Earth Equity News

The Positive Side of Bush's Environmental Record. Commentary by Jim DiPeso, Grist, January 16, 2009. "My assignment... is to offer a tangent of positive thoughts about the Bush administration's environmental record... The monumental accomplishment took place two weeks before the administration's expiration. Relying on a precedent established by Theodore Roosevelt and employed by successors from both parties, President Bush invoked the Antiquities Act to establish three marine monuments that protect some 125 million acres of habitat, history, and beauty in America's Pacific territorial waters... Bush's action was the most sweeping use of the Antiquities Act since this somewhat obscure but highly effective conservation law was enacted in 1906. Combined with the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, which Bush designated in 2006, his marine preserves are equal in size to the combined extent of all national parks, national wildlife refuges, and the National Landscape Conservation System, plus 9 million acres in change. Every acre is a wonderful legacy. More importantly, Bush's actions have given impetus to the emerging recognition that special places at sea deserve the highest levels of protection, akin to national parks and wilderness areas on land. His marine monuments laid a foundation for more and stronger ocean protections by his successors. Not as dramatic as Bush's vast ocean monuments but still worthy of note was the president's expansion of America's protected wilderness... Bush's signature on wilderness legislation added nearly 2.5 million acres to the National Wilderness Preservation System... Given the muddiness of the administration's record on air quality, it's easy to forget the president's adoption of tougher fuel and engine standards to control harmful emissions from non-road diesel-fueled equipment... Bush often professes to admire TR. Had Bush done on land and in the air -- by actively leading the country toward a carbon-free future -- what he did at sea, his administration's conservation record would have borne favorable comparison to Roosevelt's. Unfortunately, politics too often intervened and opportunities too often were missed. What might have been cannot erase what actually occurred."