By Samuel Rubenfeld
For the last seven years, the president has avoided the global warming debate by denying its existence, then recognizing it but saying humans had nothing to do with it. Now he claims that he wants to solve it, however, he was better off avoiding it.
He shunned the 1997 Kyoto Accords, and said that if the Chinese don’t have to comply, the United States shouldn’t have to either. In doing this, he drew the ire of the entire international community, let alone legions of climate scientists, environmentalists and other activists who want the planet to survive the human assault on it.
But now he wants to do something “parallel” to Kyoto and, by doing so, Bush has angered everyone that had wanted-and even pleaded for-him to act in the process.
The president is looking to convene meetings with the 10 or 15 highest polluting countries over the next 18 months in order to choose a plan of action for the future. Now that would sound reasonable, but that is what German Chancellor Angela Merkel is already doing when she hosts the Group of 8 summit that began on June 6.
Why does the president need to repeat someone else’s work? Especially when the other party’s work is so much better-it doesn’t make any sense.
As I mentioned earlier, Bush has angered many with this announcement.
Merkel’s minister of the environment, Sigmar Gabriel, called the plan a “Trojan horse.”
German newspapers have said that Bush’s plan torpedoes Merkel’s agenda, which was comprehensive, calling for a 50 percent reduction in emissions by 2050 and a 20 percent increase in efficiency by 2020. The White House rejected such ambition, saying it crossed multiple “red lines.”
Leading climate scientists have said that even these cuts in emissions are modest, although they would offset some of the most catastrophic effects of global warming.
By playing politics with global warming, the administration has flouted international will, scientific analysis and the pleas of the American public. Enough playing around with the Europeans already; it is time to finally recognize failure and accept the European initiative.
Al Gore may be the American celebrity behind the movement, but he is not the real face of the problem. The tsunami or hurricane that takes out the D.C. area, submerges Long Island and Manhattan, and all but decimates the U.S. east coast would be a better motivator.
The “inconvenient truth” is right here: your time is up, Mr. President. Holding meetings to decide what to do until you leave office is not going to be any more effective than the stalling and grandstanding you’ve been doing for the last seven years. Stop leaving current problems for your successors and take action now.
Now that you conveniently recognize the problem, maybe you should join the solution. Hard caps on emissions won’t come from the free market: Deregulation brought us the wonderful legacy of Enron. They won’t necessarily come from technology, either. Don’t place bets on something you don’t know will pan out.
Samuel Rubenfeld is a junior print journalism student. You may e-mail him at [email protected].
