Friday, June 1, 2007
President Bush rejected the Kyoto treaty six years ago, saying it
would "harm our economy." "Climate change" did not show up in Bush's
vocabulary until his 2007 State-of-the-Union address. Yesterday, however,
pressured to take action, he trotted out his "new international climate
change framework," declaring "the United States takes this issue
seriously." Other leaders at next week's G-8 summit, who are leaning
toward a bold German plan to reduce greenhouse emissions 50% by 2050, are
unlikely to be impressed. The plan outlined by the White House is classic
Bush: it contained no concrete targets or dates, no enforcement mechanism,
no penalties for noncompliance, and it wouldn't take effect until four
years after Bush leaves office.
Just two hours before the President's remarks, Michael Griffin, the man
Bush picked to head the agency charged with collecting climate change
data, was interviewed on National Public Radio. He defended cuts in
programs to monitor climate change: It frees resources for a manned moon
base, and a new crew transportation vehicle to take astronauts to the
Moon, Mars and the space station. He saw no need to take action against
global warming. "Who has the privilege of deciding that this is the best
climate for all other human beings," he asked? Just two months ago the
IPCC report detailed the enormous cost of global warming on human life.
Where has he been?
A month ago at the Republican Presidential debate, there was a show of
hands of those who don't believe in evolution. One who raised his hand,
Sam Brownback, was moved to explain why in yesterday's New York Times: "I
believe wholeheartedly that there cannot be any contradiction between
faith and reason." Which faith does he have in mind? Different faiths are
often at war with each other, but no wars are fought over science.
Science relies on Nature as the sole arbiter. There was much more, all in
the language of the intelligent design movement, including the
substitution of "materialism" for "naturalism."
The target missile never got off the ground. After all, what rogue
nation, even one as nutty as N. Korea, would launch a missile at the
dominant nuclear power? The return address is on the package. The
nuclear threat today is from weapons in cargo containers, or assembled in
a target country.
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