On salmon,
Bush just as hostile
When endangered wildlife and the polluted
environment were besieged by a who-cares culture of abuse, disgusted Americans
took a sharp turn and demanded urgent rescue of their most cherished natural
treasures.
But an who-cares culture is back in force,
with the prestige of President Bush behind each decision turning back the clock
and returning wildlife and the environment to rapacious, laissez faire behavior
that industry enjoyed in generations past.
Now that he’s assured cronies in energy
production they won’t be required to install serious pollution controls, Bush
has turned his cold indifference to the Northwest’s salmon problem, using
doublespeak to anesthetize unthinking voters into a state of dreamy contentment.
During his Aug. 22 hurried come-and-go
photo-op appearance at Washington state’s Ice Harbor Dam, the president seized
on an upward tick in the number of salmon returning from the Pacific Ocean as
proof that salmon are making a comeback despite Snake River dams that impede
their migration.
Reporters noted the irony of the president
making such an absurd claim while posing as a friend of the environment at a dam
that for 39 consecutive days had violated water quality standards with
fish-killing excessive temperatures because pooled water cannot flow.
Salmon populations have deteriorated for
decades--in the 1800s, anywhere from 5 to 9 million salmon a year returned to
the Snake and Columbia rivers. The average in recent years has been 400,000.
Thousands die each year because of the
man-made "solution" to avoiding breaching the dams to remove the slack water
problem--barging them to the open sea during which they die of stress in the
tanks.
The obvious and urgent solution supported
by credible scientific and economic data is to breach four lower Snake dams and
return salmon and Northwest electricity consumers to previous conditions that
benefited everyone.
Hostage as he is to the energy industry’s
closed-door policymaking influence on the White House, the president revealed
his true motives in shrugging off salmon protection.
"We don't need to be breaching any dams
that are producing electricity," he said.
Patient, charitable Americans are slow to
react.
However, once it sinks in that President
Bush is callously, relentlessly green-lighting industry to foul the air again
and just as coldly turning his back on salmon and other wildlife, they’ll demand
an alternative to Bush Jr.’s role as the 21st century’s greatest friend of
environmental destruction.
Future generations will spend years
rescuing wildlife and the environment--along with trillions of dollars in
Bush-created debt--from the edge of disaster.
Industries that face future new controls
to remedy their abuses will deserve every painful new regulation they avoided
through Bush Jr.’s acquiescence to their demands.