Life under GWB

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

GWB has given us plenty of serious shit to worry about, very scary stuff, and the bunnies have taken a back seat.
Like it or not that's reality....or should I say priority.

Unfortunately, it's not just bunnies. I'm not going to talk about endangered species, but rather public safety and economics.


Pollution is a threat to both. It can affect health and mental development. Lead, for example, was once considered necessary as a gasoline additive. It was found that a) it was harmful to people, especially children, and b) it wasn't really necessary. As a result we no longer have leaded gasoline.

Now if we had a sufficiently, pro-business president back in the early 1970's, one who listened to industry lobbyists and ignored the public welfare, we would all still be using leaded gasoline.

Allowing the poisoning of the air or water for short-term corporate gain is an act of terrorism. It is no different than allowing a terrorist to poison a reservoir or grain silo.

It is also short-sighted. For every dollar saved by polluting, the cost of eventual cleanup will be ten or even a hundred times that amount. Consider what happens if you pour a cup of soda onto your lawn and then attempt to recover all of the soda. You would have to dig 3 or 4 shovelfuls of dirt to be sure that you recovered all of it. Multiply that by a billion or more.

It's bad enough that we are saddling our future generations with a national debt. Forcing them to clean up our environmental mess, especially after acknowledging the issue back in the 70's, is reprehensible.

[xoxoxoBruce]

It is also short-sighted. For every dollar saved by polluting, the cost of eventual cleanup will be ten or even a hundred times that amount.

Yes but if I'm saving the dollar and you are paying for the cleanup, there's less incentive.

I agree with your entire post, Rich, but when times are as stressfull, as they are now, people arrange their priorities around their worry list now.
The environment always slips down the list because it's the future.
Personally I worry about the environment, always have, but I'm being realistic about the majority of the people. Just watching someone walk down the street eating and dropping the wrapper on the ground tells me something about their priorities.