Bush’s Last Chance On Climate

The Nation: The President Will Have One Last Chance To Alter His Global Warming Reputation

(The Nation)  This column was written by Janet Redman.

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President George W. Bush will have one last chance next week to alter his reputation as the leading villain in the global drama over climate change. Unfortunately, he's likely to ride into the sunset as the proverbial outlaw in a black hat.

Throughout his time in office, Bush has stubbornly refused to comply with international agreements to curb carbon emissions. However, there has been some hope that at the upcoming Group of Eight (G8) rich country summit in Japan, the American renegade might at least commit to helping poor countries cope with the reality of climate change.

This aid is desperately needed. Recent studies reveal that global warming is happening faster than scientists had originally predicted. And while the industrialized world, particularly the United States, has contributed disproportionately to global warming, it is the developing world that is bearing the brunt of the impacts.

In Malawi, for example, hunger rates are rising among subsistence farmers as shifting weather patterns have delayed rains year after year, shortening the growing season by months.

In Bangladesh, scientists predict that rising sea levels could force more than 20 million people to flee major cities, coastal planes and low-lying communities.

The Bush Administration actually responded to the growing crisis earlier this year, by requesting $2 billion from Congress to help such countries avert climate catastrophe. However, members of Congress put this request on ice over concerns about the financing vehicle.

Bush has insisted that the money go to the World Bank, despite serious criticism from developing-country governments and environmentalists.

More than 130 developing countries have demanded that the administrator of all such funds be the United Nations, an institution they see as more democratic and accountable. By insisting on the World Bank (where the United States holds veto power over major decisions), the Bush Administration is driving a wedge between North and South, jeopardizing efforts to bring key developing-country carbon emitters, namely China and India, to the table for a global climate deal.

Environmentalists are skeptical that the World Bank, which continues to be the largest multilateral funder of coal, oil and gas projects, could ever be a real climate champion. As House Financial Services Committee Chair Barney Frank commented at a June hearing, the Bank seems to spend "one day a month saving the environment, and the other twenty-nine days destroying it."

Bush's requested funds would go specifically to the World Bank’s Clean Technology Fund, which Brent Blackwelder, President of Friends of Earth-US, has jokingly dubbed the Slightly Less Dirty Technology Fund. The World Bank refuses to define what it means by "clean," suggesting that it is likely to finance marginally more efficient coal-fired power plants rather than only genuinely clean wind and solar technologies.

As things stand, Bush is likely to bring nothing but a rubber check to the G8 Summit. To avoid this embarrassment, the President should signal a willingness to work with Congress before the end of his term to ensure a generous donation to the existing UN facilities for assisting developing countries with their climate change challenges. Any funds for clean technology should be restricted to truly clean, transformational technologies, not "business as usual" fossil fuels.

It may be too late for President Bush to go out in a blaze of glory on climate change. But at the very least, he should follow through on his commitment to help out those who've been on the barrel end of global warming. Millions of lives, not to mention the future of the planet, hang in the balance.

[jimfinster]

"Unfortunately, he''s likely to ride into the sunset as the proverbial outlaw in a black hat."


I wish he rode out today!

[irliberal]

"Any funds for clean technology should be restricted to truly clean, transformational technologies, not "business as usual" fossil fuels."

Oh, then count Bush out. If it isn''t oil, he doesn''t want to have anything to do with it.

[seafang]

Well save the encores; the climate has already changed; back in 1995 it started and it has been cooling ever since; well except for a little el nino glitch in 1998; and wow did it ever collapse in 2007 which was the hottest year on record according to the pre 2007 computer video game predictions. Instead it was the fastest drop on record, so we are now back to 1900 temperatures. And expect the cooling to go on for the next 30 years or so, because the sun has pretty much shut down, and there are no sunspots.
So bush can save his breath; global warming has been cancelled.

[DaveGress]

Seafang - thanks for that sliver of wisdom. Are you still selling swamp land in Florida? How about a little empirical data?

[ubrew12]

Seafang said: "global warming has been cancelled."

Good news. When can be expect Lake Powell to fill back up? Its at 50% of capacity and experts predict would take 15 years to fill at what was once ''normal'' rainfall/snowfall in the American West.

I''ve told you before: Global Warming is about heating, not warming. Big difference.

[andor3]

everything GWBush has done in his life ended as a failure. Why should his Presidency be any different?

