As noted, politics are politics. Whatever you choose to believe is up to you, and I could go round and round with anyone anytime on the issues, but obviously that's not what we're doing here. The fact is, a politician cares about one thing......him or herself. They will say whatever they have to say to better themselves, and when they don't follow through, they will lie to make themself look better. Scientists in most cases are involved in politics, so they will lie to help their side (global warming, ethanol, etc.). Partisan politics is worse then ever, and you as an american citizen are only going to know as much as you let yourself. If you stick with local news, you will be in the dark. Our local news here is so bad its rediculous. They only report what they want you to know, and turn a blind eye to some pretty serious stuff. A good example pertains to our environment here in Wisconsin, Milwaukee is perticular. Over the summer, a construction worker was caught on camera dropping a concrete block into an urban area of a river. The walls/banks of this river are made of these blocks. The media (who is tilted VERY liberal) made a huge deal about this man "polluting" the water, to the extend of the worker being fired, and the company having to retrieve the block from the river. They could not determine which one it was amongst a large pile of them at the bottom. Now, about 1/2 mile up river is a large drain pipe. Earlier that week, the local sewerage district (run by the VERY liberal government here) dumped about 2 billion gallons of raw sewage into the river, which leads to Lake Michigan. The media turned a blind eye to this, and never mentioned a word. Now, you tell me what is worse, a concrete block, or 2 billion gallons of sewage?
All in all, for situations like the spotted owl, it's a tough call. The main thing is developement into habitat that is critical for certain species of birds and animals. The way of life these days is secluded homes and yards, and to fulfill the needs of people, the woods is being destroyed. Then these people have the audacity to complain about the lack of city water and sewer, no street lights, and deer eating their precious bushes. So, then comes MORE construction, and sharp shooters to kill the deer. Its all about money, and as we all know, money is not in abundance these days, so conservation is going to be an even harder thing to accomplish.
