Reading notes

One hundred years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt visited the Grand Canyon for the first time. And he asked the people of Arizona to make sure that it stayed unspoiled. “Leave it as it is,” President Roosevelt said. “Keep it for your children and your children’s children and for all who come after you, as one of the great sights which every American should see.”

It may seem odd to you that a Democratic presidential candidate would quote so approvingly something said by a Republican president. But there’s a reason. When President Roosevelt made that speech, he was exhibiting something that we haven’t seen in this country for a long, long time. And that is a Republican president providing leadership on the environment. …

One hundred years ago, Theodore Roosevelt saw conservation as not only central to the national social, economic and political health, but as a reflection of basic American values. In the century since he lived in the White House, America has forged a bipartisan consensus on the importance of conservation and the responsibility each of us has to pass along a safe, healthy environment to future generations.

Today, we have a Republican president who seeks to destroy this consensus and reverse decades of responsible environmental policy. We have a president who seems to regard public resources as gifts to be handed out to special interests. Allowing Big Industry to release more pollutants into the air we breathe, President Bush calls it the “Clear Skies” program. Allowing Big Timber to denude our forests, the Bush-Cheney Administration calls it the “Healthy Forests” initiative.

See also Mary’s topically related, thoughtful weblog entry, Bucking Bad Bush Environmental Policies, in which I was struck by this:

One of the more ironic aspects of [the EPA report slighting global warming] is how the White House insists that the evidence for global warming be rock solid before we can act. Would only they require as much concrete evidence before deciding to preemptively start a war against Iraq.