Repub's for Environmental Protection
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</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; position: static; float: none; width: auto; max-width: 680px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Earth Day 2014, it wasn't easy being green in the Republican Party. Just ask <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/116465826066559765877/about" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-decoration: none;">Rob Sisson</a>, president of <a href="http://conservamerica.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-decoration: none;">ConservAmerica</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; position: static; float: none; width: auto; max-width: 680px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ConservAmerica is a membership organization created in 1995 to keep the environmental spirit of GOP President Theodore Roosevelt alive in his party. Back then, the group was known as Republicans for Environmental Protection.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; position: static; float: none; width: auto; max-width: 680px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The problem for Sisson's group is that the polarization of American politics has largely split environmentalism from its TR Republican roots. Environmentalism is now mostly seen as the province of liberals and Democrats.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; position: static; float: none; width: auto; max-width: 680px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, Republican orthodoxy is marked by views that are anti-regulation and skeptical about whether humans contribute to global warming.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; position: static; float: none; width: auto; max-width: 680px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">ConservAmerica's Republicans, however, believe climate change is happening and that people are adding to the problem. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">That puts Sisson and his group "between a rock and a hard place," he says.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; position: static; float: none; width: auto; max-width: 680px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Asked how much success his organization has had in raising conservation's profile in conservative circles, he acknowledges not much.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; position: static; float: none; width: auto; max-width: 680px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"It's actually been minimal. The one thing that keeps me and keeps our board going is hardly a day goes by when someone doesn't join or contact us and say, 'Thank God I found you. I was ready to leave the party,' </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">" Sisson says.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; position: static; float: none; width: auto; max-width: 680px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">His group has 5,000 members, which he believes is in large part due to not having the money to do more aggressive marketing. And why can't it get the money?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; position: static; float: none; width: auto; max-width: 680px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The big funders on the Republican side that people always think about today, the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson, environmental protection is not of interest to them, so they're not writing those checks," Sisson said. "On the left, the big funders are very reluctant to donate money that might help to burnish the Republican image at all."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; position: static; float: none; width: auto; max-width: 680px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Three Republicans running for the House in swing districts — Carl DeMaio in San Diego, Bob Dold in Illinois and Nan Hayworth in New York — all believe in global warming and in taking steps to slow i</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">t, he said. [Dold and Hayworth are former House members seeking a return to Congress.]</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; position: static; float: none; width: auto; max-width: 680px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Democratic environmentalists haven't supported Republicans who are simpatico on conservation — Democrats would prefer one of their own in a seat since that would increase their numbers in Congress and their chances of success on issues beyond the environment.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; position: static; float: none; width: auto; max-width: 680px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We keep saying, 'If you're smart you would help get people like Carl DeMaio elected where he can start exerting a new fresh voice in leadership and prove to the Republicans that, hey, you can get by, running on environmental protection and conservation issues,' " Sisson said.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; position: static; float: none; width: auto; max-width: 680px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another example of how progressive environmentalists failed to "get it," Sisson said, was when his organization suggested to a working group of conservation outfits formed to organize a celebration of the Endangered Species Act's recent 40th anniversary that they find a way to recognize the role of President Richard Nixon, who signed the legislation into law.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; position: static; float: none; width: auto; max-width: 680px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"Some of the groups came back and nixed it. They said, 'No, we're not going to honor him.' </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">" So ConserveAmerica presented Nixon's son-in-law Edward Cox with a Theodore Roosevelt Leadership award,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> to honor the 37th president at its banquet in March. "That was the first time ever Richard Nixon received official recognition for his role in the great environmental laws that he signed back in the 1960s and 1970s," Sisson said.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; position: static; float: none; width: auto; max-width: 680px;"><font size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">ConservAmerica accepts climate change as a fact, though it doesn't throw that term around a lot — it's too polarizing. Sisson prefers to talk about clean air and water, figuring that if you make progress on those, you also fight climate change.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; position: static; float: none; width: auto; max-width: 680px;"><font size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">But ConservAmerica doesn't line up with environmental groups across the board. For instance, the group <b>supports the Keystone XL pipeline</b>. Its reasoning: The pipeline is the safest way to transport the oil from the tar sands. If the pipeline isn't built, the Canadian oil will still be extracted and transported some other way.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; position: static; float: none; width: auto; max-width: 680px;"><font size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">And while the group supports expanding renewable sources of energy, it takes the conservative position of opposing subsidies for them. It also opposes subsidies to the oil industry in the form of existing tax breaks.