Canadian and American Federal Budgets 2011

This is an article I found on the Canadian federal budget 2011 cut to the environment:

ACTION ALERT: Budget cuts to Environment Canada are unacceptable March 2, 2011 News agencies are reporting that the Harper government is planning a $222-million or 20% reduction in spending at Environment Canada. This includes a $141 million cut to climate change and clean air initiatives, as well as a $19.5-million cut to a federal action plan dealing with contaminated federal sites, and about $3-million in reductions for compliance promotion and enforcement for wildlife and pollution. Meanwhile, in 2010 to 2011, Environment Canada’s program activities amount to just over one billion dollars while National Defence spending is over twenty billion. This is further evidence that the Harper government is out of step with the views of Canadians. According to recent Environics poll, seventy-one percent of Canadians strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement, "money spent on wars and the military would all be better spent on efforts that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the impacts of climate change.”

This is what I found about the American federal budget 2011 in regards to the environment:

The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed sweeping legislation early today that would cut $61 billion from hundreds of federal programs—including many cuts that threaten environmental protections and public health and safety—while shielding oil companies, coal companies, and major polluters from government regulation and oversight. 

H.R. 1 cuts the Environmental Protection Agency's budget by almost a third and hamstrings the EPA's ability to protect the environment and Americans' health. For example, the measure prevents the EPA from protecting communities from mercury, lead, arsenic and other toxic air pollution from cement plants, leaving thousands of children exposed and at risk of asthma, slowed brain development and other neurological disorders. The EPA safeguard that the measure blocks would have reduced mercury pollution by more than 90 percent and saved 2,500 lives each year. 

I feel that both of these cuts are completely unacceptable.  The environment is such an important part of everyone's lives. It provides resources, a place for us to live, clean air for us to breathe, food, etc. We've abused it so badly and these cuts to me show that neither government cares about the environment nor do they recognize its' importance to everyday life. 

http://canadians.org/action/2011/env-can-cutbacks.html
http://environment.about.com/od/environmentallawpolicy/a/House-Budget-Cuts-Threaten-Environment-And-Public-Safety.htm