Content provided in partnership with
Captain Planet for veep
National Review, Sept 14, 1992 by Ronald Bailey, Danielle Allen, Lucian
Finally, despite running as the candidate of "change," Gore last year voted against a motion that would have required Congress to abide by the same labor and civil-rights laws as it imposes on the private sector. And even an ecological saint sins. He voted for building the Clinch River Breeder Reactor and the Tellico Dam, both of which were anathema to environmentalists. These pork-barrel projects were located in Tennessee.
Senator Doom
ON THE BASIS of the foregoing, one would conclude that Gore is a pretty conventional Democratic liberal, and so he is on most issues. But when it comes to the environment, Senator Albert Gore is an out-and-out radical. At the heart of his world view is an apocalyptic vision of an Earth teetering on the brink of destruction.
- Most Popular Articles in News
- The Ten Best Laptop bags
- Tata plans cheapest-ever car for Indian market
- GLOBALIZATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT OF THE THIRD WORLD
- Corn is good for you; Corn is not only a tasty treat, but also a cereal that ...
- THE 50 BEST STYLISH HANDBAGS TO CARRY
- More »
Gore has outlined his views in his best-selling book Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit (see p. 42), which his running-mate has called "magnificent." Clinton declared that Gore "has asked me to join in his commitment to preserve not only the environment of America, but to preserve the environment of our globe for future generations. And together we will finally give the United States a real environmental Presidency." If so, Americans have much to fear.
H.L. Mencken once wrote, "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." Biotechnology became Gore's first hobgoblin. Biotechnology allows scientists to move genes from one organism to another in order to make new life-saving medicines, hardier crops, and more nutritious foods. National Institutes of Health Director Bernadine Healy believes that the industry will become more important to the U.S. economy than the automobile industry was. In the late 1970s, as a member of the House Science Committee, Gore joined Senator Ted Kennedy in proposing a National Biohazards Commission modeled on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to regulate the biotech industry. This onerous regulatory scheme was avoided only when molecular biologists proved that micro-organisms constantly promote the exchange of genes between organisms-- a kind of natural bioengineering. Had Gore's early regnlatory proposals been enacted the infant biotech industry might well have been murdered in its crib.
Gore's next environmental cause was hazardous wastes, which he called "the most significant environmental health problem of the decade." Gore's concern was prompted by the commotion over the Love Canal. Love Canal was a neighborhood built on and around the site of a old chemicalwaste dump. Panicked by reports of chemical contamination, the Federal Government evacuated 3,500 residents in the early 1980s. Since then the New York State Department of Health has found absolutely no evidence that the health of any resident was harmed by hazardous chemicals. In fact, the government is now selling some of the houses to new residents.
