Prescient

[Mike3]

Posted: 11/9/07 at 12:20pm

So I’m having my coffee this morning and while I’m reading this: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html# my iPod decides to play this:

Someone has wounded you, dear world
Someone has poisoned you, dear world
And those who love you defiantly insist
That you get off that critical list
So make your recovery quick, world
We're sick of having a sick world
We want you dancing tomorrow afternoon
So be a dear world
Rip the bandage off, dear world
Take the stitches out, dear world
And get well soon

Please take your medicine, dear world
Please make your fever break, dear world
Your vim and vigor are very sorely missed
Help us declare you "Patient dismissed"
And stand on your crutches with pride, world
You’ve got to save your own hide, world
We’re not quite ready to trade you for the moon
So be a dear world
Take the ambulance, dear world
Have the surgery, dear world
And get well soon

That was 1969. Jerry Herman (and Jean Giraudoux and Maurice Valency before him) was prescient indeed.

[Steve2]

Posted: 11/9/07 at 12:33pm

Not really Mike.
Those words reflect the terrible pollution problems of the 50s and 60s. 1969 was before the founding of the Envionmental Protection Agency! We have come a long way since then but still have much work to do.

[One NYC StageHand]

Posted: 11/9/07 at 1:04pm

The current administration is continuing the gutting of the Federal Agencies that started with the radical ("The Government is the problem") Reagan Administration. Now political cronies and industry insiders are overseeing the very industry's that they are supposed to be policing.

in 2003, the Senate Republicans directed the EPA to spend it's budget on pork barrel projects while cutting back on core programs. This is from a Sept 8, 2003 memo from EPA's Chief Financial Officer Linda Combs to acting Administrator Marianne Horinko.

"The core programs this is likely to impact include Superfund cleanup of toxic sites, grants to states for implementing anti pollution laws, and programs ranging from combating particulates to protecting the water quality of the Great Lakes."

Horinko, prior to joining the Bush Administration, worked for Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, a law firm that was ranked fifth in the National Law Journal's 2004 survey of "Who Represents Corporate America".

The EPA has suffered continuing 5% to 10% budget cutbacks annually since the Bush Adminstration has taken office,

We may have come a long way in terms of the public's perception of the envirnomental crisis but we are taking many steps backward in terms of the policing of pollution and clean up.