Say Watt?

I've decided to stay on the James Watt quotation issue, since simply posting some decent research on an out-of-the-way blog is ultimately going to do little to set the record straight.

I'm going to find the main sources responsible for distorting history and hold them to account until they make some changes.

I've contacted a number of them so far, but so far as I know not much has happened--but I expect to update the progress or lack thereof regularly.

I'll add this to the pile of evidence, since it's a source I haven't quoted before now.

February: Reagan's newly posted Secretary of the Interior, James Watt, a former industry lobbyist, testifies before Congress: "That is the delicate balance the Secretary of the Interior must have: to be steward for the natural resources for this generation as well as future generations. I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns; whatever it is we have to manage with a skill to leave the resources needed for future generations." Author Austin Miles interprets Watt's statement to read, "We don't have to protect the environment, the Second Coming is at hand."
(Iraqtimeline.com)

I don't vouch for anything else at the site. I haven't verified the Miles statement from the primary source, either. Not yet, anyway. This account at least fits with what I've learned thus far.


I lean strongly toward the hypothesis that somebody got careless and strung those two quotations together, attributing them solely to Watt.

The push to fix the record will go under the "accuracy in quotations" tag.