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; position: static; float: none; width: auto; max-width: 680px;"><font size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">It has ditched some past practices, like scoring lawmakers' environmental votes. The group stopped after Republican lawmakers accused them of being "wolves in sheep clothing" and being linked to George Soros — which Sisson says isn't true.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; position: static; float: none; width: auto; max-width: 680px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While it's too soon to know if it's a lasting trend, Sisson said a number of GOP candidates for federal and state office have approached ConservAmerica this cycle to say they want to run as "Teddy Roosevelt Republicans" and ask for advice.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; position: static; float: none; width: auto; max-width: 680px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I gave this speech to the largest conservation group in South Carolina two weeks ago. And I had three or four state representatives and a couple of county commissioners come up to me and say, 'We need your help. Why aren't other Republicans talking about this?' Because they're trying to do things like just water conservation. And they're getting beat up because every time they bring it up, they're told 'That's a Sierra Club thing, it's not a Republican thing.' So it really resonates. It's a matter of getting the message out there."</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">bs</font></div><div><span style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sisson is president of ConservAmerica, the national grassroots organization of Republicans for Environmental Protection. </font></span><div style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Prior to joining ConservAmerica, he spent 22 years in commercial banking. In 2000, he was named Michigan's Small Business Advocate of the Year. </font></div><div style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He served two terms as Mayor of the City of Sturgis, MI. During his tenure, he helped lead the city to national recognition for energy and environmental conservation programs (saving tax dollars). A hallmark of his administration was the work to privatize city services including the city owned ambulance service and hospital. He led the effort to lower the city's tax rate to the lowest level since 1950. </font></div><div style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For his efforts in expense reduction via conservation programs, he was named Michigan's Environmental Leader of 2008.</font></div><div style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sisson is the author of two books: <u>Financing the Small Business</u> (Adams Media Inc) and <u>The Legend of Chief White Pigeon and the Old Sauk Trail.</u></font></div><div style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><u><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></u></div><div style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Active in economic development, Rob served twice as president of the St. Joseph County EDC/Brownfield corporations and is long time VP of the Sturgis EDC/Brownfield corporations. He is a strong supporter of the entrepreneurial spirit.</font></div><div style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He is a member of Right to Life, NRA, and the Chamber of Commerce. Rob hunts, fly fishes, and hikes in Michigan and the northern Rockies. A proponent of the 2nd Amendment, he is a CCW permit holder.</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/conservamerica/</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Conservamerica</b></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To environmental advocacy groups in Washington, CREA represents everything they fear about Norton. Their concern is that as the steward of America's public lands and the gamekeeper of the nation's wildlife, she is beholden to the extractive industries and will open up large tracts of land to mining, oil and gas drilling, and timber harvesting; that she will side with private property owners and businesses against the needs of endangered creatures.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Indeed, the head of a rival GOP group, Martha Marks -- founder and president of Republicans for Environmental Protection -- accuses CREA of being nothing more than a front to gussy up the poor records of some Republican officeholders.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"It's the classic green scam," Marks said, "green scam" meaning to slap the "green" label on someone or something that is actually working against conservation and environmental protections.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CREA members have given awards to GOP officeholders, have spoken at conferences and have issued a couple of reports and briefed Republicans. Marks calls the reports nothing more than "a Web page and a press release."</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><p align="center"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Republicans for Environmental Protection</font></b></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sometime ago, I came across the website of <a href="http://www.rep.org/" target="blank">REP America - the Republicans for Environmental Protection</a>. I would like to publicize this group and applaud them for what they are trying to do for the environment, given what they are fighting against in their own party - particularly the President (George Bush Jr.). I have always thought that conservation is part and parcel of conservatism. In India, where I grew up - in a conservative household - conservation and respect for nature were instilled as moral values. So, it was a bit of a surprise to me to discover that the Republican Party of the United States, claiming to represent conservatives, stood not for environmental preservation and conservation but rather for massive weakening of environmental protections. Against that backdrop, the website of REP America was a welcome sight.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Martha Marks, founder and President of REP America, has just written an article titled "the Green Old Party" in <a href="http://www.sierraclub.org/" target="blank">Sierra Club's</a> magazine - <a href="http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/" target="blank">Sierra</a> - in the July/Aug 2004 edition (<i>Note</i>: my wife is a member of Sierra Club, both she and I are members of <a href="http://www.nrdc.org/" target="blank">NRDC</a>). It is an article worth reading, especially because she tries to remind Americans that environmental conservation has long been a bipartisan effort in the U.S. (but only before 1981 (largely) - there is a splendid chart in the article showing how the two parties have diverged since 1980, which I will hopefully post once it becomes available online). Indeed, she also points to how well known Republican Presidents of the yester-years played a leadership role in protecting the environment. </font></p><p align="left"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mark's article is not yet online at the time of this writing. But many of the facts she points out in her article may be found in articles displayed on REP America's website. I will reproduce some of that here because it is pertinent and highly relevant in this era. </font></p><p align="left"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.repamerica.org/opinions/op-eds/20.html" target="blank">Marks</a>:</font></p><blockquote><p align="left"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Roosevelt established national forests, parks, monuments and wildlife refuges to prevent special interests from squandering the nation’s natural bounty. Bush has appointed a stable of industry lobbyists to open up more of those lands to the same kind of special interests Roosevelt fought throughout his presidency.
