"By the end of next year, America and other nations will set a long-term global goal for reducing greenhouse gases." President Bush states his proposal in front of a large crowd today. Bush says that to make this goal happen, there will be a series of meetings with the top 15 carbon emitting countries, including ones like China and India. After the goal would be chosen, the nations could go about cutting down emissions any way they wanted to.
Next week there will be a summit in Germany of most of the industrialized nations where Bush will definitely be in the hot seat. As you already know, he refused to ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that would make the US reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2012. China and India were both exempt from Kyoto, and in 2001 when he was making more statements about why he rejected Kyoto, he definitely made sure to bring that up a couple times. Bush also made sure that he would reject Germany's newest idea for what would happen after 2012.
Another thing Bush made sure to point out in his speech was that in 2006, the US' carbon emissions decreased by 1.3 percent while the economy grew 3.3 percent. He says, "this experience shows that a strong and growing economy can deliver both a better life for its people and a cleaner environment at the same time." 1.3 percent? Man, that really makes a difference. It's good we didn't output more emissions than the year before, but compared to what we could be doing if we had ratified the Kyoto treaty, that is nothing. And the President wants to prolong the wait for real climate change even more? 6 years ago, if you look at his speech on climate change, he was singing the same tune.
He wants to put off the decision of the goal for the end of next year, 2008. If the number 2008 means anything to you, you'll realize that Bush will be out of office after that. Way to put off the problem so you won't really have to deal with it, Mr. President. While our environment chokes to death, how about we have some more nice talks about what we can do while we call any other plan from another country "fatally flawed" (what he said about Kyoto) and point fingers at China and India.
What he said in at the end of a speech on climate change on June 11, 2001:
"I look forward to continued discussions with our friends and allies on this important issue."
That's right, Mr. Bush. And discussions have certainly happened! Now is time to take action. Not make a "target goal" to be decided on by the end of next year.
This is what Philip Clapp at the National Environmental Trust (where George Cavros, Team Gaia's friend who was interviewed in our 1st episode, is from) said:
"This is a transparent effort to divert attention from the president's refusal to accept any emissions reductions proposals at next week's G-8 summit"
I wholeheartedly agree.
S O U R C E S:
• Article from CNN.com
• The full documented speech he gave today.
• The full speech on global warming he gave in 2001.
Recent Comments