Comments anyone????
>Steve: I tend to agree with the author, to a degree. PA is a good >example
of a state whose environmental record was never good. However, under the
Ridge Administration (R) is has become a killing ground for the
environment. Clinton has been awful. The question remains; how much worse
would a Republican president have been? The message for enviros is to be
AGGRESSIVE, focus on the issues, target the responsible parties, and
promote SOLUTIONS.
Lynn Landes
>Well Steve, you opened the can, and I am glad you did. As one of the
>Board's registered Republicans, I have been saying for over a year that
>the environmental movement has continued its support of the DNC and the
President with a mind-number obediency . Its no secret that Bill Clinton
and Al Gore THINK that they are for the environment, and that their words
should be enough to serve as proof. Their record, as Mr. Cockburn (who
is no friend of the GOP) points out, is less than satisfactory.
Environmental groups like ours should need something more than words to
convince us that the Man at the Top is indeed what he says he is--but I
am sure that regardless of his environmental records in Little Rock, as
well as D.C., many environmentalists will be voting for him in November.
What happens to the environment if he is re-elected is anyone's
guess--he has made no statement about his future environmental policy.
As far as his oppoenent, Mr. Dole, I would only say that despite the
rehtoric, the Republicans are no more interested in polluting our water,
destroying our forests, or dirtying our air as are Democrats. As I
pointed out to Rick Best in one of the policy roundtables at the last
conference, with a single excepotion, every bill opposed by California
Against Waste were sponsored by Democrats--and the same is true at the
national level.
What would Bob Dole's environmental policy be--well, he has't said
anything specific, but I do take solace in the fact that the Republican
congress, headed in both houses by men from agricultural states, was the
first in 40 years to cut back subsidies to farmers. Anyone who argues
that logging and other virgin product processors have more money than Ag
is seriously underestimating the size, power, and organization of the
country's Agribusiness sector, which leads me to my final point. With
Dole's plan to cut government spending by an additional $700billion, can
an end to subsidies to the forest products industry be far behind?
Bill McGowan
Rincon Recycling
UCSB
I didn't think much of the opinion piece by Cockburn. Clinton's
environmental track record hasn't been stellar, but I don't think he has
been as bad as that piece makes him out to be. And if he is elected to a
second term, there will be less need for him to compromise tough issues
with an eye on the polls and next election.
But we should all work to make the environment a motherhood issue,
something that all parties see as important. If we can agree that
protecting the environment is good, then the arguments are about how best
to achieve desired goals.
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Dave Wade
Recycling Coordinator
UCSC
email: dmwade@cats.ucsc.edu