Heritage in Crisis discussed on The Jim Bohannon Show
The Jim Bohannon Show
22 May 2015
Antiquities segment starts at 40:25
On The Jim Bohannon Show…
Last June, the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled its Clean Power Plan, which would limit carbon-dioxide emissions from existing fossil-fuel-fired power plants. According to a new report released today by the nonpartisan Energy Information Administration, the Plan would “modestly” reduce the power sector’s greenhouse gas emissions. Critics of the Plan, including Republican lawmakers and some industry trade groups, say the power-generation industry will suffer a significant loss of jobs – caused by the inevitable closing of fossil-fuel-fired plants – for relatively little environmental gain. They also argue that the Plan represents a vast overreach by the Federal government, usurping the power of the states to regulate in their own best interests. The EPA countered this argument, calling it just the latest advance in using the existing Clean Air Act to establish public health goals while allowing the states the flexibility in how they choose to comply, based on each state’s needs. We’ll discuss the issue tonight with Thomas Lindsay (@TomLindsayTPPF) of the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
We’ve all seen the pictures of the cultural artifacts in Iraq and Syria that have been destroyed by ISIS forces when they take control of regions housing them. They claim they are ordered by Allah to destroy evidence of worship of other gods, but the result is, in effect, an eradication of the region’s cultural heritage, which stretches back at least nine centuries before Christ. Archeologists are appalled at the ISIS track record of demolishing and desecrating priceless pre-Islamic antiquities, and they are aghast at what might happen now that ISIS has control of the Syrian town of Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that contains treasures dating back to the First Century A.D., including The Temple of Bel, the ruins of the Grand Colonnade, Hadrian’s Gate (named for the Roman emperor who visited Palmyra in 129 A.D.), and much more. We’ll talk about why ISIS feels the need to eliminate history with Deborah Lehr (@DMLehr), co-founder of the Antiquities Coalition, which was formed in 2011 to partner archaeologists, authors, curators, museum directors, and others with other concerned organizations to prevent the destruction of the human race’s cultural heritage anywhere in the world.
