I swear! Next Republicans will claim that the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico is good for the environment. It would be no more absurd than this:
Two U.S. senators who toured the oilsands Friday say they were impressed by Alberta’s success in balancing industry with environmental stewardship, but critics say the government tour is biased in favour of development.
Republican senators Lindsey Graham and Saxby Chambliss said the tour, organized by government and industry officials, has persuaded them Alberta is taking a conscientious approach to oilsands development.
"The actual mining is a very small part of the landscape up here, so when you fly over you see a lot of nature and rivers and wilderness," Graham said during a tour of the Syncrude facility in Fort McMurray. "Once you get in the site, it’s just massive . . . It’s a kind of industrial ballet up here."
The two Republicans and Senator Kay Hagan, a Democrat, also toured an area that has been reclaimed.
"From my point of view the environmental issues are being addressed in a responsible way," Graham said. "I am for full-speed-ahead in terms of using Canadian oilsands oil in America."
The tour did not include a visit to aboriginal communities downstream from the oilsands, whose residents believe their water, food and bodies are being poisoned by the operations. The senators did not meet with renowned biologist David Schindler or any other critics of development.
Senator Saxby Chambliss said he was particularly impressed with the technological advances and reclamation efforts…[emphasis added]
Inserted from <Common Dreams>
Here is a reply worth 5,000 words that demonstrates that these Republicans are liars.
(Off topic: See today’s Open Thread for Maher’s New Rules.)
18 Responses to “The Environment: A Republican View”
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Humans are an AIDS virus sarcoma on the face of the earth. People do not yet realize that the damage we are causing has accelerated the climate change cycle by five to ten millennium. What really hit it home for em was when the long sough after (500 years) Northwestern Passageway to Asia that meant shipping no longer had to go around the tip of South America and then the Panama canal actually now has become reality because of arctic ice melt. To the oil sands and the aboriginal peoples. Their lives are worth less than that oil soaked dirt and shale. God is watching and wondering if we will ever understand the difference between good and evil.
Did you see that the Montana GOP has officially put a “criminalizing” homosexuality into their state platform?
Mark, I agree.
I heard that. Goose-stepping backwards. 🙄
And of course TC you will never see these pictures in the media while at the same time calling these repug slugs out for their hypocrisy.
That in itself is a crime, Fly.
Idiots all and a danger to the environment and mankind.
Amen Leslie.
Damn, I can’t even tell what the last picture is. What a lovely area. Right up there with shearing off the top of a mountain. Good catch, TomCat!
I think it’s from the “Earth From Above” book.
At any rate, it’s the 12th one down in this series of aerial views – which are really quite striking:
http://hubpages.com/hub/AMAZING-AERIAL-VIEW-PICTURES-NEVER-SEEN-BEFORE
Thanks Bee.
I knew it was a wide area aerial view, but Nameless knew more, to his credit.
:: shudders ::
What is the final picture depicting? It looks vile, but I can’t figure out what I’m looking at.
It’s a wide area areial view. See Nameless’ reply above for more.
I expect nothing more from Republicans. The mere sight and sound of their perverse existence decries a moral outrage of epic proportion. I’m Pissed! 👿
So am I, Tim.
I am a Canadian, and we see images like this of the Alberta tar sands all the time. There are also all sorts of websites where folks can protest. http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/294678
However, the problem is the over-reliance on oil. Everyone who reads your blog, Tom, and posts a comment, owns a car. (I am proud to say I don’t own a car…)
We need to go back to the drawing board and find other forms of energy. It’s easy to say what we shouldn’t do, but it’s not so easy to say what we should do. I challenge both the Republicans and the Democrats to find a solution to the problem. Calling Republicans liars doesn’t solve anything, sadly…
If you watch American television, you will see that the largest percentage of commercials are for cars. Cars, cars, cars. Cars have changed the North American landscape, and even the way people live, and where they live. Cars have changed communities and the way of life. The automobile has decimated the North American city. And yet everyone has to own an automobile.
And people are sheep. Tell them they have to own a huge gas-guzzling monstrosity, just to drive the kids to school, or to pick up groceries, and everyone will rush out and buy one — or two. Oil consumption in the United States and Canada equals almost 3 gallons per day per capita. The rest of the world consumes between 0.2 and 1.4 gallons per day per capita. Also, in North America most of the oil consumed is used for transportation, where as in the rest of the world most of the oil is used for heating. Our consumption of petroleum products is disgusting. If you want to stop blights like the Alberta tar sands, you have to go to the source and cut off the need, not the supply.
Time Magazine once did a poll asking people who was the most dangerous person who ever lived, and I said, “Henry Ford”.
Everyone, buy a bicycle…!
Josie, we agree except on one small point. I read and comment here and have not owned a car for 20 years.
Obama and the Democrats have fought to increase subsidies for and R&D into green energy as you suggest, but Republicans have blocked them at every possible opportunity.
…aboriginal communities…
Those two words explains why Light-in-the-loafers Lindsey thinks everything is all peachy keen. Hell, he’s just transfering normal white American sentiment about Native Americans to the Canadian Aboriginals, they don’t have the votes to overwhelm the white man and his corporations so they can drink polluted water and live amongst the toxic chemicals.
And that applies to others all over the world.