- Russell Train, a lifelong Republican who played a key
role in forging environmental policy under Presidents Nixon and Ford, charges
in his recently published memoirs that the current Republican Administration
not only lacks leadership on crucial environmental issues, it fails to
grasp the "long-term implications" of its bias toward the energy
industry.
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- "The George W. Bush Administration appears to view
most issues as either black or white -- that, for example, environmental
protection and energy supply are mutually exclusive objectives," writes
Train, in Politics, Pollution and Pandas: An Environmental Memoir (Island
Press, December 2003). "Such simplistic approaches may lend themselves
to good sound bites or to easy political communication, but they do not
serve us well in terms of developing effective solutions to the all-too-real
problems that face this country and the world."
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- Train, who served as Undersecretary of the Interior under
Nixon and later the second Administrator of the newly created Environmental
Protection Agency (1973-1977), left the Ford Administration to serve as
President of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) - U.S. His memoirs provide a
"behind-the-scenes account" of bipartisan efforts under two Republican
Administrations to craft the laws and regulations that have protected our
environment for more than three decades.
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- Now chairman emeritus of WWF, Train also offers his insights
on the current lack of U.S. leadership on environmental issues, going so
far as to say that President Bush "is not playing square with the
American people" by "blatantly ignoring" solid scientific
research, particularly on man's contribution to climate change.
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- Train writes that he does not blame the EPA or other
federal agencies, because "it has been clear from the beginning of
the George W. Bush Administration that it is the White House that is calling
the tune. Moreover, it seems that the tune is being called not by program
staff in the White House, but by political operatives. I find it unacceptable
that the current U.S. political leadership should demonstrate such disregard
for and disinterest in values that are among the most crucial concerns
of humanity today."
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- Not only does President Bush ignore his ethical responsibilities
in matters of environmental stewardship, he fails to understand the complex
relationship between economics and environmental concerns and the longtime
consequences of setting policies slanted so strongly in favor of the energy
industry, Train writes.
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- "On a broader scale, we need to recognize as a society
that the economy and the environment are not antithetical to each other
but are instead different sides of the same coin," he concludes. "Economic
activity is to a great extent the conversion of the earth's environmental
resources to human use and enjoyment...a healthy economy that is sustainable
over the long term can be achieved only in the context of a healthy environment.
The two must go hand in hand."
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- Previous American political leaders -- both Republican
and Democratic -- understood that, writes Train. "We need to find
that road again; it is the only path to a sustainable future for humanity."
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- Copyright © 2003 Environmental Media Services http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/mt_archives/000097.php
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