Word: arctically
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What happened to the compassion that was supposed to go with Bush's conservatism? The campaign prepared us for some of this--candidate Bush made plain his intention to drill in the Arctic wildlife refuge, not a bad political calculus given America's preference for suvs over caribou. But no one thought his team would choose slaughterhouses over schoolchildren, even if only for a day. What connects these decisions is a preference for folks he knows: his oil-field buddies (mirrors of himself), corporate executives and captains of industry, from the Halliburton honcho to the Terminix franchisee. Some of them...
...every issue there is some abstract public interest--some objective, Platonic embodiment of the public good--and that this is thwarted by the influence of private interests. The premise is that private interests, pejoratively called "special interests," are bad. Are they? You might support the Sierra Club or the Arctic oil drillers. But can both be acting against the public interest? You might be for Sarah Brady or for the NRA. Do you believe both are subverting the public good...
...legendary snows of Kilimanjaro, are disappearing from mountaintops around the globe. Coral reefs are dying off as the seas get too warm for comfort. Drought is the norm in parts of Asia and Africa. El Nino events, which trigger devastating weather in the eastern Pacific, are more frequent. The Arctic permafrost is starting to melt. Lakes and rivers in colder climates are freezing later and thawing earlier each year. Plants and animals are shifting their ranges poleward and to higher altitudes, and migration patterns for animals as diverse as polar bears, butterflies and beluga whales are being disrupted...
Even if temperatures rise only moderately, some scientists fear, the climate would reach a "tipping point"--a point at which even a tiny additional increase would throw the system into violent change. If peat bogs and Arctic permafrost warm enough to start releasing the methane stored within them, for example, that potent greenhouse gas would suddenly accelerate the heat-trapping process...
...began to govern much more like the oil-patch President conservatives hoped he would be. The Administration announced it was suspending rules to reduce arsenic in drinking water, reconsidering Bill Clinton's decision to protect 58 million acres of federal land from logging, and pursuing oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (though Bush downplayed that last week in the face of opposition...