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Table of Contents
- Episode
One:
- Fantasy: Alice Meets
Humpty Dumpty Rove.
-
- Episode
Four:
- Fantasy: Alice Meets Tweedle
Dee and Tweedle Dum
-
- Episode
Fourteen:
- Fantasy: Alice Sees
Humpty Dumpty Rove Again.
- Fact
Sheet: What Alice Didn't
Know about King Bush's Record on the
Environment.
- Fact
Sheet: What Alice Didn't
Know about the Health Effects of Pollution.
-
- What
you and Alice can
do...
- Information about how to
change things
-
Other
Books by Peggy Wireman,
Ph.D.
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Episode
Fourteen:
Alice Sees Humpty Dumpty Rove
Again
-
- Alice realized that she still hadn't gotten
her tea so she started walking back to the tea
party. On the way she came across Humpty Dumpty
Rove sitting in a pristine grove of very old
redwood trees.
-
- Alice: "Hello again. Those are beautiful
trees surrounding you."
-
- Humpty Dumpty Rove: "Yes, aren't they? And
they are just the length that the Japanese want
for their industries."
-
- Alice: "I don't understand. Aren't you in a
National Park? I thought it was illegal to cut
down virgin trees in a National Park."
-
- Humpty Dumpty Rove: "Those trees belong to
the American people. The loggers are Americans
so they have a right to cut the trees. And trees
are a renewable resource anyhow."
-
- Alice: "But how long will it take to grow
the trees back?"
-
- Humpty Dumpty Rove: "Not more than five or
six hundred years."
-
- Alice thought about how long five or six
hundred years was. She remembered her history
lessons.
-
- Alice: "Oh, those trees started growing
about when Columbus started sailing west."
-
- Humpty Dumpty Rove: "Yes. And remember,
little girl, that people had weird ideas about
the environment even then. They thought the
world was flat. That's as silly as believing in
global warming."
-
- Alice: "What's that?"
-
- Humpty Dumpty Rove: "It's that ridiculous
theory that by burning coal and oil to keep our
economy strong and create jobs, we're destroying
the ozone layer around the earth."
-
- Alice: "What would happen if we did
that?"
-
- Humpty Dumpty Rove: "The sun would shine
through more brightly, the ice caps in the polar
regions would melt, and the American cities on
the east and west coasts and near the Gulf of
Mexico would be flooded."
-
- Alice: "Where would the people living there
go?"
-
- Humpty Dumpty Rove, casually: "Oh, I suppose
they could move to the mountains. So it's a good
thing if we build roads into the wilderness and
clear cut the land so it will be ready for them
to build their houses."
-
- Alice: "How many people live near the
ocean?"
-
- Humpty Dumpty Rove: "Oh, only 50 percent of
Americans. But that includes both the Atlanta
and Pacific coasts."
-
- Alice: "Will they all fit in the National
Parks?"
-
- Humpty Dumpty Rove: "It's never really going
to happen. It's just liberal propaganda put out
by the scientists and nations who have been
hoodwinked by the environmentalists for
political reasons."
-
- Alice: "Do many scientists believe it?"
-
- Humpty Dumpty Rove: "Hundreds, maybe
thousands."
-
- Alice: "Are they good scientists?"
-
- Humpty Dumpty Rove: "They have a Nobel Prize
or two."
-
- Alice: "Do all scientists believe
this?"
-
- Humpty Dumpty Rove: "Not the ones King Bush
appointed as consultants to EPA. And there is
now not even a section on global warming in the
EPA reports. The staff took it out."
-
- Alice: "What about scientists in other
nations?"
-
- Humpty Dumpty Rove: "Most of them believe
this silly notion even though King Bush's
scientists told them it's just nonsense. They
still liked the Kyoto agreement."
-
- Alice: "What's that?"
-
- Humpty Dumpty Rove: "It's a silly plan
concocted by wild-eyed liberals like Clinton to
have nations pledge to cut their use of fossil
fuel."
-
- Alice: "Would that be a bad thing?"
-
- Humpty Dumpty Rove: "It would be a bad thing
for the oil industry."
-
- Alice: "Did the U.S. sign the Kyoto
agreement?"
-
- Humpty Dumpty Rove: "No, that was one of the
first things King Bush did. He killed it dead.
He and March Hare Cheney are loyal people. They
certainly didn't want to disappoint their
friends in the oil industry."
-
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- Fact
Sheet:
- What
Alice Didn't Know about the Health
Effects of
Pollution
-
- • The elderly,
children and unborn children suffer the
most. Even under existing mercury
regulations, an estimated 600,000
children a year are born with brain and
other physical damage due to mercury in
the water. Although fish have valuable
nutrients, in 2001 Massachusetts issued
warnings telling pregnant women not to
eat the fish from ANY of its
lakes.
-
- • The new Bush
proposals increase the total amounts of
mercury that will be permitted to be
released. As important, they permit
polluters at one location to continue
polluting as long as they "buy" credits
from a plant elsewhere that is
polluting less than the allowed amount.
This does not reduce the total
pollution, and it permits concentrated
amounts of mercury to be dumped into a
local site.
-
- • Mercury also
can harm adults. Although fishing is a
big part of Wisconsin's economy due to
the tourism industry, Wisconsin has
warned sports fishermen not to eat more
than one of the fish they catch in a
week.
