A Closer Look At The Global Warming Deniers
Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 11:01 pm
The Bush administration is waging a virtual war on the environment enabling industries to decimate forests, divert water, pollute national parks, and release CO2 and toxins into the atmosphere.
This disregard for the environment reflects core values of the theocratic right, a movement strongly allied with big corporations. The theocratic right should not be confused with Evangelicals, a group that covers the entire political spectrum.
The Texas Republican Party Platform, a document that reflects the goals of the theocratic right, opposes efforts to regulate industry by affirming a belief in "a strong and vibrant private sector unencumbered by excessive government regulation." It calls for abolishing the Environmental Protection Agency, and reaffirms "the belief in the fundamental right of an individual to use property without governmental interference." It also opposes conservation easements administered by nonprofits.
On April 17, 2005, the New York Times published an article about the Constitution in Exile movement. Their judicial philosophy extols the absolute rights of property owners which is also reflected in the Texas GOP Platform.
America's Providential History, a best-selling textbook that is popular in Christian schools and the Christian homeschool movment teaches history from a "Biblical worldview." It explains that property rights are God-given:
Scripture defines God as the source of private property...Ecclesiastes 5:19 states, 'For every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them'...Also in I Chronicles 29:12, 'Both riches and honor come from Thee'. (pps 187-188)
From God Hates Environmentalists, Bill Berkowitz, June, 2001:
For years, Religious Right groups have anchored their views on environmental issues in Genesis 1:28. "Because nature is wild," explains Nina George Hacker in Concerned Women for America's Family Voice, "we [humans] were given the authority to 'subdue' it for life's necessities."
This editorial from the New York Times -- Destroying the National Parks, (August 29, 2005) illustrates the impact of the theocratic right on our national parks.
Mr. Hoffman's rewrite would open up nearly every park in the nation to off-road vehicles, snowmobiles and Jet Skis...
Mr. Hoffman would explicitly allow the sale of religious merchandise, and he removes from the policy document any reference to evolution or evolutionary processes. He does everything possible to strip away a scientific basis for park management...
...In short, this is not a policy for protecting the parks. It is a policy for destroying them.
To see Senate scorecards produced by the League of Conservation Voters, a consortium of environmental organizations, compared to the scorecards produced by three organizations that promote the theocratic right -- the Christian Coalition, the Family Research Council, and the Eagle Forum -- click here. (These tables were provided by Glenn Scherer, October, 2004.)
James Dobson of Focus on the Family represents the ideals of the theocratic right:
A few days after Justice Sunday II antigay crusader James Dobson and Focus on the Family launched an attack on Christianity Today magazine. The reason was Andy Crouch's article, "Environmental Wager," that urged Christians to become concerned about and active in fighting global warming. Dobson and FOF believe global warming is "junk science," despite the fact that virtually every reputable scientist in the world supports the idea. It's hard not to, given the overwhelming evidence. But Dobson's bible-based environmental science is not new.
On October 8, 2004 Dobson and FOF issued their "Must Read Election Message":
Three Focus on the Family executives - including founder and chairman Dr. James C. Dobson - have signed on to an open letter to the American people stressing the importance of relying on biblical values in selecting candidates on Election Day.
The sixth item on their list read, in part:
Natural resources: God put human beings on the earth to "subdue it" and to "have dominion" over the animals (Gen. 1:28)... . The Bible does not view "untouched nature" as the ideal state of the earth, but expects human beings to develop and use the earth's resources wisely for mankind's needs (Gen. 1:28; 2:15; 9:3; 1 Tim. 4:4)... . We believe the ethical choice is for candidates who will allow resources to be developed ... more
Deregulation of industry lies at the heart of the Religious Right agenda. The Washington Post has published a three-part series detailing how the Bush administration is systematically dismantling the regulatory functions of government in ways that are not obvious and receive little public debate. The lifting of regulations by the Bush administration is devasting to the environment and public health.
The first article from the Post is called Bush Forces a Shift In Regulatory Thrust, OSHA Made More Business-Friendly, August 15, 2004.
