Presidents Essay, Research Paper
Environmental issues, and policies have recently come to the for-front of American politics in the past four decades. This recent rise in the environment is due in part to the rapid boom in population in the past 40 years. The two major party candidates for the 2000 presidential election have keyed in on certain environmental issues to make strong arguments for the presidency. Gov. George W. Bush, who is the republican presidential candidate, is pretty much anti-environmental, but the rich people love him. Vice President Al Gore, who is the democratic presidential candidate, is in favor of conserving the environment, he also has his devoted group of followers. Their environmental concerns are one of the many reasons that they have our country going in chaotic state of being.
Gov. George W. Bush claims to be committed to a new era of environmental protection. Some of his proposals include: The redevelopment of abandoned contaminated industrial facilities, known as ?brownfields.? Directing the EPA to establish high standards for brown field cleanups. These higher standards will provide a lot more flexibility that the current Superfund standards. They will also fully protect human health and the environment. Gov. Bush believes that prosperity is meaningless without a healthy environment. But problems arise when leaders rely on Washington for regulation and dictation for environmental issues from afar. For that reason, as President, Bush will set high standards, and work to build conservation partnerships between the federal government and the state governments, local communities and private landowners to meet and exceed those standards. Another major issue is the Kyoto protocol. Bush believes that the Kyoto Protocol is ineffective, inadequate and unfair to America. The Kyoto Protocol, according to Bush exempts 80 percent of the world, including major population centers like China and India from falling in line. Bush, will also the new Tier II standards that will require lower sulfur, cleaner-burning gasoline and cleaner cars. From Bush?s standpoint the local and state governments best handle land management decisions. The challenges of urban sprawl draw attention to the need to give a new lease of life to our inner cities, through improved public schools, cleaning up and redeveloping brownfields, reduced urban crime rates and creating a strong, healthy economic environment that supports job creation.
Vice President Al Gore has made the environment his signature issue. He has challenged America to make the next ten years the Environmental Decade-making extraordinary progress in cleaning our air, water and soil; cracking down on polluters; developing cleaner sources of energy and curbing the risk of global climate change. The democratic presidential hopeful, Al Gore, is proposing a new Energy Security and Environment Trust (ESE)-a bold and unprecedented, commitment to achieve and even more prosperous economy, powered by cleaner, more reliable energy, in a healthy, truly livable environment. The ESE is a new $150 billion fund that will create a cleaner environment by providing tax breaks and other financial incentives for clean and reliable sources of electricity; long-term energy solutions to reduce our reliance on imported oil; and new energy- efficient transportation technologies. The Trust Fund will also offer American consumers tax breaks and other incentives to purchase energy-efficient cars, sport utility vehicles, trucks, homes, appliances, and other products.
?For me, a commitment to the environment has always run deeper than politics. We have to do what?s right for our environment, because it involves all of our lives-from the simple security of knowi
Al Gore wants to build a strong record of preservation for open spaces and protection for natural treasures, he supports full funding for our National Parks, and he wants to stop commercial exploitation of environmentally sensitive land. Gore also promotes smart growth and livable communities. Thus, creating Better America Bonds to preserve open spaces and clean up brownfields. Gore also wants to protect the people from industrial and toxic waste by making the ?brownfields? tax incentive permanent, and supporting Superfund cleanup of the worst environmental problems in the country. Vice President Gore believes that choosing between the environment and the economy is a very bad decision. He knows that in the long run we can?t have one without the other.
Bush and Gore both adhere to the analytical categories of conservation, preservation, laissez-faire, and ecology of Benjamin Kline. They aren?t really choosing sides, but they are picking and choosing their arguments carefully. Staying as close as possible to the middle of the environmental issues instead of bearing either to the right or left, both candidates have the country practically split down the middle. Gore and Bush both want conservation of the environment, Gore is just pushing harder to take care of preservation. Bush, on the other hand, is more for conservation. Preserving the environment means taking care of it so that it remains in good shape. Conserving means using what we have and maintaining a balance, so that there won?t be a complete depletion of the natural environment.
In comparison, Richard Nixon and Al Gore had very close similarities in their campaigns of environmental issues. Richard Nixon started the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970. The EPA required federal agencies to prepare an environmental-impact analysis of all proposed projects. Nixon was so much into preserving that in 1970 his Commission on Population Growth and the American Future promoted zero population growth. This meant that the birth rate should not be higher than the death rate. Fewer people would cause less stress on the environment, thus, preserving the environment. The most alarming thing about the similarities of the two is the fact that Nixon was a Republican, which means he should have been more on conserving the environment, instead of preserving it.
George W. Bush is more like Theodore Roosevelt they are both conservatives, very rich, and both of them are Republicans. Roosevelt knew that something had to be done to preserve nature, so he started the conservation movement. Decades of urban growth, westward expansion, and industrial growth had taken a considerably bad toll on the environment. So he began promoting wilderness preservation and better management of natural resources. Roosevelt realized the call for conservationists? planned development of the nations natural resources. Roosevelt supported the National Reclamation Act of 1902. Roosevelt had to go with the moneymaker, conservation, to help build the economy. As a matter of fact, the conservation and preservation problems of Roosevelt?s time still exist today.
The similarities of past presidents and today?s presidential hopefuls are astounding. It seems as though history continues to repeat itself. Just as in the past we are trying to find a place to come together and work something out to conserve and preserve nature. Both political parties are trying to gain a win one through the preservation of the environment, the other through the conservation of the environment. The thing is we need both to maintain a healthy and livable environment.