Story quoted from the AP on May 20, 2008. Report Charges Interference on Emissions
The story begins:

The administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency initially supported giving California full or partial permission to limit tailpipe emissions, but reversed himself after hearing from the White House, a Congressional report says.

Sounds like politicians meddling in science-based decisions for political ends.

The report, by the Democratic staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, cites sworn depositions by high-level officials of the agency and amounts to the first solid evidence of the political interference alleged by Democrats and environmentalists since the administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, denied California’s request in December.

Mr. Johnson has defended the decision as his alone. He has refused to say whether there was White House pressure.

Uh-huh.

Polar bears have been listed on the “Endangered Species” list, although environmentalists did not get the win they had hoped for with this case. They had wanted for this to push legislation to combat global warming.

From the New York Times’ May 15, 2008 story, “Polar Bear Is Made a Protected Species,” we will get some of the details of this story, of course with commentary:

The polar bear, whose summertime Arctic hunting grounds have been greatly reduced by a warming climate, will be placed under the protection of the Endangered Species Act, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced on Wednesday.

But the long-delayed decision to list the bear as a threatened species may prove less of an impediment to oil and gas industries along the Alaskan coast than many environmentalists had hoped. Mr. Kempthorne also made it clear that it would be “wholly inappropriate” to use the listing as a tool to reduce greenhouse gases, as environmentalists had intended to do.

What seems to be lacking is a clear explanation for why that is so inappropriate. Here is some explanation provided:

Many have asked, “Why has this story barely been covered by mainstream media outlets?” and, “How can we get them to cover the Gade story?”

The answer can be as simple or nuanced as you want it to be.

The simple answer is that you have the potential to put this on the map. Right now I’m not talking about blogging about this, sharing it with friends on your social networks, or calling your media outlets or representatives in Congress. Those all help to keep the story from going to the wayside, but when it comes down to it, you could put this on the political landscape today (or tomorrow, or the next day).

If you have been following the controversy over why Mary Gade was forced to resign from her post as head of the U.S. EPA’s Region 5 Office in Chicago, you may have encountered the question, “So what? People get fired unfairly all the time. Why does this matter so much?”

If you’re just joining us and would like some insight into what has happened on this story so far, here are EnviroHumanImpacts articles on the matter:

EPA Ousts Mary Gade
Continuing Coverage and Commentary: EPA Gade Controversy
More Mary Gade Coverage (Or Is It Less?)

But back to, “Why does this matter so much?” Fair enough question with a fair enough answer. Sure, people are fired all the time, and many times one could conclude they were fired unfairly. Many, like Gade seems to have been, may have been doing their job and doing it well.

Of course, they all matter, but Gade’s firing is a matter of public safety regarding major industrial chemical pollution. That’s right, say it again, “major industrial chemical pollution.” Dioxin, in Michigan, released by Dow Chemical, at levels thousands of times greater than the federal and Michigan state cleanup standards is seeming to get a pass.

Readers are contacting EnviroHumanImpact, curious about what has happened in the firing/forced resignation of Mary Gade, who until recently was head of the U.S. EPA’s Region 5 office in Chicago. She contends that this is about a dispute regarding dioxin cleanup between the EPA, specifically her office, and Dow Chemical.

You can read our original article on the matter, here. Our continuing coverage from May 4 is also a good read.

Yesterday, we mentioned a Wall Street Journal article that gave some more insight into the Gade matter. It does offer a little more than the original Chicago Tribune story that broke this news last Friday. Because just as yesterday, the mainstream media seems to be shirking away from this story, we’ll pull some excerpts from the Journal’s piece to help give our readers a better sense of what’s going on.

Yes, it’s from a couple of days ago, May 3, and the continued question is, “where is the mainstream media on this one?” Is what was front page controversy on Friday not newsworthy on Monday?

It can ruin the warm and coziest of early morning wake-ups, no it’s not the piercing buzz of the alarm clock, it’s the slush of water under your feet immediately after turning on the shower. The culprit: a completely or partially clogged bath tub, shower drain, typically caused by hair and other various nasties.

While you stand there, helpless and dreaming of life without an inch of sudsy bath water under foot, you’ve probably wondered, “What’s the easiest way to unclog a hair filled shower drain?” Well, the answer might surprise you, not just with how easy it actually is but that it can be done using zero harsh chemicals (like Draino, the Works, etc), cost less than one dollar, and have a minimal envirohuman impact.

Step 1: Unfortunately, there is no easy way to dissolve hair (the good Lord must have used some serious raw materials when He made that stuff!) so the first thing you must do is use a screw driver or your fingers to remove the drain cover. Usually the main clog will be just beneath this, if not a few inches down and can be easily removed using a straightened coat hanger. So bite the bullet, pull it–try, try not to look at the monster that’s been residing in your pipes–and throw that thing away!

Step 2: Now the fun part! Using a half cup or so of baking soda and a small bottle of plain white vinegar, pour in the baking soda followed by the vinegar. Once the combination has stopped foaming, you can flush the remaining clog out by pouring boiling water down the drain (a great place to use your tea kettle). Depending on the seriousness of your clog you can also use a small plunger to help pass the blockage.

Seemingly underreported, but what made front-page news on Friday’s (May 2, 2008) Chicago Tribune is a story about an EPA official who was told to resign or be fired. Read the entire story here.

The story begins:

SAGINAW, Mich. – The battle over dioxin contamination in this economically stressed region had been raging for years when a top Bush administration official turned up the pressure on Dow Chemical to clean it up.

Now, she has been asked to leave, and has complied.

On Thursday, following months of internal bickering over Mary Gade’s interactions with Dow, the administration forced her to quit as head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Midwest office, based in Chicago.

Gade told the Tribune she resigned after two aides to national EPA administrator Stephen Johnson took away her powers as regional administrator and told her to quit or be fired by June 1.

Gade contends she was forced out of her job because of her work to hold Dow Chemical to the laws governing cleanup of dioxin.

Thomas Friedman, a columnist for the NY Times has taken a break from writing a book (he has been on leave from writing columns for many months).

It is great to see that we finally have some national unity on energy policy. Unfortunately, the unifying idea is so ridiculous, so unworthy of the people aspiring to lead our nation, it takes your breath away. Hillary Clinton has decided to line up with John McCain in pushing to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for this summer’s travel season. This is not an energy policy. This is money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks. What a way to build our country.

So we see from Mr. Friedman’s introduction that this is an issue both parties, to some extent, are getting wrong.

Here’s an Op-Ed piece By Paul Krugman of the New York Times, published 4/21/08 that speaks to limited resources for our planet. We thought we would share, as it is relevant to our main focus on how human actions change the environment, and how the result will force us to change again. Excerpts with commentary follow:

Commentary: Every new phone, camera, and MP3 player we purchase adds yet another charger to our own increasing array (knot, tangle, etc.) of cords we must track. Some even come with a charger to plug into a USB port or our vehicle’s cigarette lighter; and if not, we can go out and buy those, too! Yippee!

What if there were one standard charger that fit all new devices, say, produced after January 2010? Or maybe there could be an agreed upon five standards, for which we can all own an adapter that allows us to use the correct piece for the specific device, similar to adapters allowing appliances from one country to fit the electrical outlets of another. Perhaps it could look similar to a power strip with several adapters available for your growing multitude of rechargeable devices.