Cynical? Me? Nah. But this article in the WaPo struck me funny yesterday, and I had to wait until it hit the mobile version of the online paper so that I could link to it without invoking all that crappy javascript they use:
President Bush yesterday formally invited top officials from the world’s leading economic powers to take part in a climate change summit aimed at establishing voluntary goals for lowering greenhouse gas emissions while sustaining growth.The meeting follows a May pledge by Bush to convene the world’s leading economies — and most prolific polluters — to find a solution to the problem of climate change that would both promote energy efficiency and encourage prosperity.
“Science has deepened our understanding of climate change and opened new possibilities for confronting it,” Bush said in the letter of invitation.
Long wary of the effectiveness of global environmental agreements, Bush tried to seize the initiative on global warming with his pledge to initiate a series of meetings to set flexible, long-term goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He said his approach would allow countries to find their own best paths to reducing pollution. The proposal marked a clear shift for Bush, who had come under international criticism for his opposition to participating in the Kyoto Protocol, a United Nations-led environmental agreement that will expire in 2012.
The United States, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, isnot a party to the Kyoto agreement
, which calls for the 35 participating nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Rapidly developing countries including India, China and Brazil are not bound by the deal, despite booming growth and worsening air pollution in those nations, a factor that has caused Bush to call the accord unworkable.
No, the reason we didn’t sign on was because the BushCo Energy Combine didn’t want to play with something they didn’t orchestrate, manipulate, and photo-opportunitate into toothless irrelevance, so that their beloved “energy” (o’l) costs wouldn’t increase. And the Clinton administration couldn’t sign on to the accord without Senate approval, and those damn Republicans declared it dead on arrival back in 1997 and blocked it, the assholes.
Thank goodness Adam Felber reminded me of the article, I didn’t have a chance to bookmark it yesterday. Actually, Adam actually broke the news that scientists suspect a link between global warming and human activity!Â
[tags]Kyoto Accord, Bush, energy, bullshit[/tags]
