Environmental Debate

– 2000 Essay, Research Paper

After following the elections and debates between Al Gore and George W. Bush for quite some time, I found that they each have their own separate views on ?helping? the environment. On one side, the democratic representative who has been dubbed the ?environmental extremist? seems to understand much about the earth?s current state. According to his own words, he is planning to do a major Hudson River cleanup. On the other end, Texas Governor Bush intends to start off his career with a nationwide cleanup of contaminated plant sites. Although whether or not these candidates will pursue their promises and plans successfully is still questionable, they both seem to be great starts on the road to national restoration.

Contrary to what I have heard about Bush regarding his previous environmental policies in Texas, it is evident that the state?s pollution emissions have actually lowered by 10% since his inauguration. Despite the fact that Houston air pollution has recently surpassed that of Los Angeles, I still believe Bush is more of an environmental activist than Gore?and because of that, Texans recognize that pollution levels have lowered since he took office in 1995. Bush acknowledges that with problems such as factory-caused air pollution we shouldn?t ?wait for Al Gore to wave his magic wand to clean up our environment.? He states that if we clean the world up ourselves, it would be the better for everything we?ve stood up for.

On another face, Gore is also a good candidate regarding environmental issues. It appears that he has defended everything he wrote in his book, Earth in the Balance. He claims he would be more aggressive than Bush about getting the Hudson River cleaned up. According to him, potential cleanup of the Hudson River, which the federal Environmental Protection Agency is to decide on next year, ?would not … move forward as expeditiously if you did not have a president who has committed to a cleanup of the environment.?

After Gore contrasted Bush?s record to his own, he called to everyone?s attention that environmental cleanup is ?the centerpiece of [his] career.? However, he never really clears out exactly what that means. Of course his goal is to clean up the Hudson River? but he was not as definitive about what he would do about Midwest pollutants that cause acid rain in the East. The same goes with Bush?s attitude toward his own movements regarding environmental cleanup. It is always the same. If our presidential candidates have single-minded plans for a certain topic?no matter what the topic is, I do not think we will ever fix the problem.

Despite that, we will never know how the elections will go until it ends. As of today, the battle between the two parties is heating up and both sides are clearing out more and more topics. Although environmental issues are not ranked high above on the priority list, it is a strong topic to consider. We must find out who will bring about a cleaner, safer environment for our future generations. As for now, what it basically boils down to is the question, ?who is the better man?? and that is for you to decide.