[jimfinster]

Well save the encores; the climate has already changed; back in 1995 it started and it has been cooling ever since; well except for a little el nino glitch in 1998; and wow did it ever collapse in 2007 which was the hottest year on record according to the pre 2007 computer video game predictions. Instead it was the fastest drop on record, so we are now back to 1900 temperatures. And expect the cooling to go on for the next 30 years or so, because the sun has pretty much shut down, and there are no sunspots.
So bush can save his breath; global warming has been cancelled.

Posted by Seafang



Where do you come up with this poo? Not a word of it is true.

[cyberus-2009]

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everything GWBush has done in his life ended as a failure. Why should his Presidency be any different?

Posted by andor3
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Depends on your definition of failure.
Oil companies .. record profits
Halliburton and companies supporting war ... way way profitable
Rich got richer
Poor turning destitute
Middle class turning into lower class / poor
Tax code changes allowed even more companies to move HQ overseas to avoid taxes.
Lack of jobs has forced people into the military to survive, which is viewed as support for the war.

There are more but I have to go to work now.

So by Bush and Cheney''s definition I''d say they were a sucess in their eyes.

[smurfcrusher]

I really don''t believe Bush can help himself. As Scott McClellan says, the administration is stuck in permanent campaign mode.

They can''t help but deny, lie, and spin, as long as possible until even their most ardent supporters blink with incredulity.

I just can''t wait until Senator Obama is elected, and the real scandals of this time are revealed. I believe King George will eventually be convicted of war crimes, and later admonished for utterly failing in leadership on global warming.

[Gary Kempf]

President George W. Bush will have one last chance next week to alter his reputation as the leading villain

He can''t change what is written in history!

[carlylaine]

NAVPRO: President George W. Bush will have one last chance next week to alter his reputation as the leading villain

He can''''t change what is written in history!


But the Clinton''s did.

[Gary Kempf]

CarlyLaine

If you had said he still can, I would of respected that as your opinion. I wouldn''t agree, but that is why we are intitled to a opinion.

[vanitydog]

navpro , learn how to write. "I would of respected ..." is not even correct. You lost my respect.... ha ha !

[vanitydog]

I am with smurfcrusher, I do not beleive Bush can EVER redeem himself, he is a crook in my history book, the biggest crook who ever took office.

[coppertales]

Global warming is a bunch of bs anyway. Around here, most of the high temp records were set in 1911. There was no global warming, or Al Gore, to point blame. As far as Lake Powell, all the illegal aliens in that part of the country are causing more water to be drawn from the lake than the watershed can mantain. You notice no-one is making a big deal about the smoke, etc, put in the air from the Calif fires. Just follow the money on this subject....

[billyb500]

First, we are not obligated in any way to fund projects for other countries. This is just propoganda from the left to get us to pay their way.
Second, why in God''s name would we give money to the UN to distribute. That organization is totally currupt, leftest, and full of US haters.
The critics of this administration are self-righteous left-leaning elitists intent on taking away our rights as a nation and giving those rights to a world comunity that hatres us.

[jon2012-2009]

Global warming is a bunch of bs anyway. Around here, most of the high temp records were set in 1911. There was no global warming, or Al Gore, to point blame. Posted by coppertales at 10:01 AM : Jul 08, 2008

Global warming is good mainstream science for at least 15 years now, the same science that has given us the atomic bomb, DNA technology, evolution, the idea that the universe is continually expanding. None of this stuff is bs. If you''re betting that the consensus of climate scientists is wrong on this, you''re bucking extremely long odds, the kind that responsible governments don''t make.

[jon2012-2009]

I really don''''t believe Bush can help himself. As Scott McClellan says, the administration is stuck in permanent campaign mode.

They can''''t help but deny, lie, and spin, as long as possible until even their most ardent supporters blink with incredulity.

Posted by smurfcrusher at 01:43 AM : Jul 08, 2008

Republicans lie with or without self-awareness. Nothing to do specifically with campaigning in an election but everything to do with manipulating perceptions and equating perceptions with reality. It is my theory that this type of mental fallacy is prevalent among Republicans and conservatives in the U.S. Europeans view Americans as stupid partly because of this.

[Gary Kempf]

Vanitydog

I will lose sleep over that!

[joyous88]

Is this a joke?

we are talking about GW Bush,McSame, the moron, the idiot, the feckless, factless cowboy that likes to start wars to get elected president, the same guy that does not care that he has killed thousands of human beings.

Some one expects him to think about climate change?

You must be stupid as well.