December 15, 2004
JUST A LITTLE SCHOLARLY DISAGREEMENT
Blair Faces Test of Bush Friendship on Environment (Jeremy Lovell, Reuters, December 15th, 2004)
Tony Blair is unlikely to sway George W. Bush on global warming when he leads the G8 nations in 2005 but the British premier could help his own re-election bid by appearing to stand up to Washington, analysts say.They say Blair could shed a "poodle" image acquired for his staunch support of Bush on Iraq -- and might even convince Washington to accept the basic science of climate change.
Blair has pledged to put green issues at the top of his agenda for the 12 months starting in January that Britain has the helm of the Group of Eight rich nations club.
But his high-profile commitment to the environment contrasts sharply with the Bush administration, which has refused to sign up to the benchmark Kyoto treaty to combat global warming.
"I have always thought that it was a very high risk strategy for Tony Blair to put climate change so high on the G8's agenda," Victor Bulmer-Thomas, director of the Royal Institute of International Affairs think-tank, told Reuters.
"The question is can he persuade the United States to move closer to the European view on the environment, and the answer is 'no,"' he added.
Environmentalists insist that now is payback time. "It is time Blair used his diplomatic capital and persuaded the United States to agree to international commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions," said Greenpeace head Stephen Tindale.
"But the signs are not good. At the moment it looks like Blair is all mouth and no trousers on climate change and that he is a serial flunker of challenges. He has yet to stand up to Bush on anything," he told Reuters.
Science, of course, is all about objective truth and transcends the sordid world of politics.
Now that we've won---that is, Bush won the election and the USA won in Afganistan and Iraq---they keep expecting us to admit we were wrong, beg forgiveness, and fall on a sword.
Ain't gonna happen.
Posted by: ray at December 15, 2004 9:12 PMThe global warming crowd remind me of people who used to make their kids take a tablespoon of castor oil or cod liver oil every day, or make them eat Shredded Wheat. Their belief was that since the stuff tasted terrible it must have medicinal value, basically a 'hair shirt' approach to medicine.
The global warming crowd seems to feel that if we make people colder, less mobile, less fed, less happy that it is somehow good for them, essentially 'the mortification of the flesh' for secular trendnoids.
Posted by: Bart at December 15, 2004 9:28 PMHey, it's not just the Bush administration--wasn't the lineup in the Senate something like 99 against ratification, 1 for?
Others may have suggested this idea before (as I have never had a genuinely original thought in my life) but I am going to adopt it as my personal solution to global warming. And it is: introduce nuclear winter to counter the effects of global warming. We start with those European capitals which are currently making the most noise about the matter and cease at that point in time when they stop complaining.
Posted by: MB at December 15, 2004 10:47 PM95-0
Either castor or cod liver oil has just found to have benefits, BTW.
Posted by: Sandy P at December 15, 2004 11:16 PMCod liver oil is demonstrably high in certain vitamins, though there might be negative effects that offset any potential benefit. Castor oil, however, is an emetic and laxative; definitely not something you'd want to give a kid daily!
Posted by: Guy T. at December 16, 2004 1:14 AMAnd furthermore, Shredded Wheat is tasty if you add enough sugar...
Posted by: Guy T. at December 16, 2004 1:28 AMMB: it'll never happen--but oh! if it did!
Posted by: Mike Morley at December 16, 2004 6:28 AMContinuing evidence that Clinton was the second worst president of the 20th century (Carter has a firm grip on first place).
Clinton knew that the Senate would not ratify Kyoto, he knew that Bush was opposed to it and would not submit it to be rejected by the Senate. As a lame duck he signed the treaty with the sole intention of embarassing Bush.
That embarassing Bush also cost the USA diplomatic credibility apparently never crossed his little mind. He pulled the same stunt with the ICC. This is the behavior of a poorly behaved teenager, not the President of the United States. Every time i think about the jerk I get more upset.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at December 16, 2004 11:41 AM