Roosevelt established the first national wildlife refuge to stop poachers from destroying a public resource for private gain. Bush wants to open America’s largest national wildlife refuge so oil companies can compromise a public resource for private gain.
Roosevelt founded the Boone and Crockett Club, which successfully campaigned to protect Yellowstone from exploitation by railroad and mining interests. Bush wants to roll back protections against snowmobile pollution, catering to off-road vehicle interests.
I am a lifelong Republican and have served as an elected Republican officeholder in Illinois for 10 years. The GOP’s conservation tradition was one reason I became a Republican. Over the past 20 years, however, the Republican Party seems to have lost its way on conservation.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> So, in 1995—at the height of Congress’ attacks on public lands and environmental standards—I teamed up with two other women to found Republicans for Environmental Protection</span>, known today as REP America. Our goal is to restore the GOP’s conservation tradition. Our members believe that conservation is conservative: protecting our nation’s natural resources is consistent with true conservative principles of prudence and stewardship.
...</font></p></blockquote><p align="left"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.repamerica.org/opinions/op-eds/8.html" target="blank">Marks</a>:</font></p><blockquote><p align="left"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">T.R. [Teddy Roosevelt] --one of our greatest Republican presidents--left us a great conservation legacy. Like many other Republican ideas, however, his legacy has been pirated away by the Democrats.
It's time we in the GOP stole it back.
Environmental Republicans? The idea is hardly novel. Barry Goldwater, the father of the modern conservative movement, was a lifelong conservationist (and a member of REP America.) Richard Nixon signed into law the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act; he also established the Environmental Protection Agency. Ronald Reagan signed laws protecting nearly 10 million acres of national forest and wilderness. Many supporters of Ducks Unlimited, the Mule Deer Foundation, <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trout Unlimited, and other sportsmen’s groups are loyal Republicans</span>. They know that the most vital element of their hunting or fishing activities is a healthy forest, river or stream.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p><p align="left"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Polls repeatedly show widespread support for conservation among GOP voters...</font></p></blockquote><p align="left"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.repamerica.org/opinions/op-eds/13.html" target="blank">Marks</a>:</font></p><blockquote><p align="left"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Theodore Roosevelt declared that efficient use of resources is a moral and patriotic obligation. Frugality and restraint are hallmarks of true conservatism, as TR well knew. But our new president [George W. Bush] seems to have forgotten what it means to be a true conservative. Instead, he is condoning the continued squandering of natural resources for the short-term gain of a few.
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Many people know that the idea of setting aside public lands began with Theodore Roosevelt. Few realize, however, that Republican presidents Coolidge, Taft, Hoover and Eisenhower greatly expanded our public land inventory. Unfortunately, President Bush seems determined to undermine this great legacy.
On the very day he was sworn in--urged on by some of his largest campaign contributors--Mr. Bush suspended one of the most popular and widely supported forest conservation rules in U.S. history. The policy to protect the remaining wild portions of our national forests from logging, road building and mining had been enacted after 600 public hearings...
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President Nixon first<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> proposed</span> the Safe Drinking Water Act, which President Ford signed into law in 1974, setting a new standard for our country...
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<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a priceless environmental legacy of the Eisenhower presidency,</span> which first set the land aside for wildlife habitat...
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The first President Bush signed the Framework Convention on Climate Change at the <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Rio </span>Earth Summit, starting America down the road toward an international climate accord.
...</font></p></blockquote><p align="left"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.repamerica.org/opinions/op-eds/33.html" target="blank">Jim DiPeso</a>:</font></p><blockquote><p align="left"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scientists keeping tabs on the Earth's oceans are concerned that global warming could actually lead to dangerously cold weather in North America and Europe.
The notion defies common sense, but the underlying physics are worth the close attention of citizens and national policymakers who would have to deal with the harsh consequences.
It starts with the Gulf Stream, a current of warm water in the Atlantic Ocean that transports warm air northward. That's why much of Western Europe, which is at about the same latitude as Canada, has a relatively mild climate. The Gulf Stream is actually part of an oceanic conveyor belt. As the Gulf Stream gives up its heat in northern latitudes, the current becomes saltier and heavier than surrounding waters and sinks, a process that propels the conveyor belt.
