There are many issues on the minds of US voters these days, but according to national polls, the environment ranks ...um... somewhere above hemp policy and just below humane treatment for Teletubbies.
People are, of course, justly concerned about top issues such as health care, terrorism, and jobs. But the environment actually has a role to play in all of those areas. Below are some examples of how this is so.
ENVIRONMENTAL VOTING CAN MEAN BETTER HEALTH
"If you have your health, you have everything"--so goes the old cliche. We usually don't think too much about our health until we have a problem. Diseases usually creep in on us slowly. They're very patient, waiting until our defenses are down far enough for us to be susceptible.
The health of the environment--the quality of the air we breathe, the purity of the water we drink, the condition of the land we grow our food on--are prime factors in the health of our bodies. We protect the health of our families by reducing pollution, by encouraging better farming practices that result in more nutritious agricultural products, and by getting the toxic chemicals out of the products we use every day.
Politicians are busy jousting about who has the better plan for improving health care, but they're mostly silent on the most basic health issue--keeping disease-causing pollutants out of the environment and out of us.
ENVIRONMENTAL VOTING CAN MEAN BETTER SAFETY
What are the terrorist targets that have the most potential for causing problems? Here are three.
ENVIRONMENTAL VOTING CAN MEAN MORE JOBS
Mature industries do not typically create large numbers of new jobs. Industries based on oil, gas, and coal--the "business-as-usual industries" in the energy sector--are certainly not going to bolster our sagging job numbers, given that they're caught between the twin hammers of dwindling fossil-fuel supplies and anti-pollution pressures.
But there is a good solution. According to analyses by The Apollo Alliance, embarking on an ambitious program to develop renewable energy will allow us to create three million new, high quality jobs, free ourselves from imported oil, and clean up the environment. That certainly sounds a lot better than no new jobs and lots more black smoke in the sky.
TOOLS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL VOTING
So, are you convinced that voting green also supports many of our other primary goals at the ballot box? If so, the best way to decide which candidate is the most supportive of our environment is NOT to listen to what they say, but instead to look at their voting records. A good way to do that for national candidates is to review the information at Project Vote Smart (http://www.vote-smart.org/), which is an independent, non-partisan organization dedicated to providing facts on the voting records of candidates for the US congress and other federal offices. They cover all issues, not just the environment.
While Project Vote Smart is an incredible resource, if your main goal is to zero in on candidates' environmental records, you can do this more easily by letting the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) be your guide. LCV's National Environmental Scorecard (http://www.lcv.org/scorecard/scorecardmain.cfm) analyzes and rates candidates' environmental voting records. If you want to keep it reeeaaaally simple, the Scorecard has a single percentage number for each candidate to summarize how often the candidate supported the "environmental position." The higher the number, the greener the candidate. And by the way, LCV is a non-partisan organization--they endorse donkeys, elephants, and political animals of other stripes too.
Even though the environment may not come up much in debates and TV ads, it is our air, our water, and our land. Keeping it clean is an important issue in its own right, but it plays a part in almost all other issues too. Vote green!
You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. Must be published complete with no changes. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.
About The Author
? 2003 by http://www.lcv.org/scorecard/scorecardmain.cfm
Mark is a writer, financial analyst, web developer, environmentalist, and, as necessary, chef and janitor. Grinning Planet is an expression of Mark's enthusiasm for all things humorous and green, as well as a psychotic desire to work himself half-to-death. Hobbies include health foods, music, getting frustrated over politics, and occasionally lecturing the TV set on how uncreative it is. http://www.lcv.org/scorecard/scorecardmain.cfm
Chicago limo Skokie ..The globalist's are the new breed, the new generation if... Read More
The prosecutors in the Martha Stewart Case used testimony from... Read More
How many legs does a dog have if you call... Read More
The offshore financial centres have been forced in recent years... Read More
I would like to discuss the blocked persons list of... Read More
The Federal Trade Commission in their latest move to increase... Read More
California Attorneys and politicians are to blame for the energy... Read More
Will a bus running across the borders bring cordial relations... Read More
(1) Each person is to have an equal right to... Read More
With new environmental technologies and modern efficiency methods in mining... Read More
America has some monetary issues, which need to be addressed.... Read More
Down The Bush and BlairBy now everyone, except us, is... Read More
The more I study the dynamics of WWII the more... Read More
Industrial Recruiting. The absence of a state income tax in... Read More
Throughout all recorded history on our lovely little planet, Earth's... Read More
Are the junior attorneys in the Attorney General's office leaving... Read More
Former Senator, Daniel Moynihan, accurately summed up the situation when... Read More
Japan lit its candles of pure, "noble sadness" on the... Read More
I am personally calling for a total disbanding of the... Read More
How do you feel about Terminator Seeds from Monsanto? I... Read More
Fearful that terrorists will next target Australia, Prime Minister John... Read More
Predicting the future is a tricky business. There have been... Read More
In Belarus parliament is going to struggle with degeneration of... Read More
You say, you want to help the Palestinians, but most... Read More
The No Child Left Behind can work if the Federal... Read More
limo O'Hare Bonfield ..The new law "Special Protective, Antidumping and Import Compensatory Measures"... Read More
Corporate America has been shaken recently by lawsuits and criminal... Read More
One of Abraham Lincoln's claims to fame is the fact... Read More
I applaud Monsanto for their R and D. I would... Read More
Rational, sober, logical citizens wonder what exactly the terrorists want.... Read More
As of late steroid use in sports has been the... Read More
The idea that the majority shows the will of the... Read More
The United States has never done a full study on... Read More
Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to Lafayette in 1823 that... Read More
As pictures and videos surface showing young American soldiers humiliating... Read More
As you can see from some of our previous articles,... Read More
The great leader and Senator from New York and wife... Read More
Veterans Affairs Employees using government credit cards on personal items?... Read More
We see today a fierce unspoken competition between trucks and... Read More
I'VE ALWAYS ARGUED THAT ECONOMIC ILLITERACY IS VERY COSTLY.This is... Read More
Compulsory-attendance laws force parents to send their children to public... Read More
IN A DAY AND AGE where one voice screaming among... Read More
For years we've suffered under recession, prompting us to ask,... Read More
I am an incurably ill American male forced to leave... Read More
In the last Gulf War we saw thousands of enemy... Read More
Many had made mention of the problems of business opportunities... Read More
With the recent shakeups in the presidential cabinet, it has... Read More
Economy is called the dismal science because it pretends to... Read More
The Presidents Before Washington:From the moment that the first Declaration... Read More
Legislation was introduced into Congress this week that would establish... Read More
Political |