Once again, Bush will shrug off another meeting of world leaders who will gather Monday at the UN to discuss climate change and global warming. His only appearance in connection with this event will be his attendance at the dinner that will be held later that evening. In his place in the meeting will be Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
He plans the same old tired ploy of having a parallel meeting to discuss his own plans in regards to this issue. The argument is that it is up to each nation to set their limits on emissions that cannot be forged under an international agreement. Read: We will do what in the hell we want to do because business will not be held to any type of standard regarding the environment and/or emissions. In polite speak, James Connaughton, the president's chief environmental advisor, stated "It's our philosophy that each nation has the sovereign capacity to decide for itself what its own portfolio of policies should be."
One of the critics of this policy, Timothy Wirth, a former senator who became an environmental official in the Clinton administration, said "The leadership role of the United States is absolutely essential. Unless the United States decides that it wants to be a major and committed leadership player in this and make very specific commitments, much of the rest of the world is effectively going to hide behind the skirts of the United States and not do anything."
Approximately 80 heads of state will be attending this meeting and 154 leaders and officials have signed up to speak.
I have strong feelings on the issues of global warming and climate change and find it hard to comprehend that the United States has essentially blew off this issue time and again. I have traveled around enough to know that in many other countries, luxuries that are taken for granted in the US are almost unheard of in many places. Countless cars per household, mountains of disposable crap all over the place, air conditioned doghouses...I could go on and on.
I do know many people who take this issue as serious as I do and I also know that many make a conscious effort to do their part in fighting this problem. The old adage Reduce, Reuse and Recycle is a great way to start. Here is a great link for many other ideas that you can incorporate into your life and do your part.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid released a statement today regarding greenhouse gases. It reads:
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Reid, Pelosi Call on Bush to Support Mandatory Limits on Greenhouse Gases
Monday, September 24, 2007
Washington, D.C. – In advance of a global warming conference this week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid released the following letter to President Bush today, calling on him to announce his support for mandatory national and international limits on the pollution that causes global warming.
“Our legacy to the many generations that will follow us will depend upon how we handle the climate crisis and whether as a nation and as a world community we can take real action in time to avoid the worst effects of global warming,” Reid and Pelosi wrote.
Below is the text of the letter:
September 24, 2007
The President
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President:
On Thursday and Friday, representatives of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitting nations will meet in Washington at your invitation to discuss their roles in combating global warming. We call upon you to use this occasion to announce your support for mandatory national and international limits on the pollution that causes global warming.
The overwhelming body of scientific evidence, including the authoritative work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, clearly demonstrates that human industrial activity is the major cause of the global warming now occurring. Climate change is already having profound effects on human and biological systems; to avoid catastrophic climate impacts, we must start cutting global warming pollution immediately. A further increase of approximately two degrees Fahrenheit above today’s global average temperature will risk triggering the eventual loss of major ice sheets and sea level rise affecting hundreds of millions of people.
To stay below this two-degree threshold, we need to reduce worldwide emissions by at least 50 percent by the middle of this century. The U.S. and the world’s other developed countries, which are responsible for most of the carbon dioxide now in the atmosphere and have the greatest technological capability, will need to achieve reductions on the order of 60 to 80 percent.
The world is coming to a crossroads. Most of the countries represented at the Major Emitters Meeting – as well as most countries that will not be present – are working under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol to reach agreement on legally-binding emission limits for industrialized countries and on measures to achieve greater emission reductions from emerging economies under a robust, expanded carbon market. Such a system can provide us with a fair chance of staving off catastrophic warming, while supporting sustainable development and adaptation for all countries.
Your Administration has been pursuing an alternative approach based on purely aspirational targets and non-binding pledges of national action, as was evident at the recent summit of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries. This voluntary approach, Mr. President, cannot succeed in staving off catastrophic climate change impacts. If we are to preserve our world as it exists today, we must take effective action now, both here at home and in cooperation with other nations. We ask for your support of the mandatory measures included in the energy bills passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives which, when enacted, will be a down-payment on preventing global warming. An effective domestic program, however, requires mandatory, market-based global warming legislation covering the full spectrum of U.S. emissions, and we ask you to join us in enacting such legislation in this Congress.
Likewise, an effective international regime must be based on mandatory limits for developed nations and creation of a global carbon market that enables enhanced participation by large developing nations. As your Administration acknowledges, we have had 20 years of success under the Montreal Protocol, the highly acclaimed treaty to protect the ozone layer. The history of the ozone treaty demonstrates that we can successfully construct a binding global regime under which developed countries take the lead and developing countries follow. The ozone treaty averted a genuine global catastrophe. Now we must do the same to stop global warming. We urge you to embrace this effective model in lieu of voluntary approaches that will not work.
Finally, we ask for your commitment that the Washington meeting will not start a separate process competing with negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to which the U.S. is a party, and which is the world’s recognized forum for hammering out the international response to global warming. It is particularly important to recognize that the most vulnerable nations, which will be hit hardest by global warming, are not represented at the major emitters meeting.
Our legacy to the many generations that will follow us will depend upon how we handle the climate crisis and whether as a nation and as a world community we can take real action in time to avoid the worst effects of global warming. We look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
HARRY REID NANCY PELOSI
Senate Majority Leader Speaker of the House
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