-
- • An increase
in air pollution will increase asthma.
Asthma kills people. It also keeps them
from enjoying life since they cannot do
such simple things as go outside and
take a walk. Childhood asthma is one of
the main reasons for children missing
school, and it has been rising
significantly.
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- Fact
Sheet:
- What
Alice Didn't Know about King Bush's
Record on the
Environment
-
- • During the
2000 campaign, candidate Bush promised
to decrease carbon dioxide levels even
lower than the amount proposed by his
opponent, Vice President Al Gore. Bush
dropped his pledge within two months of
taking office.
-
- • Bush has
opposed extensive and effective efforts
to control greenhouse gases on the
basis that the scientific evidence is
inconclusive. The groups providing that
evidence include the National Academy
of Scientists and the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change, both concerned
about the changes.
-
- • Pollution
from coal power plants kills some
30,000 Americans a year. Bush's "Clear
Skies Initiative" actually increases
the amounts of pollution allowed under
the Clean Air Act. The increased levels
of sulfur dioxide will increase acid
rain which causes respiratory
diseases.
-
- • Bush's new
proposals permit increases in mercury
pollution. Mercury can cause brain,
lung and kidney damage and reproductive
problems.
-
- • Bush stopped
the Environmental Pollution Agency from
proceeding with lawsuits against
polluters filed under the Clinton
administration and cut the EPA
enforcement staff.
-
- • After 9-11,
the initial press releases of EPA
warned New Yorkers about potential
health problems from the lead, mercury,
asbestos and fiberglass released into
the air near ground zero. According to
the EPA Inspector General (the EPA
internal law enforcement officer), the
White House instructed EPA to change
their message to reduce people's fears.
The new message assured New Yorkers
that "there was no significant threat
to human health," even though there was
no evidence to back up that
statement.
-
- • Bush
believes that environmental controls
should be voluntary, despite the fact
that industry and business have fought
almost every environmental regulation.
In the 2000 campaign, as proof of his
concern about the environment, Bush
cited his Texas law urging the oil and
gas industry to pledge voluntary
reductions in pollution. The law,
written with influence from the oil and
gas industry, has not been effective.
Only 10 percent of the 700 polluting
plants even signed a voluntary
pledge.
-
- • In a second
administration, Bush might revive some
harmful proposals which he withdrew due
to public outcry.
-
- • For example,
during the early days of his
administration, Bush tried to let
industry dump additional arsenic into
the drinking water. He withdrew his
proposal only after public
protest.
-
- • Bush also
wanted to weaken the requirement that
states test children on Medicaid for
lead poisoning. Lead poisoning causes
brain damage leading to learning
disabilities and behavioral problems.
The effects can be lessened with
medication if children are tested at an
early age. A high proportion of
children in public housing and children
living in older housing are at risk
because lead paint has not been removed
from their buildings.
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Alice: "Will the other nations meet their pledges
anyway?"
-
- Humpty Dumpty Rove: "No, most of them will
use the excuse that if the U.S. isn't going to,
they don't have to either. Besides, it probably
wouldn't be too effective without our
participation."
Alice: "Why?"
- Humpty Dumpty Rove: "Because we're
responsible for 25 percent of the world's
pollution even though we only have five percent
of the world's population."
-
- Alice: "But what if global warming is
real?"
-
- Humpty Dumpty Rove: "I don't believe it.
We're still able to breathe, aren't we?"
-
- Alice: "But what if it really turns out to
be true?"
-
- Humpty Dumpty Rove: "That will be well after
the November election."
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© 2006 by Peggy Wireman
The Author grants limited license to
reproduce portions of the text from this website for the
purpose of disseminating information, provided the
following provisions are met: (1) No one may reproduce
this text for the purpose of financial gain without first
receiving permission from the copyright holder; (2) full
credit must be attributed to the author on each
reproduced portion (i.e. - © 2006 by Peggy
Wireman).
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Compassionate King
Bush weeps as the poor oysters fall through the safety
net.
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About the
Author, Peggy Wireman, Ph.D.
- Dr.Wireman has extensive experience working
as a legislative aide in Congress and in the
Executive branch in both Democratic and
Republican administrations. She also covered the
Maryland State Legislature as a reporter and has
been active in local political campaigns. She
has worked as a grassroots community organizer,
as a Congressional Fellow, and provided policy
analysis for the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development. She managed an $8 million
economic development grants program for the U.S.
Department of Commerce and the $5 million Small
Business Development Center.
-
- Currently, Dr.Wireman is a freelance
consultant in community and economic
development. She holds a Ph.D. in sociology and
certification from the American Institute of
Certified Planners. She has lectured and
consulted in 10 countries.
-
- Her previous books include Urban
Neighborhoods, Networks and Families: New Forms
for Old Values, Partnerships for
Prosperity: Museums and Economic
Development, and the 2004 edition of
Alice in Bushland: Fact and Fantasy in the
Bush Administration. Her fifth book,
Connecting the Dots: Building Strong
Families, Strong Communities and Terrific
Neighborhoods, will be published next
year.
Dr. Wireman can be
contacted at pwireman@aliceinbushland.com
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