This is where the rhetoric meets the rubber. Oh, is that the rhetoric meets the road? Whatever! Hear it for yourself:
Am I the only one to notice there was nothing tangible said there?
Nope, looks like I'm not:
Having said that, there were a few alarming statements that wouldn't stand up so well to peer-reviewed scrutiny, like his statement that ethanol production was good for the environment, and his figure-fudging on emission levels for 2006, for example. But then, if you're President, I guess you have no peers?Anomalies aside, there were a few key points President Bush is pushing with this speech that have a whole lot more to do with 'growing the economy' than 'protecting the environment'.
- Replace Decision with Delays: Bush's move essentially railroads G8 attempts to do something tangible by bypassing all past and current efforts, instead seeking to implement a new framework of 'action' that would likely be on the terms of the U.S. government only. That framework, in case you didn't notice, being tremendously short on detail. This proposal avoids immediate action, seeking more talks until 2009 (understandable in some ways, since the Bush administration has been absent from the great many talks they've been invited to over the last decade - so they'll have a little catching up to do).
- Removing tariff and trade barriers 'to increase the free flow of technologies': Now that's a great idea - use the current environmental concerns plaguing society to further the aims of the WTO and all the planet-gobbling trans-national corporations that come under its banner. U.S. favourable free trade deals are not necessarily as altruistic as Mr. Bush would have us believe.
- The 'But Wait' plan: Mr. Bush's confidence rests on a silver bullet solution that has defied scientists for years - he is trusting in his industrial friends to conjure up a solution to what I would propose is a highly underestimated problem - that of how to wean modern society off the teat of the impossible-to-fathom amount of fossil-fuel resources we've grown excessively fat on in the last 125 years. Since when did playing poker become a federal policy?
The United States has been working behind the scenes to stop the next Group of Eight (G8) summit in Germany next month from setting clear goals to fight global warming and from calling for urgent talks to negotiate a new climate strategy to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012, according to documents obtained by Reuters.The plus side of Bush's talk is an open admission that globalAccording to the leaked draft of the final communiqué for the G8 summit scheduled for June 6-8, 2007, the United States is pushing to remove references to the urgency of global warming and the need for a United Nations conference in Bali in December 2007 to begin discussions about a new global plan to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which President Bush refused to ratify in 2001.
According to the draft obtained by Reuters, the United States wants to dilute the language of the communiqué by deleting the following paragraphs:
“We firmly agree that resolute and concerted international action is urgently needed in order to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and sustain our common basis of living.
“To this end we will, in the face of the U.N. Climate Change Conference at the end of this year, send a clear message on the further development of the international regime to combat climate change.”
In place of that language, the United States wants the final G8 statement to say this: “Addressing climate change is a long-term issue that will require global participation and a diversity of approaches to take into account differing circumstances.”
U.S. government officials also objected to specific targets and timetables aimed at cutting human-generated greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. For example, the U.S. objected to goals that would reduce energy consumption, increase energy efficiency, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and limit the rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius during the 21st century.
The world’s top climate scientists confirm that some effects of global warming are already under way, and that immediate action is required to slow the increase in global temperatures. Left unchecked, global warming is expected to lead to more frequent and severe storms, floods and droughts as well as widespread disease and famine, which will threaten millions of lives and create even more millions of environmental refugees.
Besides refusing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and now pressuring the other G8 nations to soften their stance on global warming, the Bush administration has been accused repeatedly of trying to prevent government scientists from speaking out about global warming and has consistently denied the severity and urgency of the climate crisis. - About.com
Other Bush achievements this week: Re-igniting a Russian/U.S. arms race....
YouTube Clip: Linton
