OpEd - Historians Will Damn Bush For 8 Solid Years Of Inaction & Ignorance On Climate

[hatrack]

If we can make it through the next 379 days without getting into nuclear war, historians writing 100 years from now will begin their assessment of George W. Bush, not at all kindly, by identifying him as the United States president who caused the world to lose eight years in getting started with serious efforts to save the planet and the inhabitants thereof from the deadly consequences of global warming.

EDIT

Without the United States playing a major role, there is not going to be much productive international cooperation, and the United States is not going to take the lead or follow any nation's lead in curbing greenhouse emissions until 2009 when we have a president who believes global warming is a major threat to our civilization.

Even a president who understands the threat, supported by well informed voters, will face a Herculean task because George Bush has not only caused us to lose eight precious years but has tarnished the faith and trust other nations have placed in the United States.

Within a very few years China will replace the United States as the leading producer of greenhouse gases. India will be close behind. They are moving swiftly into their "industrial age" and they are not going to agree to curb emissions unless the United States and Europe make comparable or greater cuts. Avoiding the worst scenario for climate change will call for a level of diplomatic skills and determination seldom seen in our national history. And, the new president will need strong support in Congress.

EDIT/END

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080106/COLUMNIST43/801060792/-1/newssitemap

[Big Blue Marble]

1. He will be damned by generations for generations. n/t

[indepat]

5. By generations for generations, not just for climate issues, but the entire enchilada of RW

catastrophes furled upon us and the entire world.

[Double T]

2. Our demise and destiny is no longer within our control........

and we have only ourselves to blame for allowing it to happen to US. Good reason to choose your votes wisely.

[Quakerfriend]

3. Yes, and not just for 'Inaction & Ignorance '. He

got WH lawyer, Phil Cooney, to stifle the truth! He said so himself, upon his departure.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

4. Yes ! Him and the corporations.

[kestrel91316]

6. Greetings from a fellow crab!

One of my mom's nicknames for me as a child was "Crabby Appleton".

Way OT....

[eppur_se_muova]

7. What are historians waiting for? I damn Bu**sh** already, and he's still got up to 1yr to go. nt

[ramapo]

8. Clinton wasn't so great either

It pains me to bring it up but Clinton caved on CAFE standards, did nothing about coal emissions, and wasn't in a position to do much but give lip service to Kyoto. My equation is 8 do-nothing years w/Bush II, eight not-so-good years w/Clinton, 12 bad years w/Reagan/Bush = 28 squandered years which is why we're in deep shit.

[tom_paine]

9. He will be damned for doing far more to destroy the Old American Republic

than Osama Bin Laden. FAR FAR more.

Bin Laden (for the purposes of this discussion we will forget his little Dubai meeting with the Bushies in the CIA in July 2001 and the fact that a high-renking pakistani ISI agent, basically a Busharraf Bushie, wired Mohammed Atta $100,000 in August 2001) hit us, he murdered 3000 of us, and he knocked two great structures down.

But that pales before engagin our nation in a War Without End for the purposes of securing unchecked power and paving the way for a Bushie Hitler, if Jebby or George P. has those kinds of desires.

He has hurt us far more than Bin Laden could have ever dreamed of, and he has given Bin Laden his victory by turning us into an amoral, torturing, murdering, kidnapping nation for whom there is no bottom limit to what we are capable of if times get tough.

Perhaps the Bush Family meant to do that all along, ever since Prescott Bush wanted to overthrow America in 1934 and ally with Hitler.

Think that's hyperbole?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20070723.shtml