Giving the Devil His Due

Two days ago, President Bush announced the proposed creation of three Pacific marine monuments, vast preserves on a scale previously unheard of.  The act is certainly welcome, a feat of environmental defense to be lauded and emulated by the coming administration; in quantity and quality, the mostly pristine waters represent an ideal model of conservation.  Yet, here in the eleventh hour of the W administration, when an act like this can be effective whitewashing, it's important to be cautiously optimistic, and to remember the true nature of the Bush presidency, which for the last eight years has been incredibly detrimental and destructive to the causes of ecological preservation.  

It's certainly no secret that the Bush Whitehouse has been one of the most unsympathetic, even downright hostile, regimes ever in regards to the natural world.  It's important here for me to point out that such a blatant anti-conservation mentality isn't simply a matter of Republican politics; it was on Nixon's watch, after all, that the Endangered Species Act of 1973 was created, as well as the Clean Air and Water Acts.  Even Bush senior's term saw 235 species added to the ESA, and that was in just four years.  In the eight years of W's administration, how many have been added? Just 64.  Bush's government (I would never suppose that Bush himself ever did anything on his own initiative, he's not that capable or interested) did everything it could to actively weaken the Endangered Species Act and promote business and extraction industry interests over those of the United States' natural resources.  It's almost as if the regime has had a personal vendetta against environmental well being. The front line in the broadly drawn battle has, for the last few years, been visible in the fight to list the polar bear as Endangered, the first such instance of a climate caused listing.

The Bush administration fought the listing through legal avenues and, some would say, through political bullying, and though the polar bear did eventually win protection, that masks the fact that this sort of battle was waged again and again throughout the eight year presidency, less visibly, and with less success for the cause of conservation.   

And now, as we mercifully and thankfully stand on the brink of a new presidency, Bush leaves us not with the bitterness and justified outrage that his term in office deserves, but with an act of benevolence almost unprecedented in scale in the annals of preservation.  I'm really almost angry over the move; I want my bitterness and outrage unclouded.  I don't want to have to hear 'yes, but' from now on when the issue of the Bush administration's environmental crimes are brought up.  But ultimately, I'll take what I can get.  The cause of conservation is often triage on a grand and tragic scale, and while my righteous indignation is difficult to part with (I do indignation so well), it's even more difficult to ignore a step in the right direction, even if the step was taken by the enemy.  Sometimes, all a man can do is grit his teeth, say thank you, and move on.