Another Bush greenwash lie

Two years after announcing the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument off the northwest Hawaiian Islands, President Bush has cut its cleanup budget 80 percent. Meanwhile, as you can clearly see, the oceanic trash that he won’t pay to clean up (let alone push for tougher international standards to combat) continues to pile up.

And, it’s only getting worse. Ocean currents bring an estimated 57 tons of garbage and discarded fishing gear to the 10 islands and the waters surrounding them each year.

Meanwhile, debris removal has fallen to 35 tons a year since the islands became a monument, about a third of the 102 tons that boats and divers collected on average before that, including junk that was already there, according to the story.

So, Bush’s touted ownership society was actually doing the right thing until he came along and made it all fubar for a greenwash image before the 2006 midterms.