EPA Heads of Republican Regimes Urge Congress to Act on Climate Change

This is a topic that I have addressed before, but I was a bit heartened (although hardly overwhelmed) by this little bit of news:

Four former heads of the Environmental Protection Agency under Republican administrations have urged Congress, particularly climate change deniers predominately within the Republican party, to act on climate change. To take this threat seriously.

I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican and, frankly, too many people in both parties seem to take environmental degradation as some sort of side issue, where profits for a "healthy economy" systematically trump any concerns over a "healthy environment".

But a disproportionate amount of Republicans tend to be particularly, willfully deaf on this subject, specifically. They are the most business friendly (read: pro-corporate) party, after all (although Democrats try and give them stiff competition), so perhaps it is not all that surprising.

Still, you would think that with all of the warnings, and all of the signs that things really are getting more severe, they might start to get concerned with it, too. After all, that level of invincibility, as if they were somehow exempt from what they are more responsible for than the rest of us, it just cannot last forever. So far, the rich have generally not been hit as hard by the effects of climate change, true. Plus, they are in better position to cope with it, which is also true.

The thing is, how far do we take this gamble, before everything truly and well begins to fall apart? How long do we allow our expansion to come at the expense of the rest of the world's species, all in the name of profit (which is what this is pretty much all about)? At what point do we put a limit on these excesses?

So, as the de facto rich man's party, I took heart a bit when I encountered this article about four former EPA heads who are urging Congress to take the climate change threat seriously, and most importantly, to act on it.

Let's hope common sense and decency trumps politics, for once.

Here are some of the more important points made in the article (see link below) by Dina Capiello of the Associated Press:




In a congressional hearing organized to undermine Republican opposition to President Barack Obama's environmental proposals, Senate Democrats asked the heads of the Environmental Protection Agency for Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan to discuss the risks from climate change and what should be done about it. Some Republicans dispute the science of climate change and have worked to unravel Obama's steps to address it.


"We have a scientific consensus around this issue. We also need a political consensus," said Christine Todd Whitman, the former New Jersey Governor and first EPA administrator under President George W. Bush, who resigned her post after disagreeing with the White House's direction on pollution rules

Whitman was joined by William Ruckelshaus, the nation's first EPA administrator under President Richard Nixon, William Reilly, who led the EPA under President George H.W. Bush, and Lee Thomas, who was administrator under Reagan.

"There are Republicans that believe the climate is changing and humans have a role to play. They just need some political cover," said Whitman, in an interview before the hearing.


"There is a lot happening on climate," Reilly said, citing efforts by states and corporations to tackle the problem. "It's just not happening in Washington."


Republican EPA chiefs to Congress: Act on climate by By DINA CAPPIELLO of the Associated Press, June 18, 2014:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/republican-epa-chiefs-congress-act-climate-151508267--finance.html