Global warming could interrupt this vital process. As temperatures warm, melting of glaciers and ice fields would accelerate. This is no idle theory. Glaciers worldwide are retreating. Glacier National Park is losing its namesake features. Ernest Hemingway's fabled snows of Kilimanjaro are disappearing.
Melting ice sending a surge of fresh water into the North Atlantic would dilute its saltiness. Less salty water is lighter. At some point, the Gulf Stream could stop sinking into the North Atlantic's depths, bringing the conveyor belt to a halt, like an engine that has seized up.
The consequences could be both abrupt and severe. Within a generation, average winter temperatures in the eastern United States and Western Europe could drop 10 degrees--a huge drop as averages go--and brutal winters could be the norm for the following decades or even centuries in the most economically developed region in the world. Ironically, the regional deep freeze could occur even as the Earth as a whole continues to warm, according to a presentation the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute made to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 27.
Oceanographers reported in Science magazine last year that the North Atlantic is rapidly becoming less salty. Does that mean the shutdown of the Gulf Stream could happen soon? Scientists do not know. However, there is good evidence from Earth's past that climate can shift abruptly. For example, scientists are investigating whether an abrupt climate shift caused the ''Little Ice Age'' between 1300 and 1850, a period of colder temperatures that resulted in crop failures, disease and mass migration.
So what should government policymakers do? The first step is to underwrite research that will improve scientific understanding of abrupt climate change--both how it occurred in the past and how it could recur in the future. The second, simultaneous step is to reduce the risk that global warming could trigger an abrupt climate shift, through prudent measures to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.</font></p></blockquote><p align="left"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.repamerica.org/opinions/op-eds/53.html">Jim DiPeso</a>:</font></p><blockquote><p align="left"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For many greens, Ronald Reagan's environmental legacy can be summed up in two words -- James Watt.
The appointment of Watt, the reflexively pro-industry ideologue who oversaw America's public lands as secretary of the Department of the Interior from 1981 to 1983, was consistent with the stereotype that Reagan was anti- environmental. But that perspective on the issue is too pat.
History has shown that Reagan, whose pragmatic streak defied expectations, both puzzled his supporters and got the last laugh on his critics. Reagan skillfully blended principles with pragmatism in many public-policy arenas, including the environment. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">After Watt had ignited one too many controversies, Reagan showed him the door, aided by a none-too-gentle push from Nancy Reagan, for whom Watt's cancellation of a concert on the Mall for her favored <b>Beach Boys</b> was the last straw.</span>
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Wilderness, not Watt, was Reagan's environmental legacy. During his two terms in office, Reagan signed nearly 40 bills that added 10.6 million acres to the National Wilderness Preservation System, about 10 percent of the system's size (all data according to www.wilderness.net). No other president has signed so many wilderness bills into law.</span> Since enactment of the Wilderness Act in 1964, only President Jimmy Carter has added more wilderness acreage, thanks to his approval of the huge Alaska lands bill of 1980.
...</font></p></blockquote><p align="left"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It is a shame that the Congressional GOP delegation of today (except for a few moderates -- just barely enough to keep egregious bills from passing) is ignoring their party's past commitment to the environment, and the wishes of the rank and file of their party.</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I'm retired from an interesting career that ranged from teaching Spanish language, linguistics, and literature at Northwestern University and Kalamazoo College to serving for ten years as a Lake County (IL) Board Member and Forest Preserve Commissioner. Along the way, I did a lot of volunteer work.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I have a passion for conservation and environmental stewardship.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1995, I co-founded Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP) and ran it until my retirement in 2008. (REP is now known as <b>ConservAmerica.</b>) For five years, I served on the Board of Directors of the<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> national League of Conservation Voters.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I also have a passion for photography and creative writing.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Over three decades, I've worked hard to become a fine wildlife and nature photographer. You can see my images at Martha Marks' Best Nature Stock Photography — http://bestnaturestock.com/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition, I've published RUBIES OF THE VIPER, a romantic-suspense novel set in first-century Rome and Syria. — http://amzn.to/18ddfof</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I'm currently writing my second novel.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Experience</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bird/Wildlife/Nature Photographer and Author</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Self-employed</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1990 – Present (25 years)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">My websites: </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Martha Marks' Best Nature Stock Photography — http://bestnaturestock.com/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Martha's Art: Fiction and Photography — http://www.marthamarks.com/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Purple Parchment (blog related to my historical novel) — http://thepurpleparchment.com/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">September 1995 – November 2008 (13 years 3 months)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Commissioner</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lake County Board and Forest Preserve Board</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">December 1992 – December 2002 (10 years 1 month)Lake County, Illinois</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Volunteer Experience & Causes</font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Republicans for Environmental Protection</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">September 1995 – November 2008 (13 years 3 months)Environment</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Co-founder and president</font></span></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></div></div></div>