Ever hear of the pine bark beetle?

It makes me sick that the guardians of this country -- or rather, the pretenders who claim to be PUBLIC servants in our esteemed Congress -- are so reprehensibly misguided on climate change and the environment, to the extent that it leads to this:

Republicans Overseeing National Parks Deny ‘Systemic Threat’ Of Climate Change

Three chunks of pain:

1. Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), on the influential House Appropriations Committee, noted that fighting for the park service budget is her “number one priority” in advance of the parks’ 100th anniversary in 2016. But Republicans on committees overseeing the national park service continue to deny the very existence of man-made global warming: - Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), the self-crowned hero of the park service budget: “I believe the jury is still out on whether mankind can alter global climate trends.” [Lummis]


2. The Continuing Resolution passed by Republicans to fund the government through September made $11.5 million in cuts to the national park system when compared to FY 2010 levels. The FY 2012 is still in the midst of being worked out in Appropriations Committee, but House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s “roadmap,” passed by the House in April, cut funding to Interior and environment agencies by $2.1 billion. The park system will be underfunded, at a time when they are the most vulnerable to climate change.


3. Global warming is eliminating Joshua Trees from Joshua Tree National Park

"Now ecologists have found that “it has already gotten too warm and dry” for the unique Joshua Trees “to prosper at Joshua Tree National Park,” and expect that “there is likely going to be an 80 to 90 percent reduction of Joshua trees” in the “current range of southern Nevada, southwestern Utah, western Arizona, and southeastern California.”

Wish someone would mention THIS at the Heartless, er, Heartland Conference. And I wish I could go there with a few dozen eggs, heave them at convenient intervals and at convenient targets (there would be multiple target opportunities) and then get out without being arrested or recognized. That won't happen, but a man can dream, can't he?