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Jubilant Republicans may imagine that the most significant harbinger for America’s future was the banging of a gavel on January 6, opening the 108th Congress. Finally, GOP partisans may conclude, they call the shots. But it may be that the Earth itself is in charge. In 2002, the second hottest year on record, scientists saw Arctic Ocean ice coverage shrink by more than at any time since satellite measurements were first made a quarter century ago. And, they say, continued melting could leave the Arctic nearly ice-free by summer 2050. Americans need to pay attention to the winds of change...

Our planet's air has cleared up in the past decade or two, allowing more sunshine to reach the ground, say two studies in Science this week. Reductions in industrial emissions in many countries, along with the use of particulate filters for car exhausts and smoke stacks, seem to have reduced the amount of dirt in the atmosphere and made the sky more transparent. That sounds like very good news. But the researchers say that more solar energy arriving on the ground will also make the surface warmer, and this may add to the problems of global warming. More sunlight will...

An article on www.nature.com tells us that the Earth's air is cleaner, but this may contribute to the greenhouse effect. This seems to go against everything we have been told for decades. According to the article reductions in industrial emissions in many countries, along with the use of particulate filters for car exhausts and smoke stacks, seem to have reduced the amount of dirt in the atmosphere and made the sky more transparent. Ok, this is good right? Not according to nature.com.

Our planet's air has cleared up in the past decade or two, allowing more sunshine to reach the ground, say two studies in Science this week. Reductions in industrial emissions in many countries, along with the use of particulate filters for car exhausts and smoke stacks, seem to have reduced the amount of dirt in the atmosphere and made the sky more transparent. That sounds like very good news. But the researchers say that more solar energy arriving on the ground will also make the surface warmer, and this may add to the problems of global warming. More sunlight will...

Our planet's air has cleared up in the past decade or two, allowing more sunshine to reach the ground, say two studies in Science this week. Reductions in industrial emissions in many countries, along with the use of particulate filters for car exhausts and smoke stacks, seem to have reduced the amount of dirt in the atmosphere and made the sky more transparent. That sounds like very good news. But the researchers say that more solar energy arriving on the ground will also make the surface warmer, and this may add to the problems of global warming. More sunlight will...

Our planet's air has cleared up in the past decade or two, allowing more sunshine to reach the ground, say two studies in Science this week. Reductions in industrial emissions in many countries, along with the use of particulate filters for car exhausts and smoke stacks, seem to have reduced the amount of dirt in the atmosphere and made the sky more transparent. That sounds like very good news. But the researchers say that more solar energy arriving on the ground will also make the surface warmer, and this may add to the problems of global warming. More sunlight will...

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Fewer Americans have had to breathe unhealthy levels of smog or microscopic soot in recent years, but air pollution remained a threat in counties where more than half the nation lives, the American Lung Association said in an annual report Thursday. Using data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the group found that the number of counties in which unhealthy air was recorded fell significantly for the first time in six years, to 390 from 441 in last year's report. The new report covered 2001 to 2003, while the previous one analyzed pollution levels from 2000...

WASHINGTON - President Bush's top environmental priority — giving power plants, factories and refineries more time to reduce their air pollution — suffered a major setback Wednesday as a Republican-controlled committee rejected it in the Senate. The Environment and Public Works Committee deadlocked on a 9-9 vote on Bush's "clear skies" bill, a name that Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., described as "akin to calling Frankenstein Tom Cruise." The tie vote came after weeks of fruitless negotiation to get a bare majority required to recommend the bill to the full Senate. The committee vote doesn't preclude GOP leaders from scheduling the...

SACRAMENTO - While conservationist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. used a legislative hearing Wednesday to label the Bush administration the worst in U.S. history on environmental issues, he also praised the record of his cousin's husband, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Accusing the White House of rolling back more than 400 regulations and policies that he believes has damaged the environment, Kennedy praised California lawmakers for stepping into the void and holding the line on pollution controls. A nationally recognized environmental attorney and president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, Kennedy extended his approval of California's environmental record to Schwarzenegger, whose wife, Maria Shriver, is...

Greener Pastures by Gregg Easterbrook Michael Leavitt announced yesterday that he will leave the Environmental Protection Agency after just 14 months at the EPA's helm and become George W. Bush's secretary of Health and Human Services. ... He is departing because he realized that environmental regulatory reform is currently impossible. Neither the left nor the right will allow it. [snip] But under current law, cost-effective environmental protection is often discouraged. [snip] On the right, the Republican nut-case faction in the House continues to claim that environmental protection is destroying the economy, though there is zero evidence of this: Pollution has...

