Let’s sympathize with optimists who hope Republican wackos in the U.S. House of Representatives will
finally act for the common good.
Because there is new hope-draining evidence they
won’t.
The
latest Far Right craziness comes in press reports that Congressional Republicans
have drafted legislation that would cut the budget of the Environmental
Protection Agency by 34 percent. GOPers want to eliminate the newly announced
rules for lowering greenhouse emissions and they would slice Fish and Wildlife
Service funding in half.
Incredibly,
the Republicans want to gut the Protection Agency’s clean water grant program,
reducing funding by 83 percent.
This news comes as drought devastates
crops in the west, as scientists warn clean water supplies are threatened, and as
media reports explain New England fishermen are going broke and jobless because
fishing has been severely restricted. Fishing has been limited because water heated
by global warming has driven cod fish and other species from traditional
fishing grounds. The government is trying to salvage what’s left of the
fisheries.
Think
of the western drought--suspend your possible distaste for statistics, and check out the
figures below.
The authoritative U.S. Drought Monitor report,
dated July 23, 2013, states:
“…The
drought is far from over in the Southwest, with 80 percent of the topsoil short
or very short of moisture in Colorado and New Mexico, 74 percent so rated in
Oregon, and over 60 percent that dry in Utah. As of July 21, the United States
Department of Agriculture reported pasture and range land [is] in poor to very
poor condition for 95 percent of California, 79 percent in Arizona and New
Mexico, 70 percent in Nevada and 64 percent of Colorado.
“Drier and warmer than normal weather
further dried out soils in the northern states of the West…. This week began
with only four large wildfires burning in the Northwest, but it ended with
firefighters battling over a dozen.”
In
a New York Times Op Ed piece, Gary Paul Nabhan, research scientist at the
University of Arizona’s Southwest Center, explained why such numbers are
important. He pointed out that the Western states are a cornerstone of the
American food supply and continued:
“People living outside the region seldom recognize [the West’s] immense contribution to American agriculture: roughly 40 percent of the net farm income for the country normally comes from the 17 Western states; cattle and sheep production make up a significant part of that, as do salad greens, dry beans, onions, melons hops, barley, wheat and citrus fruits.”
Mr.
Nabhan wrote that the recent heat wave has imperiled every crop from apricots
and barley to wheat and zucchini. He reported that Idaho potato yields have
been “knocked back.” Such setbacks mean the quality
and quantity of various foods will be affected and prices are likely to rise
again as they did in 2012, the hottest year in American history. Moreover, wrote
Mr. Nabhan, “The Western drought, which has persisted for the last few years,
has already diminished both surface water and ground water supplies and
increased energy costs, because of all the water that has to be pumped in from
elsewhere.”
Mr.
Nabhan is hardly the only scientist and informed citizen warning of problems
global warming-spawned heat and drought cause.
The reality is that the nation faces serious, fundamental problems—the
kind we expect our legislators to study and attempt to solve.
What we don’t expect is
for a group of uncaring, single-issue, selfish congressmen to try and slash the
funds of government agencies and programs combatting threats to our food and
water supplies.
Americans
have a lot on their minds simply trying to make a living and eke a little fun from
life. Nonetheless, it’s time for them to
carve out time to check the true state of the nation and its threats. When—and if—they
ever do, they’ll toss the far right saboteurs out of Congress.
---Gus
Gribbin
Note: Mr. Nabhan’s article appeared
on July 22, 2013.
