Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
It seems that you can’t go anywhere on the Internet and not read an attack on the EPA by a Republican member of Congress. The Hill; McClatchey Unfortunately, I was not surprised how many of the Republican Congressmen were attacking the EPA and its attempts to control and eliminate air pollution. However, I was surprised by how many of those Congressmen were physicians.
“What would you think if your physician told you, “Keep smoking because quitting would kill tobacco and health care jobs.” Or, “Don’t take your high blood pressure medicine, you can’t afford it.” And, “Don’t lose weight, no one has proven obesity is bad for you.” That’s exactly the quality of medical advice we are getting from the 18 Republican physicians currently serving in Congress. Some of the most well known are the father and son team of Rep. Ron Paul and Sen. Rand Paul, and Sen. Tom Coburn. Almost all of these physician/Congressmen have been key soldiers in the Republican war on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), calling it a “job killer,” pronouncing relevant health science “unproven,” claiming we “can’t afford” their regulations.” Truthout
The “unproven” science that claims that air pollution is deadly comes from over 2,000 medical studies is significant in its numbers and content. “In the last ten years, over 2,000 scientific studies published in the mainstream medical literature have revealed that air pollution has much of the same physiologic and disease consequence as first- and second-hand cigarette smoke.(1, 2) Those studies show that just as there is no safe number of cigarettes a person can smoke, there is no safe level of air pollution a person can breathe. Even pollution at “background” levels still causes health consequences, including increased mortality rates.(3, 4)” Dr. Brian Moench
Dr. Moench’s Truthout article provides a plethora of citations to studies that confirm the need for and importance of taking the steps that the EPA has outlined in its August, 2010 report titled, “The Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act, 1990-2020”. EPA I guess some people can deny the science behind the studies and the EPA report. We have seen the climate change deniers put ear plugs in their ears when legitimate and voluminous studies are presented. Maybe I am naive, but I cannot understand how medical doctors can claim that we can’t afford the regulations needed to save lives of adults and children.
Over 1,800 medical doctors, nurses and health care professionals signed a letter to Congress imploring the Congressional members to honor the original intent of the Clean Air Act and allow science to trump politics by implementing the needed regulations to save lives. “The result is saved lives and improved quality of life for millions of Americans. But the job is not finished. Communities across the nation still suffer from poor air quality. Low income families face the impacts of toxic air pollution every day. From smog causing asthma attacks to toxic mercury harming children’s neurological development, far too many people face a constant threat from the air they breathe and the impacts of climate change. Please fulfill the promise of clean, healthy air for all Americans to breathe. Support full implementation of the Clean Air Act and resist any efforts to weaken, delay or block progress toward a healthier future for all Americans.” Lung.org
As someone who has Asthma, this fight to allow for the full implementation of the Clean Air Act has special meaning. I can only hope that Congress, including the Doctors who are in Congress will hear the call to do whatever is necessary to save lives. Politics should never get in the way of common sense and achievable changes and improvements in the air that we breathe.
Do you believe in the science behind the Clean Air Act and if not, where is the science to refute the claims of over 2,000 studies from all over the globe? Is there any health issue that can trump the vitriolic politics of our time? As quoted above, the original Clean Air Act and its amendments enjoyed bipartisan support. Why can’t that same bipartisan support be found for the full implementation of the Clean Air Act knowing it will save lives and create jobs? How many more must die or suffer before political gain is put aside?
Raff thanks, P.S. what was the conclusion to someone posting as another Rafflaw yesterday.
rafflaw,
Bdaman don’t need no stinkin’ credible peer-reviewed studies.
and neither does the IPCC. A peer review study is just that a peer reviewed study. There are lots of STUDIES that dont match the FACTUAL DATA. I’m sure there were lots of peer reviewed studies that said the Arctic was to have melted by now. Has it ?
Raff they are fighting the EPA because they are over regulating because of a failed theory. Energy prices are going through the roof while in the mean time China opens up two new coal fired plants every week while we have seven slated for closure. Remember under Obama’s plan electricity rates were going to sky rocket.
What good is any of it if we are all sitting in the dark.
Elaine and AY,
I welcome Bdaman’s comments . I was merely trying to steer him to the issue at hand.
Interested in the Goldstein Effect from 1984?
Ditto in the same effect in KONY 2012?
If we don’t get the effect we want in Syria, then let’s try sub-saharan Africa.
Click this.
http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2012/03/11/the-truth-about-kony-2012-the-goldstein-effect/
Hopefully Mike and others will see and look at this man’s message.
He’s only a world reknown Swedish Professor of Public Health.
Google has bought his data display system, it’s available free of charge on the net.
Look at this, dammit. This man will amaze you with what he show you is hiding in world statistics—-largely due to US paying for the data collection of some types.
Only 20 minutes. Try it, you’ll be glad you did, all of you.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/hans_rosling_at_state.html
With all due respect Elaine….. Maybe that is what the children he is surrounded with eat…. So it’s not and issue…..and Micky Ds is adventure dining….
