Bloodless Coup

The Bush Team on Global Warming

Elizabeth Kolbert's recent 3-part story on global warming in The New Yorker is one of the more informative things I've read on the topic. It covers the science, presents interesting descriptions of the current costs being incurred in certain areas, and, in the final segment, goes into possible solutions. It won't come as any big surprise that the Bush administration's actions on this topic vary beyond the farcical and insane, but some of the pictures she paints surprised even a cynical and jaded guy like me. My favorite bit (in terms of what should bring on screams of terror) was on pages 62-63 of the May 9th issue. Consider the Bush administration's "plan" as presented by the administration official charged with Kyoto-related issues:

While the rest of the industrialized world is pursuing one strategy (emissions limits), the U.S. is pursuing another (no emissions limits), and it is still too early to say which approach will work best.

Yes, they actually think not limiting emissions might be a better way to prevent global warming. Given the way this administration views science, that is sadly not a shock. But consider the lengths they go to to avoid even preliminary meetings on this topic.

The U.S. delegation opposed these efforts so adamantly that finally the Americans were asked to describe, in writing, what sort of meeting they would find acceptable. They issued a half a page of conditions, one of which was that the session "shall be a one-time event held during a single day." Another condition was, paradoxically, that, if they were going to discuss the future, the future would have to be barred from discussion; presentations, they wrote, should be limited to "an information exchange" on "existing national policies."

The mind reels.

Yet another issue on which Bush contributors and delusions must not be upset by having to face actual facts - and yet another one which is a much more pressing threat than the funding of Social Security.