BUSH AND SCIENCE – POLES APART

    This week, the U.S. Government’s own report card on climate and the Artic indicated some rather low grades as opposed to the environmentally necessary low temperatures for that region.  It seems that since 2005, a full 23% of the ice has melted and the usual new ice made during the winter is just not developing.  To underscore the vastness of the short fall the report pointed out that an area 1 ½ times the size of Texas should have been renewed but simply doesn’t exist.  How can our administration deny or delay coming to grips with such indisputable and ominous warming trends.
    On a related, but hopefully not too belated storyline, Steven Colbert recently mentioned that Hilary Clinton has charged President Bush with waging a war on science, based on his truculence regarding global warming and stem cell research among other issues.  However, Mr. Colbert said that based on the success of Mr. Bush’s other wars, science should eventually be in good shape.  Mr. Colbert’s “optimism” aside, it’s a time honored sales pitch to “get ‘em while they’re hot”, but in the matter of the Artic, the climate trends which threaten it, and the prospect of another such administration following this one, the travel industry may need to advertise to those wanting to visit the Artic “get there while it’s cold”.