Hawaii (Climate) Conference Gives US Chance To Repair Its Image (Actual Headline!) - Houston Chron.

[hatrack]

Hoping to show the world it really does want to do more to address global warming, the Bush administration this week welcomes leaders of the world's biggest economies to Hawaii to discuss climate change.

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"The U.S. has reached the lowest point I've ever seen" when it comes to worldwide perception regarding environmental issues, said Philip Clapp, deputy managing director of Pew Environment Group, a research and advocacy group in Washington. "In the final session of Bali, we were abandoned even by our closest allies."

Andrew Hoffman, who studies business, environmentalism and sustainability at the University of Michigan, said it would behoove the United States to come out with some substantive proposals in Hawaii, especially in the wake of the Bali criticism. "If they come to this table without any kinds of sincere proposals to go forward, I think they're just going to open themselves up to more embarrassment," Hoffman said. But because it will fall to the next U.S. president to sign off on the next global climate agreement, in Hawaii the Bush administration is expected to stick to its familiar positions — some of them globally unpopular — on how the United States should deal with the issue.

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The United States risks international embarrassment if its climate ideas are found wanting by the major nations coming to Honolulu, observers say. In Bali, the European Union threatened to boycott the Hawaii summit until the U.S. agreed to take part in a new round of global climate talks. Other countries booed the U.S. during the negotiations, and the representative of the island country of Papua New Guinea publicly pleaded for the world's biggest superpower to either lead or get out of the way.

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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/5487468.html

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/5487468.html

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Well ... TRY to repair ... but only by fooling people. nt