There's been a lot of news on the environmental front this week, most of it concerning the intersection between our fragile ecology and our broken politics. Word that the Republican Party re-took control of the U.S. Senate and amped up its big majority in the House of Representatives has also led to increased speculation that the GOP's No. 1 priority will be a crusade against environmental protections. On every issue from the Keystone XL pipeline to the so-called "war on coal" (actually, common sense regulations to curb greenhouse gases) to protecting our rivers and streams, Republicans believe that federal agencies like the EPA exist for only one reason -- to crush what otherwise would be mighty American job growth. In these critical months, however, it's important to remember the human cost of rolling back environmental protections, and to ask whether these changes are really worth it. Environmental benefits can sometimes seem a little abstract -- especially when it comes to global warming -- but they were anything but abstract this weekend near Houston, Texas. It was there that a chemical leak at a troubled plant cost four workers their lives. The details of what happened are truly heartbreaking:
Tragedy ...
