Europeans Angry after Bush Climate Speech ‘Charade’ | The Guardian…….
Forever the spoiler, Bush is hell-bent on sabotaging any international progress towards binding limits to carbon emissions.
Even India and China agree—Bush’s proposed substitution of "inspirational goals" for binding targets to cut carbon—-is woefully insufficient to address the threat of global warming.
The International Community must resist Bush and provide the leadership needed to avert the climate crisis. Luckily, patience with the Bush spin machine seems to be wearing thin with world leaders.
A senior European diplomat attending the conference, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the meeting confirmed European suspicions that it had been intended by Mr Bush as a spoiler for a major UN conference on climate change in Bali in December.
"It was a total charade and has been exposed as a charade," the diplomat said. "I have never heard a more humiliating speech by a major leader. He [Mr Bush] was trying to present himself as a leader while showing no sign of leadership. It was a total failure."
John Ashton, Britain’s special envoy on climate change, who attended the conference, said: "It is striking here how isolated the US has become on this issue. There is no support among the industrialized countries for the proposition that we should proceed on the basis of voluntary commitments.
Of course, in the Orwellian bubble in which Mr. Bush resides, no progress on binding cuts to carbon is a "new approach" and "a historic undertaking".
Martin McGuiness, special assistant to the president for legislative affairs, went even further in an e-mail and proclaimed, "This administration has done more for the environment and addressing energy security and climate change than any other in history."
Here are some of the highlights of Bush’s exceptional environmental record and efforts to stall progress on climate change.
- After taking office, Bush rejected the 1997 Kyoto Pact which would have required the United States to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Bush claimed the treaty would damage the U.S. economy and let poorer countries off the hook.
- At the June 2007 meeting of the G8, Mr. Bush fought against binding targets and proposed his own set of talks on climate change, outside of the UN framework, where the U.S. and 14 other nations could hold a series of "aspirational talks" on global warming.
- In April of 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the EPA to regulate the emission of greenhouse-gas emission from vehicles.
- The EPA has still not approved a waiver for California to implement its clean car standards, even though the EPA has approved this type of request from California many times before.
- The Bush Administration has applied continuous pressure to undercut the Endangered Species Act and remove critical habitat from federal protection. Since May of 2006, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has not extended endangered-species protection to any new organisms.
It is time for Bush to stop the talk and begin the walk. Click here to join Al Gore and others in demanding that Bush commit to an international treaty that would cut CO2 by 90%.
Add comment September 29th, 2007