The second article, August 16, 'Data Quality' Law Is Nemesis Of Regulation talks about the health threat of a law to deregulate chemicals.
The third article, August 17, Appalachia Is Paying Price for White House Rule Change explains how Bush administration rule changes are devastating the environment.
A study reported on CNN News, The Unborn babies carry pollutants, provides striking example of why regulations are important. Click here.
Bush Nominates Anti-Regulatory Zealot to Head "Super-Powerful" Public Safety Office ThinkProgress.org, July 6, 2006
The American Legislative Exchange Council represents a marriage of the Religious Right and big corporations. Founded in 1973 by conservative activist Paul Weyrich and a handful of state legislators, ALEC initially positioned itself as a counterweight to liberal foundations and think tanks, focusing on social issues like abortion and the Equal Rights Amendment.
ALEC gives business a direct hand in writing bills that are considered in state assemblies nationwide. Funded primarily by large corporations, industry groups, and conservative foundations -- including R.J. Reynolds, Koch Industries, and the American Petroleum Institute -- the group takes a chain-restaurant approach to public policy, supplying precooked McBills to state lawmakers. Since most legislators are in session only part of the year and often have no staff to do independent research, they're quick to swallow what ALEC serves up. In 2000, according to the council, members introduced more than 3,100 bills based on its models, passing 450 into law.( Ghostwriting the Law, Mother Jones, Sept.Oct. 2002)
On March 1, the Public Trust, a coalition of public interest organizations reported that the "Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act" is among the bills promoted by ALEC,
In a move worthy of Orwell's Big Brother, the Washington state legislature is being asked to fund a law enforcement database of "eco-terrorists" that would in fact track citizens engaged in lawful environmental advocacy - including signing a petition to save old-growth forests, attending a rally for clean air, or simply joining a group like the Sierra Club or Defenders of Wildlife.
An impending sense of "end times" is good news for that portion of the Religious Right that sees destruction of the earth as fulfillment of Biblical Prophecy. Those who don't seek "end times," blame resource depletion on environmentalists who view natural resources as limited. Secular society "lack(s) faith in God's providence and consequently, men will find fewer resources... The Christian knows that the potential in God is unlimited and that there is no shortage of resources in God's earth." (America's Providential History.)
The Earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof - Psalm 24:1
The term "Religious Right" is not synomous with "Evangelical." In contrast to the Religious Right, the Evangelical Environmental Network assumes responsiblity for protecting and restoring the environment stating: "Because we worship and honor the Creator, we seek to cherish and care for the creation."
And the Religious Right is not a monolithic bloc. While legislators pushing the religious right agenda receive remarkably low scorecards from the League of Conservation Voters, James Dobson of Focus on the Family who is one of the most powerful figures of the Religious Right, actually signed an "Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility" that, for the first time, emphasized every Christian's duty to care for the planet and the role of government in safeguarding a sustainable environment.
Froim The Greening of Evangelicals, Washington Post, February 6, 2005:
"We affirm that God-given dominion is a sacred responsibility to steward the earth and not a license to abuse the creation of which we are a part," said the statement, which has been distributed to 50,000 member churches. "Because clean air, pure water, and adequate resources are crucial to public health and civic order, government has an obligation to protect its citizens from the effects of environmental degradation."
Another article from the Washington Post on the same day discusses a letter from people of faith to the Bush administration: 'God's Mandate': Putting The White House on Notice, Washington Post, February 6, 2005
The Religious Right's War On Nature
From Robert Kennedy Jr. in Rolling Stones magazine, (12/3/03):
George W. Bush will go down in history as America's worst environmental president. In a ferocious three-year attack, the Bush administration has initiated more than 200 major rollbacks of America's environmental laws, weakening the protection of our country's air, water, public lands and wildlife. Cloaked in meticulously crafted language designed to deceive the public, the administration intends to eliminate the nation's most important environmental laws by the end of the year. Under the guidance of Republican pollster Frank Luntz, the Bush White House has actively hidden its anti-environmental program behind deceptive rhetoric, telegenic spokespeople, secrecy and the intimidation of scientists and bureaucrats.
