Re: Environment News: Rogue Nation Has Become Consensus Builder

Proof that the unusual number of tropical storms is the bushmeisters fault,
not to mention the drowning polar bears
"Lee K" <lee_kee***@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:96adnfi3Ho8PbSjeRVn-hQ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Editorial: Rogue Nation Has Become Consensus Builder
>
>
> Written By: James M. Taylor
> Published In: Environment News
> Publication Date: January 1, 2006
> Publisher: The Heartland Institute
>
> The year was 2001, and George Bush, reflecting a 95-0 U.S. Senate vote
> against the Kyoto Protocol during former president Bill Clinton's last
term
> in office, definitively rejected U.S. participation in the Kyoto Protocol.
> As a result, global warming alarmists in the United States and Europe
called
> Bush and the United States an "outlaw" and a "rogue nation."
>
> Now, just four years later, an amazing thing has happened. The United
States
> has not changed its position, yet it has become the consensus builder for
a
> more forward-looking approach to climate change.
>
>
> Senate, Bush Sought Alternative
>
> The resolution that unanimously passed the Senate in 1997 stated the
United
> States would oppose any treaty that would impose serious economic harm on
> the U.S. economy and would place binding limits on industrial nations but
> would not apply to developing nations such as China and India.
>
> As Kyoto contained both of the shortcomings feared by the Senate, Bush
held
> firm and outlined a different U.S. approach to addressing climate change.
> Among global warming alarmists on both sides of the Atlantic, the reaction
> was vitriolic.
>
>
> Alarmists Incensed
>
> Time magazine, for example, called the U.S. a "rogue" nation whose
> "dangerous unilateralism" would end our role as world leader in
> international affairs.
>
> Alarmists in Europe became downright ugly. The London Guardian called the
> U.S. rejection of Kyoto a "Taliban-style act of wanton destruction."
>
> Conveniently forgetting that other nations, including Australia, also
opted
> out of Kyoto, and that nations such as Russia signed on only after
publicly
> challenging the scientific and economic justifications for it, activists
> portrayed the United States as an outlaw nation that, like a disgraced
> gunfighter in the Wild West, would be forced to "go it alone."
>
>
> U.S. Finding Redemption
>
> But, much as an unjustly maligned cowboy on the silver screen inevitably
> returns with a large posse and truth on his side, our "rogue" nation has
> slowly but inexorably become the world's leading consensus builder on
> climate change.
>
> In July 2005, the United States led Australia, China, India, Japan, and
> South Korea in forming an international partnership to address climate
> change in a scientifically based and economically sustainable manner.
>
> The transformation in U.S. global leadership was punctuated in November
> 2005, when British Prime Minister Tony Blair declared Kyoto and any other
> treaty demanding mandatory emissions cuts dead. According to Blair,
> mandatory emissions cuts are implausible unless technology is developed to
> make emissions reductions economically sustainable and until mandatory
cuts
> apply to such nations as China and India.
>
>
> Shortcomings Evident
>
> Why did this dramatic transformation occur? There are many reasons.
Despite
> the self-righteous statements of European Union leaders, the EU is failing
> miserably in its attempt to cut greenhouse gas emissions and is far short
of
> its Kyoto goals. At the same time, through public- and private-sector
> cooperation exemplified by a $100 million grant from ExxonMobil to the
> Stanford University-led Global Climate and Energy Project, the United
States
> has cut its greenhouse gas emissions every year since its 2001 rejection
of
> the Kyoto Protocol.
>
> Over the past three years, EU carbon dioxide emissions have risen (despite
a
> tumbling economy), while U.S. carbon dioxide emissions have fallen (during
a
> period of steady economic growth).
>
> While the EU scores public relations points by vowing carbon dioxide cuts
> that never reach fruition, the U.S. has invested in and reaped the
benefits
> of new technologies that, for example, dramatically reduce emissions of
> methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
>
> As the European economy stumbles under its Kyoto burden, energy-intensive
> industry is relocating to China, where the government refuses to cut
> greenhouse gas emissions and where the economy sizzles. As Blair and
others
> have come to realize, all the promised cuts in European greenhouse gas
> emissions will fail to make any dent in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels
if
> cuts in Western emissions are outweighed by corresponding increases in
> Chinese emissions.
>
>
> EU Economy Endangered
>
> The final blow to Europe's Kyoto delusions may have been the November 7
> release of an international study predicting substantial harm to European
> economies that abide by their Kyoto promises. Putting still more pressure
on
> the already-reeling European economy, Kyoto would spark an approximately
25
> percent jump in electricity prices and a roughly 2 percent reduction in
> gross domestic product if Europe were to meet its reduction targets, which
> it has yet to do. Any additional cuts required after Kyoto expires in 2012
> would be even more punitive economically.
>
> Tony Blair and other world leaders have come to realize that if you love
> "That 70s Show," wait until you see a rerun of "That 70s Economy"
throughout
> Europe if the EU fails to follow Bush's lead on global warming.
>
> James M. Taylor (taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) is managing editor of Environment &
> Climate News.
>
> For more information ...
>
> A four-page summary of the Kyoto impact report issued by the International
> Council for Capital Formation, "The Cost of the Kyoto Protocol: Moving
> Forward on Climate Change Policy While Preserving Economic Growth," is
> available through PolicyBotT, The Heartland Institute's free online
research
> database. Point your Web browser to http://www.heartland.org, click on the
> PolicyBotT button, and search for document #18189.
>
>


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