Crimes against Nature

I have been reading Crimes against Nature, by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is an attorney with the National Resources Defense Council. It is quite systematic and therefore quite depressing in detailing how the Bush administration has given over the future of our natural resources to the companies that plunder them.

The behavior of the Bush administration on this matter is nothing less than criminal. It dwarfs Watergate and Whitewater combined. But unfortunately it is barely noticed by our corporate media.

An article Kennedy wrote for Rolling Stone last December summarizes the main points of this book:

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1120-01.htm

Here is the opening paragraph of the article:

George W. Bush will go down in history as America's worst environmental president. In a ferocious three-year attack, the Bush administration has initiated more than 200 major rollbacks of America's environmental laws, weakening the protection of our country's air, water, public lands and wildlife. Cloaked in meticulously crafted language designed to deceive the public, the administration intends to eliminate the nation's most important environmental laws by the end of the year. Under the guidance of Republican pollster Frank Luntz, the Bush White House has actively hidden its anti-environmental program behind deceptive rhetoric, telegenic spokespeople, secrecy and the intimidation of scientists and bureaucrats. The Bush attack was not entirely unexpected. George W. Bush had the grimmest environmental record of any governor during his tenure in Texas. Texas became number one in air and water pollution and in the release of toxic chemicals. In his six years in Austin, he championed a short-term pollution-based prosperity, which enriched his political contributors and corporate cronies by lowering the quality of life for everyone else. Now President Bush is set to do the same to America. After three years, his policies are already bearing fruit, diminishing standards of living for millions of Americans.