by NASA Goddard Photo and Video
A Republican Case for Climate Action –
[Via NYTimes.com]
EACH of us took turns over the past 43 years running the Environmental Protection Agency. We served Republican presidents, but we have a message that transcends political affiliation: the United States must move now on substantive steps to curb climate change, at home and internationally.
There is no longer any credible scientific debate about the basic facts: our world continues to warm, with the last decade the hottest in modern records, and the deep ocean warming faster than the earth’s atmosphere. Sea level is rising. Arctic Sea ice is melting years faster than projected.
The costs of inaction are undeniable. The lines of scientific evidence grow only stronger and more numerous. And the window of time remaining to act is growing smaller: delay could mean that warming becomes “locked in.”
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This is great to read. Serving under Nixon, Reagan and both Bushes, these are not people who can easily be ignored. Ruckelshaus, besides being the first head of the EPA, is famous for refusing Nixon’s entreaties to fire the independent prosecutor, Archiblad Cox, in the Saturday Night Massacre and resigning (Robert Bork ended up on the wrong side of history forever for me by agreeing to illegally fire Cox.)
Whitman was the first Republican to defeat an incumbent governor in New Jersey. Reilly was instrumental in using market approaches to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions and make acid rain a thing of the past.
As administrators of the E.P.A under Presidents Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George Bush and George W. Bush, we held fast to common-sense conservative principles — protecting the health of the American people, working with the best technology available and trusting in the innovation of American business and in the market to find the best solutions for the least cost.
These are people whose opinions should be listened to. They want to find a solution and diverse discussions will be how we reach one.
If we could articulate one framework for successful governance, perhaps it should be this: When confronted by a problem, deal with it. Look at the facts, cut through the extraneous, devise a workable solution and get it done.
I would agree with this. I also agree with this:
We can have both a strong economy and a livable climate. All parties know that we need both. The rest of the discussion is either detail, which we can resolve, or purposeful delay, which we should not tolerate.
Now we just need the leaders.
As administrators of the E.P.A under Presidents Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George Bush and George W. Bush, we held fast to common-sense conservative principles — protecting the health of the American people, working with the best technology available and trusting in the innovation of American business and in the market to find the best solutions for the least cost.
A Man With A Ph.D. 