A Small Correction, Mr. President (or maybe not)
From the Telegraph (UK); h/t Mark Steyn filling in for Rush Limbaugh.
Departing the G-8 Summit yesterday, President George Bush
who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: “Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.”
He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.
Of course, China surpassed the United States in the category of carbon dioxide emissions a year ago.
In a way, though, the president is not wrong. With all aspects of anthropogenic global warming, the facts are secondary to perception and feelings. “It feels like the US is the worst polluter.” “It looks like we are causing global warming.” “It feels like we can stop global warming (if we are even causing it).” “It feels like we can cut 50% of our greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 (even though the magical fuel source has not been identified and more countries are well down the road of fossil fuel consuming development).”
All of this despite the current scientific status of the supposed scientific theory of AGW; i.e., flat lined. Every component proven wrong and all alleged unprecedented facts – oops – with historic precedents. No one wants to call the M.E. and make it official, though, which, in the world of facts and real science, has rendered AGW a joke.
President Bush’s jocularity on the subject and apparent mistake in naming us the world’s worst polluter, then, is very much in keeping with the spirit and current state of affairs of AGW.
Hi – it is my understanding that the greenhouse gas agreement reached included China and India in an “if they – then we” scenario, which really rendered the whole excercise to lip service. China isn’t interested in throttling back their economic engine, and India has their own scientists who I hear aren’t all that impressed with one Dr. Hansen.
Nonetheless, even the jocular concession of CO2 as pollutant hurts the cause of common sense caution.