Show Bush on climate change The following ving editorial appeared in Saturdays Saturday's Washington Post President Bushs Bush's speech at the Major Economics Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change at the State Department last week was neatly summed up by German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel This here was a great step for the Americans and a small step for mankind In substance we are still far apart That Bush was even acknowledging that global warming is a real realand realand realand and pressing problem let alone hosting a two-day two conf conference rence on climate change with the 16 largest emitters of carbon dioxide in the world is a remarkable turn of events After all hes he's spent most of his presidency questioning the science underpinning the warnings about global warming and opposing efforts to do anything substantive about the problem Bushs Bush's rejection of the Kyoto Protocol which mandates reductions in global carbon emissions still sticks in the craw of Gabriel and other European ministers Their self- self righteousness is undercut by their own failure to meet the mandatory carbon- carbon reduction standards set out by the treaty which expires in 2012 But Bushs Bush's great step was a small step for humanity because he did not budge from his insistence that whatever action the nations take be voluntary We will set a term long goal for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions he said Each nation will design its own separate strategies for making progress toward achieving this long- long term goal Bush said he will meet with heads of government next summer to finalize the goal Even with the strong and transparent system for measuring our progress toward meeting the goal we set that Bush called for the voluntary approach is just not going to fly |