US on track for more global warming

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Posted on September 30, 2006
Filed Under Global warming/Climate change, Deep ecology, Ecological hope, Consumer culture, Fossil fuel dependency, Environmental disasters, Earth spirituality

Fostering Ecological Hope

Today from Margaret Swedish:

So President Bush says there will be no change in US climate policy, sticking with the status quo, which means more carbon emissions from the world’s number one greenhouse gas emitter.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Friday, Bush indicated that he has no plan to change his approach to the global warming/climate change crisis looming before the world.    Unfortunately one must pay to view the WSJ article, but here is one of its lowlights.

The president…damped speculation that his administration is exploring a major shift in global-warming policy and may soon embrace some kind of formal government-imposed limits.  Though Mr. Bush did imply that a shift could happen in the unlikely event that the modest voluntary goals set by his administration to reduce so-called greenhouse-gas emissions were failing.

Breathtaking leadership, that, given the climate catastrophes already unfolding around our precious globe – like melting of the Arctic Ocean, melting of the permafrost and nearly all the glaciers of the world, warming winters that are causing explosions of forest-devouring and disease-carrying insects, drought, more violent storms, and more.

Bush did say he wants to put federal money into encouraging ‘diversification’ of energy sources, adding to the oil economy with new technologies like ethanol and hydrogen.  He would like to encourage more gas stations to offer ethanol to customers as a way to encourage consumers to buy flex-fuel vehicles.  Yes, breathtaking, isn’t it? 

But he adamantly opposes mandatory rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, putting him at odds with California, Arizona, the northeast states, most of Europe and a growing sector within the business community, preferring to count on the market to develop the technologies to produce cleaner fuels and thereby reduce emissions one day, an approach that is certainly working so far, right?

According to the NY Times/Reuters article, Bush’s goal of “an 18 percent cut in emissions per dollar of gross domestic product in the decade to 2012″ would allow US emissions to increase 30 percent above 1990 levels, a rather different standard than the Kyoto Protocol, which “obliges cuts of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels with energy savings and clean energies such as wind and solar power.”  Bush continues to view Kyoto with disdain.

Said Vicki Arroyo, director of policy analysis at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change in Washington,  ”We’re on target for the status quo.”  Arroyo notes that right now it is high oil prices that “are prompting efficiency,” not any great policy move on Bush’s part.

“I don’t think that the number 1 greenhouse gas emitter and richest economy in the world is setting the example needed — it’s not enough,” she said.

Well, now that’s an understatement indeed.

Meanwhile, here’s another article attempting to put a price on the damage we’re doing.  Sobering numbers, these, the legacy we are leaving to our children.

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