AY,
I guess the tale of pink slime in hamburger meat wasn’t a tempting enough post for an attempted hijacking.
Elaine M. And raff,
Nal was worried about his thread being jacked….. It was just a matter of time….but raff…..you’re the lucky winner today…..
rafflaw,
Bdaman don’t need no stinkin’ credible peer-reviewed studies.
Bdaman,
You don’t have any credible peer reviewed study that disputes climate change. Besides, the article is discussing air pollution and the Right’s attempts to derail the EPA’s efforts to reduce pollution for health reasons. Are you against cleaning the air to reduce asthma and a multitude of breathing disorders and the deaths related to it?
Corrected
Think about this in 1923 the level of atmospheric CO2 was probably at 300 ppm or less. We know that in the 60′s when atmospheric CO2 first was being recorded by the instrumental record it measured at 315 ppm. So in 1923 when CO2 was lower they worried whether or not the Arctic would melt. Now CO2 is above 390ppm and there is more there now then before.
So to all of you who call me a denier. I wont be much longer, but you will be. Atmospheric CO2 will soon be over 400ppm and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Nothing the world can do to stop it from reaching this threshold. It continues to rise yet we’ve had no warming in 15 years. And that’s a fact.
FACT: Baffin Bay has the second highest ice extent in the last thirty years but experts tell us that the Arctic should have melted by now.
Expert Al Gore
Speaking at the Copenhagen climate change summit, Mr Gore said new computer modelling suggests there is a 75 per cent chance of the entire polar ice cap melting during the summertime by 2014.
However, he faced embarrassment last night after Dr Wieslav Maslowski, the climatologist whose work the prediction was based on, refuted his claims.
Dr Maslowski, of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, told The Times: “It’s unclear to me how this figure was arrived at.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/copenhagen-climate-change-confe/6815470/Copenhagen-climate-summit-Al-Gore-condemned-over-Arctic-ice-melting-prediction.html
Think about this in 1960 the level of atmospheric CO2 was probably at 300 ppm or less. We know that in the 60’s when atmospheric CO2 first was being recorded by the instrumental record it measured at 315 ppm. So in 1923 when CO2 was lower they worried whether or not the Arctic would melt. Now CO2 is above 390ppm and there is more there now then before.
And they were saying the same thing in 1923
April 16 1923
THE NORTH POLE
CAUSES OF CHANGE OF CLIMATE.
Is the North Pole going to melt en- tirely? Are the Arctic regions warming up, with prospect of a great climatic change in that part of the world? Science (says “Popular Science”) is asking these questions. Reports from fish-
ermen, seal hunters, and explorers who sail the seas around Spitzbergen and the eastern Arctic all point to a radical change in climatic conditions, with hitherto un- heard-of high temperatures on that part of the earth’s surface.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/77891667?searchTerm=arctic%20melt&searchLimits=
Be honest, look at these two images of Arctic Ice. The left image is from March 4th 1995 and the one on the right is March 4th 2012
http://igloo.atmos.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/test/print.sh?fm=03&fd=04&fy=1995&sm=03&sd=04&sy=2012
Then lets look at what an expert says
Expert Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center
Sep 20, 2010
“I stand by my previous statements that the Arctic summer sea ice cover is in a death spiral. It’s not going to recover,” Serreze said.
Expert Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center
Feb 27, 2012
“Is Arctic ice in a death spiral? Maybe not yet, but it’s in big trouble,” Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, recently told ABC News,
Looking at the image does it look like the Arctic is in a death spiral? No it doesn’t but in order to save face the only thing he can say now is it’s in big trouble. Seriously ?
We have seen the climate change deniers put ear plugs in their ears when legitimate and voluminous studies are presented. Maybe I am naive
Yes Raff you are. In re to climate change what was predicted is not matching up with the data. The so called experts have been making predictions that have not materialized. How can you have faith in someone who is a so called expert who makes wrong predictions.
Raff,
I think there was a point in the not too distant past, when smart people were attracted to medicine not because of a desire to heal, but because it was a sure path to a wealthy lifestyle. I also believe that Ron Paul was in the advanced guard of this shift away from wanting to heal.
Ironically medical products are contributing to the pollution problem. It is like letting the weasel guard the hen house. To have clean air is a good thing for the longer we have clean air more life can be born to enjoy eternal Joy. Those giving it will receive joy. A joy we cannot know in the body we have right now. However because there is death the world will wax old like a garment. We will patch it sew up the holes, but eventually it will have to go into the rag pile. The soul therefore is what we need to save. Being like Jesus is who does not oppress or persecute anyone, and does not boast in their intellect will save an invaluable thing, the soul. Care we should get in the mean time is from U,C,S, practitioners http://www.upcspine.com.
Yep….
You know…. Why wouldn’t we want more pollution….. Geeze… We can all go live in the love canal in new york…. Some battery manufacturer used to dump the waste directly in the water…. I even think I recall the water started on fire….. But hey…. California has the tar pits…. We need something in the middle…. So I guess you could classify dc as a waste dump…..lol