Air, Water, Land, Energy and the Global Climate: Bush's Stamp
"For two years, it has come in bursts, on issues from arsenic to wetlands: the unfolding of what President Bush, as a candidate, promised would be a new era of environmental protection. Whether rejecting a treaty on global warming, questioning Clinton-era rules on forest protection or pressing for changes in landmark environmental laws, Mr. Bush has imposed a distinctive stamp on a vast landscape of issues affecting air, water, land, energy and the global climate. (The New York Times, February 23, 2003.)
It's no secret that the Bush White House and Republican National Committee serve the interests of polluting industries in exchange for big campaign contributions. But there's more to the story.
As is well known, Bush and the Republicans have been generously funded by business foes of regulation. According to a Public Campaign and Earthjustice report, mining, timber, oil and chemical industries have contributed more than $44 million to Bush and the Republican National Committee (RNC) in the last three years. Less well-known is that Bush's opposition to regulation is part of an electoral strategy designed to win the votes of coal, timber and oil-producing states. These include the eastern swing states of West Virginia, Kentucky and Pennsylvania, as well as traditionally Republican states in the West and Southwest.
House Panel Receives Detailed Spending Plan for '06, Washington Post, May 6, 2005:
Federal land conservation and environmental programs would bear the brunt of budget cuts next year under budget limits sent to the House Appropriations Committee's spending panels yesterday.
The Bush administration announced on December 23, 2003, that the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, the largest in the country, would be exempted from a Clinton-era rule, potentially opening up more than half of the 17 million-acre forest for more development and as many as 50 logging projects.
On January 24, 2004, Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton cleared a plan to open 8.8 million acres of Alaska's North Slope to oil and gas development. The plan will be used to manage a northwest part of the government's 23.5 million-acre National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, which geologists believe may contain 6 billion to 13 billion barrels of oil. The plan threatens the health of Arctic tundra, ponds and lakes that are home to wildlife and migratory birds, and will probably produce enough oil for six months only.
Two riders attached to the Senate Omnibus bill, December, 2003, would weaken air pollution rules and weaken protections for dwindling fish species.
This is the battle. Sane people versus the lunatic Christer/Corporate planet haters.
Whose side are YOU on?
This disregard for the environment reflects core values of the theocratic right, a movement strongly allied with big corporations. The theocratic right should not be confused with Evangelicals, a group that covers the entire political spectrum.
The Texas Republican Party Platform, a document that reflects the goals of the theocratic right, opposes efforts to regulate industry by affirming a belief in "a strong and vibrant private sector unencumbered by excessive government regulation." It calls for abolishing the Environmental Protection Agency, and reaffirms "the belief in the fundamental right of an individual to use property without governmental interference." It also opposes conservation easements administered by nonprofits.
On April 17, 2005, the New York Times published an article about the Constitution in Exile movement. Their judicial philosophy extols the absolute rights of property owners which is also reflected in the Texas GOP Platform.
America's Providential History, a best-selling textbook that is popular in Christian schools and the Christian homeschool movment teaches history from a "Biblical worldview." It explains that property rights are God-given:
Scripture defines God as the source of private property...Ecclesiastes 5:19 states, 'For every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them'...Also in I Chronicles 29:12, 'Both riches and honor come from Thee'. (pps 187-188)
From God Hates Environmentalists, Bill Berkowitz, June, 2001:
For years, Religious Right groups have anchored their views on environmental issues in Genesis 1:28. "Because nature is wild," explains Nina George Hacker in Concerned Women for America's Family Voice, "we [humans] were given the authority to 'subdue' it for life's necessities."
This editorial from the New York Times -- Destroying the National Parks, (August 29, 2005) illustrates the impact of the theocratic right on our national parks.
Mr. Hoffman's rewrite would open up nearly every park in the nation to off-road vehicles, snowmobiles and Jet Skis...
Mr. Hoffman would explicitly allow the sale of religious merchandise, and he removes from the policy document any reference to evolution or evolutionary processes. He does everything possible to strip away a scientific basis for park management...
...In short, this is not a policy for protecting the parks. It is a policy for destroying them.
