I'm not expecting much if anything from right-wing GOP Wisconsin Gov. and climate change denier Scott Walker on Earth Day tomorrow, or as it's also know in the Governor's Office - - Saturday.
I noted that on Earth Day 2016, Walker's office issued no statement.
And Walker used Earth Day 2015 to send layoff notices to 57 scientists at the same state Department of Natural Resources that he had redefined from his first day in office through the next six years+ using corporate appointments and pro-polluter agendas with "a chamber of commerce mentality.
This is the same Governor that:
* Right after his January, 2011 swearing-in blocked the appeal of a wetlands filing permit sought by a campaign donor/developer, then introduced and quickly signed a special Legislative bill to grant the permit.
That established his hostile-to-the-environement: follow the money.
* Benefited from a secret, $700,000 campaign donation routed through a third-party 'independent' advocacy group from a mining company which Walker wanted, through a sweetheart, insider-crafted bill, to be allowed to dig, for starters, a four-mile-long, half-mile wide open pit mine in a wooded, wetland-rich river shed in Northwestern Wisconsin.
* Has blocked through legislation and administrative actions real progress on solar and wind power installations though they are the fast-growing energy sectors in the US and are creating hundreds of thousands of new, high-paying jobs.
* Forced the closing at great expense to taxpayers through losing litigation of a passenger train assembly factory in Milwaukee, and cost the cities of Milwaukee and Madison a passenger train link and the jobs it could have provided through construction, operation and rail-station spin off start up businesses.
* Done nothing with his seat on the Council of Great Lakes Governors where he could have pushed for sound regional water-management and an end to the St. Lawrence Seaway's known gateway to invasive species that have already destroyed Great Lakes fisheries and may leak out through Lake Michigan westward with further grave national implications.
There's a new book by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Dan Egan on that very risk, along with a great deal of important information about the Great Lakes. Walker would do well to read it.
* Tolerated drinking water pollution in-older cities' lead pipes, looked the other way for years as large animal feeding operations have expanded while contaminating nearby wells - - while also draining the water table with more wells the sate may soon turn over without regulation in perpetuity to the owners - - and signed pro-polluter legislation unleashing fresh loads of harmful phosphorous that have freshly impaired hundreds of waterways and contributed to a huge dead zone in Lake Michigan - - all this and more on his watch.
Walker disdains Earth Day also because it focuses attention on former Wisconsin Governor and Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson.
Acknowledging Nelson's contribution would require Walker to validate Nelson's stature and legacy, which Walker has gone out of his way to systematically trash through numerous actions that include cuts to and an effort to suspend for the long-term the bi-partisannowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund that provides open space statewide for people who do not own their own lakefront property or wooded sanctuary.
Like the state's recycling program Walker sought to defund, or the transit systems he has disregarded in favor of more major highways he now can't fund and complete, or the climate science and education programs his hand-picked 'chamber of commerce mentality' DNR Secretary/former developer Cathy Stepp deleted from the agency's web pages, Walker has no use for anything that Earth Day would validate.
And for any program or Wisconsin resource he cannot monetize for his own campaigns and career perpetuation, as he has did with Act 10 (which led to national fund-raising, and a mailing list he used to retire his presidential campaign debt), or his connections to the school choice movement.
The best ways for Wisconsin people to acknowledge Earth Day are to do something good for the environment, support the many groups and causes statewide that promote stewardship of the land, clean air, and fresh water, and make election day 2018 an Earth Day 2.0.
I noted that on Earth Day 2016, Walker's office issued no statement.
And Walker used Earth Day 2015 to send layoff notices to 57 scientists at the same state Department of Natural Resources that he had redefined from his first day in office through the next six years+ using corporate appointments and pro-polluter agendas with "a chamber of commerce mentality.
This is the same Governor that:
* Right after his January, 2011 swearing-in blocked the appeal of a wetlands filing permit sought by a campaign donor/developer, then introduced and quickly signed a special Legislative bill to grant the permit.
That established his hostile-to-the-environement: follow the money.
* Benefited from a secret, $700,000 campaign donation routed through a third-party 'independent' advocacy group from a mining company which Walker wanted, through a sweetheart, insider-crafted bill, to be allowed to dig, for starters, a four-mile-long, half-mile wide open pit mine in a wooded, wetland-rich river shed in Northwestern Wisconsin.
* Has blocked through legislation and administrative actions real progress on solar and wind power installations though they are the fast-growing energy sectors in the US and are creating hundreds of thousands of new, high-paying jobs.
* Forced the closing at great expense to taxpayers through losing litigation of a passenger train assembly factory in Milwaukee, and cost the cities of Milwaukee and Madison a passenger train link and the jobs it could have provided through construction, operation and rail-station spin off start up businesses.
* Done nothing with his seat on the Council of Great Lakes Governors where he could have pushed for sound regional water-management and an end to the St. Lawrence Seaway's known gateway to invasive species that have already destroyed Great Lakes fisheries and may leak out through Lake Michigan westward with further grave national implications.
There's a new book by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Dan Egan on that very risk, along with a great deal of important information about the Great Lakes. Walker would do well to read it.
* Tolerated drinking water pollution in-older cities' lead pipes, looked the other way for years as large animal feeding operations have expanded while contaminating nearby wells - - while also draining the water table with more wells the sate may soon turn over without regulation in perpetuity to the owners - - and signed pro-polluter legislation unleashing fresh loads of harmful phosphorous that have freshly impaired hundreds of waterways and contributed to a huge dead zone in Lake Michigan - - all this and more on his watch.
Walker disdains Earth Day also because it focuses attention on former Wisconsin Governor and Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson.
Acknowledging Nelson's contribution would require Walker to validate Nelson's stature and legacy, which Walker has gone out of his way to systematically trash through numerous actions that include cuts to and an effort to suspend for the long-term the bi-partisannowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund that provides open space statewide for people who do not own their own lakefront property or wooded sanctuary.
Like the state's recycling program Walker sought to defund, or the transit systems he has disregarded in favor of more major highways he now can't fund and complete, or the climate science and education programs his hand-picked 'chamber of commerce mentality' DNR Secretary/former developer Cathy Stepp deleted from the agency's web pages, Walker has no use for anything that Earth Day would validate.
And for any program or Wisconsin resource he cannot monetize for his own campaigns and career perpetuation, as he has did with Act 10 (which led to national fund-raising, and a mailing list he used to retire his presidential campaign debt), or his connections to the school choice movement.
The best ways for Wisconsin people to acknowledge Earth Day are to do something good for the environment, support the many groups and causes statewide that promote stewardship of the land, clean air, and fresh water, and make election day 2018 an Earth Day 2.0.