Dear George - Don't go away mad. Just go away.

There will be many happy people around the world when the Obama administration takes over in January. Indeed, President Bush will leave the office as one of the least popular presidents in the history. My focus is what he has done to our lovely planet Earth. For a start, take a look at the National Resources Defense Council's take on the Bush record or read the Boston Phoenix's 20 Reasons the Earth will be Glad to See Bush Go. I'm glad to say goodbye to Bush because: In January, my former colleague Bill Walker wrote about California's effort to to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. The Environmental Protection Agency denied the state's petition, citing "lack of evidence linking carbon emissions to specific health effects." Walker described Bush administration food policy as "keep your fingers crossed and hope for the good weather." The Bush administration seemed to think that if it ignored the issue of climate change, it would go away. Well, future generations will pay the price for the Bush administration's stubborn refusal to address this global problem. My former colleague Amanda Hanley wrote about it here. The administration rarely missed as chance to weaken regulations aimed at protecting the public and workers from dangerous chemicals, as I wrote last July. Bush administration appointees changed and manipulated data, stacked scientific panels, appointed inexperienced people to positions of authority and fired people who threatened polluters, as my colleague Elaine Shannon wrote in September. Steve Johnson's tenure as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency was marked by controversies. Among other things, he approved human testing of pesticides and hid dangers of global warming. We work very hard here at EWG to bring out the truth about issues environment and public health. We are a non-partisan watchdog organization, and I can guarantee we will be watching what the new administration is doing, too. We promise to bring you many more exposes here at Enviroblog in 2009. Stay tuned and have a Happy New Year!