To see Senate scorecards produced by the League of Conservation Voters, a consortium of environmental organizations, compared to the scorecards produced by three organizations that promote the theocratic right -- the Christian Coalition, the Family Research Council, and the Eagle Forum -- click here. (These tables were provided by Glenn Scherer, October, 2004.)
James Dobson of Focus on the Family represents the ideals of the theocratic right:
A few days after Justice Sunday II antigay crusader James Dobson and Focus on the Family launched an attack on Christianity Today magazine. The reason was Andy Crouch's article, "Environmental Wager," that urged Christians to become concerned about and active in fighting global warming. Dobson and FOF believe global warming is "junk science," despite the fact that virtually every reputable scientist in the world supports the idea. It's hard not to, given the overwhelming evidence. But Dobson's bible-based environmental science is not new.
On October 8, 2004 Dobson and FOF issued their "Must Read Election Message":
Three Focus on the Family executives - including founder and chairman Dr. James C. Dobson - have signed on to an open letter to the American people stressing the importance of relying on biblical values in selecting candidates on Election Day.
The sixth item on their list read, in part:
Natural resources: God put human beings on the earth to "subdue it" and to "have dominion" over the animals (Gen. 1:28)... . The Bible does not view "untouched nature" as the ideal state of the earth, but expects human beings to develop and use the earth's resources wisely for mankind's needs (Gen. 1:28; 2:15; 9:3; 1 Tim. 4:4)... . We believe the ethical choice is for candidates who will allow resources to be developed ... more
Deregulation of industry lies at the heart of the Religious Right agenda. The Washington Post has published a three-part series detailing how the Bush administration is systematically dismantling the regulatory functions of government in ways that are not obvious and receive little public debate. The lifting of regulations by the Bush administration is devasting to the environment and public health.
The first article from the Post is called Bush Forces a Shift In Regulatory Thrust, OSHA Made More Business-Friendly, August 15, 2004.
The second article, August 16, 'Data Quality' Law Is Nemesis Of Regulation talks about the health threat of a law to deregulate chemicals.
The third article, August 17, Appalachia Is Paying Price for White House Rule Change explains how Bush administration rule changes are devastating the environment.
A study reported on CNN News, The Unborn babies carry pollutants, provides striking example of why regulations are important. Click here.
Bush Nominates Anti-Regulatory Zealot to Head "Super-Powerful" Public Safety Office ThinkProgress.org, July 6, 2006
The American Legislative Exchange Council represents a marriage of the Religious Right and big corporations. Founded in 1973 by conservative activist Paul Weyrich and a handful of state legislators, ALEC initially positioned itself as a counterweight to liberal foundations and think tanks, focusing on social issues like abortion and the Equal Rights Amendment.
ALEC gives business a direct hand in writing bills that are considered in state assemblies nationwide. Funded primarily by large corporations, industry groups, and conservative foundations -- including R.J. Reynolds, Koch Industries, and the American Petroleum Institute -- the group takes a chain-restaurant approach to public policy, supplying precooked McBills to state lawmakers. Since most legislators are in session only part of the year and often have no staff to do independent research, they're quick to swallow what ALEC serves up. In 2000, according to the council, members introduced more than 3,100 bills based on its models, passing 450 into law.( Ghostwriting the Law, Mother Jones, Sept.Oct. 2002)
On March 1, the Public Trust, a coalition of public interest organizations reported that the "Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act" is among the bills promoted by ALEC,
In a move worthy of Orwell's Big Brother, the Washington state legislature is being asked to fund a law enforcement database of "eco-terrorists" that would in fact track citizens engaged in lawful environmental advocacy - including signing a petition to save old-growth forests, attending a rally for clean air, or simply joining a group like the Sierra Club or Defenders of Wildlife.
An impending sense of "end times" is good news for that portion of the Religious Right that sees destruction of the earth as fulfillment of Biblical Prophecy. Those who don't seek "end times," blame resource depletion on environmentalists who view natural resources as limited. Secular society "lack(s) faith in God's providence and consequently, men will find fewer resources... The Christian knows that the potential in God is unlimited and that there is no shortage of resources in God's earth." (America's Providential History.)
The Earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof - Psalm 24:1
The term "Religious Right" is not synomous with "Evangelical." In contrast to the Religious Right, the Evangelical Environmental Network assumes responsiblity for protecting and restoring the environment stating: "Because we worship and honor the Creator, we seek to cherish and care for the creation."
And the Religious Right is not a monolithic bloc. While legislators pushing the religious right agenda receive remarkably low scorecards from the League of Conservation Voters, James Dobson of Focus on the Family who is one of the most powerful figures of the Religious Right, actually signed an "Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility" that, for the first time, emphasized every Christian's duty to care for the planet and the role of government in safeguarding a sustainable environment.
Froim The Greening of Evangelicals, Washington Post, February 6, 2005:
"We affirm that God-given dominion is a sacred responsibility to steward the earth and not a license to abuse the creation of which we are a part," said the statement, which has been distributed to 50,000 member churches. "Because clean air, pure water, and adequate resources are crucial to public health and civic order, government has an obligation to protect its citizens from the effects of environmental degradation."
Another article from the Washington Post on the same day discusses a letter from people of faith to the Bush administration: 'God's Mandate': Putting The White House on Notice, Washington Post, February 6, 2005
The Religious Right's War On Nature
From Robert Kennedy Jr. in Rolling Stones magazine, (12/3/03):
George W. Bush will go down in history as America's worst environmental president. In a ferocious three-year attack, the Bush administration has initiated more than 200 major rollbacks of America's environmental laws, weakening the protection of our country's air, water, public lands and wildlife. Cloaked in meticulously crafted language designed to deceive the public, the administration intends to eliminate the nation's most important environmental laws by the end of the year. Under the guidance of Republican pollster Frank Luntz, the Bush White House has actively hidden its anti-environmental program behind deceptive rhetoric, telegenic spokespeople, secrecy and the intimidation of scientists and bureaucrats.
Air, Water, Land, Energy and the Global Climate: Bush's Stamp
"For two years, it has come in bursts, on issues from arsenic to wetlands: the unfolding of what President Bush, as a candidate, promised would be a new era of environmental protection. Whether rejecting a treaty on global warming, questioning Clinton-era rules on forest protection or pressing for changes in landmark environmental laws, Mr. Bush has imposed a distinctive stamp on a vast landscape of issues affecting air, water, land, energy and the global climate. (The New York Times, February 23, 2003.)
It's no secret that the Bush White House and Republican National Committee serve the interests of polluting industries in exchange for big campaign contributions. But there's more to the story.
As is well known, Bush and the Republicans have been generously funded by business foes of regulation. According to a Public Campaign and Earthjustice report, mining, timber, oil and chemical industries have contributed more than $44 million to Bush and the Republican National Committee (RNC) in the last three years. Less well-known is that Bush's opposition to regulation is part of an electoral strategy designed to win the votes of coal, timber and oil-producing states. These include the eastern swing states of West Virginia, Kentucky and Pennsylvania, as well as traditionally Republican states in the West and Southwest.
House Panel Receives Detailed Spending Plan for '06, Washington Post, May 6, 2005:
Federal land conservation and environmental programs would bear the brunt of budget cuts next year under budget limits sent to the House Appropriations Committee's spending panels yesterday.
The Bush administration announced on December 23, 2003, that the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, the largest in the country, would be exempted from a Clinton-era rule, potentially opening up more than half of the 17 million-acre forest for more development and as many as 50 logging projects.
On January 24, 2004, Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton cleared a plan to open 8.8 million acres of Alaska's North Slope to oil and gas development. The plan will be used to manage a northwest part of the government's 23.5 million-acre National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, which geologists believe may contain 6 billion to 13 billion barrels of oil. The plan threatens the health of Arctic tundra, ponds and lakes that are home to wildlife and migratory birds, and will probably produce enough oil for six months only.
Two riders attached to the Senate Omnibus bill, December, 2003, would weaken air pollution rules and weaken protections for dwindling fish species.
This is the battle. Sane people versus the lunatic Christer/Corporate planet haters.
Whose side are YOU on?