Interior Secretary lambasts GOP

In a panel discussion with Medical Center researchers Wednesday, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt blasted the Republican Congress for its disregard of environmental issues and lauded the University and panelist members for their commitment to preserving biodiversity.

"I'm here with a mission. The Republican Congress has set out on a systematic effort to rip apart and eliminate the architecture of the environmental protection laws which have been set up in this country," Babbitt said. "My obligation as Secretary of the Interior ultimately resides with the American people; I am here to focus on issues that affect each of us."

Babbitt visited the University as part of his tour through 67 cities in 24 states. He said his primary intent in making the national tour is to raise citizen awareness of environmental issues. "I've visited over five dozen cities nationwide over the past nine months seeing the clean rivers, lakes and revitalized communities that were produced by local leaders using strong federal environmental standards as their tools," Babbitt said.

The panel discussed the need to preserve rare plant and animal species and the importance of plant derivatives in the fight against human diseases. One panelist, Dr. Monroe Wall from the Research Triangle Institute, discovered that an extract of the Pacific yew tree bark is an effective treatment for some types of cancer. "We need to protect our endangered species because many compounds in them act in defense against toxins and carcinogens. The effort to protect our environment deserves all of our support," Wall said.

Babbitt warned of Congress' intent to roll back the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Endangered Species Act, as well as plans to close national parks. "Last year Congress planned a wholesale dismantling of the laws local people used to clean up their communities," Babbitt said. "They were more interested in changing the laws to benefit the lobbyists and special interests that contributed to their election campaigns. But the American people are finding out what Congress is up to; the people are saying no to the weakening of federal environmental standards," he said.

Norman Christensen, Dean of the School of the Environment, also participated in the panel discussion. "The issue of biodiversity speaks in a unique way to the connection between our human and ecosystem health," Christensen said. "Our commitment to the preservation of the earth's species acknowledges the stake we have, not just in the survival, but also the well being, of our endangered species."

Babbitt said he was pleased that President Clinton included the environment as one of his seven challenges to America and that he expects that environmental issues will be extremely prominent in the 1996 presidential elections. "In this crisis of confrontation, there lies an opportunity for all of us to deepen our commitment to protecting the environment and have a national dialogue about these issues," Babbitt said.

Another panelist was Dr. Philip Rosoff, Chief of Pediatric Hematology at the Medical Center. Rosoff stressed the importance of not regarding the environment as a partisan issue, but as one that affects all of us. "These diseases do not ask whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, so our search for treatments are nonpartisan," Rosoff said. "We have to be aware of how little we know; we can't cut ourselves off from potential discoveries and cures for diseases," Rosoff said.