How Your Vote in the 2012 Presidential
Election May Impact the Air You Breatheby Donna Barnett
The “Definitely Not Coordinating with Stephen Colbert Super PAC,” which was inherited by Jon Stewart, is brilliant! A brilliant way to learn about politics! The Super PAC calls attention to the hypocrisy of our political system, a system that affects the air you breathe.
The stakes have never been higher for the environment. If you’re on my site, ChasingCleanAir.com, because you’re looking to breathe clean air and stop suffering air pollution impacts of asthma and allergies, nothing is more important than leadership. We need leaders to uphold the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the EPA, and create jobs with cleaner technology. It’s up to us to elect officials who help not hurt our air, a finite natural resource.
If I were voting in South Carolina’s Saturday primary, I’d take Jon Stewart’s advice and vote for Herman Cain, who is no longer a viable candidate but is on the ballot, thereby not voting for Mitt Romney, who is against regulating tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks, and against regulating carbon emissions from coal-powered plants, which cause global warming, extreme weather, and negative health impacts. This would also mean not voting for Ron Paul, who wants to dismantle the EPA and do away with our sacred national parks.The Most Anti-Environmental House in History
Republicans in the house today (the 112th Congress began January 3, 2011) are the most anti-environmental in history. They voted against environmental protections 191 times, according to Representative Henry Waxman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. (Waxman did us a huge favor and created a searchable database of all the anti-environmental votes of this Congress.)
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney said he wants to strip the EPA of its authority to regulate tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks—regulations that have helped clean the air in car/truck-rich Southern California where we have an epidemic of asthma, allergies, headaches, etc. And let’s not forget that air pollution contributes to cardiovascular disease and cancer, too. Los Angeles and New York have the highest cancer rates in this country due to air pollution.
If you live downwind of a coal power plant, Romney is not your friend. While he shut down one coal plant when governor, he now believes in “clean coal.” There is no such thing. Naturally, he doesn’t believe in regulating clean coal. As one with a PR background, I can tell you that clean coal is spin.
If you care about your health, and the health of your family, know that Romney does not want to regulate carbon emissions, which he does not believe is a health issue even though top scientists and doctors know otherwise. Increased carbon dioxide levels are linked to an increase in death rates. Nor is Romney convinced that global warming is man-made despite our best scientists saying it is. What kind of Mickey Mouse advisers would Romney prefer? I read that he uses advisers with deep pockets in the coal industry!
(Look what coal is doing in China, where they recently grounded planes for an inability to see through smog.)
Mr. Romney, if you were to travel throughout the western United States like I do, you’d see just about every coastal area is preparing for sea rise as a result of global warming.
Ron Paul is so out of touch with the reality of what happens when you don’t enforce environmental regulations. I say, if you’re voting in the South Carolina primary and you care about the air you breathe, vote for Herman Cain. Given the Republican choices, he’s the only one that makes any sense.
Thank you, Stephen Colbert for opening our eyes to how the political process works.
I hope I’ve opened my readers’ eyes as to how presidential wannabes may likely vote, should they have the opportunity to impact your lives and lungs.To follow her chasing clean air search and explore air pollution solutions, subscribe to Donna Barnett’s Chasing Clean Air RSS feed via her Web site, www.chasingcleanair.com. (This is a reprinted article, with permission from Donna Barnett, from her environmental travel blog, www.chasingcleanair.com.)
