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Opening Arguments

Getting hot over warming

Oh, come on, Al. This sounds like a trick to make me like President Obama more:

Former Vice President Al Gore is doing what few environmentalists and fellow Democrats have done before, criticizing President Barack Obama's record on global warming.

In a 7,000-word essay for Rolling Stone magazine that was posted online Wednesday, Gore says Obama has failed to stand up for "bold action." Gore contends that Obama has made little progress on the problem since Republican President George W. Bush. Bush infuriated environmentalists by resisting mandatory controls on the pollution blamed for climate change, despite overwhelming scientific evidence that the burning of fossil fuels is responsible.

The story notes that Gore does credit Obama's political appointees with making "hundreds of changes" that have helped the country move "forward slightly" on the climate issue. These guys, I swear. Of course they would get giddy over hundreds of changes by political appointees.

Elsewhere on the environmental front, Maryland leaps to the forefront of environmentl education:

In an historic vote today, the Maryland State Board of Education provided specific guidance to all public schools to require that each student be environmentally literate before he or she graduates from high school.  The vote cements Maryland as the first state in the country to approve a graduation requirement in environmental literacy, a credit to Governor O'Malley, to board members, and to Dr. Nancy Grasmick, State Superintendent of Schools.

I tried to read the specifics of what will be taught, but I gave up when I came across something about our "fragile ecosystem." Aren't they supposed to keep religion out of public schools? 

Comments

Tim Zank
Wed, 06/22/2011 - 10:45am

"I tried to read the specifics of what will be taught, but I gave up when I came across something about our

Tim Zank
Wed, 06/22/2011 - 2:15pm

More global warming hi-jinx

Bob G.
Thu, 06/23/2011 - 9:11am

Tim:
The "Environmangelist" is at it AGAIN...(sighs).

Isn't there some landfill he needs to become a part of...somewhere?
Whatta flim-flam "artist"!

;)

Harl Delos
Thu, 06/23/2011 - 11:45am

The "fragile ecology" actually IS fragile. So is the economy. Neither is the same as it was yesterday.

The difference is that we recognize the economy goes up and down, accept it, and don't hesitate to try to improve it. With ecology, though, any change is seen as tragic.

If some species becomes extinct, it's a tragedy. Except that there are new species all the time. I'd prefer that MRSA hadn't evolved, but it has, so we deal with it. As far as I know, Ebola hasn't gone extinct, but I'd prefer that it had.

It's not global warming that's behind most of this, though, but global *shrinking*. There's a lost Emporer penguin in New Zealand right now, who arrived on his own. Zebra mussels possibly arrived in the Great Lakes with help, as did kudzu down south and rabbits in Australia. As the world shrinks, niches disappear, and the fittest survive. Isn't evolution supposed to be a *good* thing?

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