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) will make air pollution a top priority in Congress early next year, starting with "an aggressive push" to build support for his pollution-cutting plan, senior administration officials said Saturday. At the same time, the administration will hold off until no later than March on a rule to cut pollution from power plants that would accomplish some of the same ends as Bush's anti-pollution plan, the officials told The Associated Press. The White House on Saturday told the Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) of its game plan, which is meant to...

The Radical Right's Weakness by The Rockridge Institute The radical Right's messaging and framing infrastructure doesn't seem so fearsome if you know how to spot its weaknesses. The radical Right is acutely aware of cases where the general public has progressive values and would ordinarily reject their agenda. The Right’s approach to such cases is deception, often through the use of Orwellian language — language that means the opposite of what it says.For example, the term compassionate conservatism is used because leaders on the Right have traditionally been considered mean and lacking in empathy toward people who are needy, poor...

In Defense of the President's Environmental Record By Max Borders While the environment remains at the bottom of the priority list for US voters, a number of factions continue nevertheless to flail wildly at the President on his green record -- claiming that his administration's work on the environment is poor, or worse: The League of Conservation Voters -- gave President George W. Bush an 'F' on the organization's 2003 Report Card The Children's Environmental Health Network -- gave the Bush Administration an 'F' for "how well it has protected children from environmental threats…" The National Park Conservation Association --...

Rhetoric ANNOUNCER: “Jeanette MacNeille has asthma. She is one of 10 million Pennsylvanians at risk from unhealthy air. A risk that’s growing because the Bush administration is allowing power plants to put more pollution in our air.”CHYRON: “Upper Darby, Pennsylvania; Jeanette MacNeille is one of 10 million Pennsylvanians at risk from unhealthy air (American Lung Association, State of the Air, 2003); The Bush Administration is increasing the threat, allowing power plants to put more pollution in our air (67 Federal Register 80186, 12/31/02; 68 Federal Register 61248, 10/27/03)VIDEO: Jeanette MacNeille gardening; Power plant.DR. MARK POSNER: “Any guidelines that use...

The differences between George W. Bush and John Kerry on the environment can be measured by the same yardstick that scientists often use to measure pollution: parts per million. That's because the prize in the political battle over the environment isn't a huge number of voters, but the smaller number who haven't decided whom they'll support, or whether they'll vote at all. Analysts say the environment, like many other issues such as education or crime, is rarely a prime factor for most voters. In an election dominated by the economy and the war in Iraq, the percentage of people who...

A Clear Mistake By Kay Jones and Ben Lieberman The Clear Skies Initiative, President Bush's big environmental bill targeting power plant emissions, appears to be stalled in Congress. In an effort to get around this impasse, the administration now plans to implement similar provisions via EPA regulations rather than legislation. Either way, this Republican attempt to go green will prove to be both bad policy and bad politics. The plan focuses on coal-fired utility emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx), and mercury. It would expand upon the so-called cap and trade provisions for SOx under the existing Clean...

The latest example of the media standing on its head regarding George W. Bush's environmental policies is the treatment accorded the White House announcement, last week, that Bush would impose a substantial reduction in emissions from Midwestern power plants. Did you even know this happened? Of course not, because news organizations either buried the story or twisted it to make it sound negative. Here's the picture. Front-page treatment after front-page treatment has been accorded Bush's decision to relax the "new-source review" standard that mainly governs repairs at Midwestern power plants. Bush's NSR decision has been depicted--by beat reporters, Democratic presidential...

<p>President Bush yesterday for the second day in a row called on Congress to reduce air pollution at a time when Democrats are stepping up their criticism of the president's environmental record.</p> <p>Mr. Bush met with utility officials in the White House, urging them to lobby lawmakers to pass his "Clear Skies" initiative, which he said would harness market forces to cut air pollution by 70 percent.</p>

ALBANY - Environmentalists are concerned that last Thursday's blackout will result in a rapid growth of new power plants that could push air quality issues to the back burner. Industry sources say the outage hasn't changed their message at all - that increased generation is needed and that new plants will be cleaner than existing ones. Early in his administration, President Bush called for an increased use of cleaner-burning coal as a way to offset dependence on foreign energy sources. "Coal is getting cleaner before it ever enters the power plants," according to The Coalition for Affordable and Reliable Energy...

<p>A WAR IS RAGING. It involves lands essential to our nation, and will dramatically affect future generations. No, I am not speaking of Iraq or Afghanistan. This war is right here: the Bush administration's radical, all-out attack on America's wilderness and public lands.</p>