenhower was the worst, authorizing tests and live field use of the nuclear bomb cause that cant be too healthy for the environment