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Jewish World Review Oct. 3, 2005 / 29 Elul, 5765 Blair takes heat for global warming remarks By Debra J. Saunders
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Whenever a political leader speaks the truth about the Kyoto global-warming
treaty, the chattering classes treat him as if he were that upstart kid who
said the emperor has no clothes. So pundits and politicians have derided
British Prime Minister Tony Blair for saying he had been "changing his
thinking" about the global-warming pact.
On the first day of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, a panel
chaired by former President Bill Clinton held earlier this month, Blair, a
longtime supporter of the global-warming pact, said of Kyoto: "We have got
to start from brutal honesty about the politics of how we deal with it. The
truth is, no country is going to cut its growth or consumption substantially
in light of a long-term environmental problem. What countries are prepared
to do is to try to work together cooperatively to deal with this problem in
a way that allows us to develop the science and technology in a beneficial
way." Blair also said he didn't think world leaders would "start negotiating
another major treaty like Kyoto."
The wonder is that the savvy Blair didn't come to his senses sooner about
Kyoto. A British official, talking without attribution, as British officials
do, told me Blair's "remarks were taken out of context, the British
government remains firmly committed to the Kyoto protocol. The prime
minister has consistently said we need to go beyond Kyoto." Europeans have
been pushing a top-down regulatory approach. President Bush says science can
come to the rescue. Blair prefers to walk in both worlds.
If Blair's remarks have been over-hyped, it's because they are on the
money. Fact: Britain produces more carbon dioxide now than when Blair
entered No. 10 Downing Street. The Brits are far more energy-conscious than
gas-guzzling Americans. How? Brits are more likely to use public transit,
London charges a congestion tax for cars in the downtown, there has been a
national effort to eschew the use of coal — and still the United Kingdom's
greenhouse gases are up. That's what happens in a strong economy.
The government counters that, even though greenhouse gas emissions have
increased, the United Kingdom is "on track" to meet its Kyoto goal of
reducing emissions some 12.5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. (When the
treaty was negotiated, the United Kingdom's emissions measured at 5 percent
below 1990 levels.) Meanwhile, it is clear that all but a handful of
countries in Kyoto-treaty-loving Europe, which pledged a continental
reduction of 8 percent below 1990 emissions, won't meet their Kyoto goals.
Here's another brutal, honest fact about Kyoto: Before then-Vice President
Al Gore left for the global-warming conference in 1997, the Senate told the
Clinton administration, via a 95-0 vote, not to agree to a treaty that
exempted developing nations. Gore ignored the Senate, which ultimately would
have to ratify the treaty. No wonder then that Clinton, who did not take the
opportunity last week to disagree with Blair, never asked the Senate to vote
on Kyoto ratification while he was in office.
Of course Clinton stayed mum. He said he supported Kyoto, which would have
made America reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 7 percent below 1990
levels. Lo and behold, emissions were 14 percent higher than the 1990 level
when Clinton left office.
And while the left likes to fault Bush on Kyoto, even 2004 Democratic
presidential candidate John Kerry said, if elected, he would not ask the
Senate to ratify Kyoto.
It should be noted that Kerry was one of the 95 senators who voted no
before Gore left for the Kyoto conference. And be it noted that there are
those who criticize Bush for not giving lip service to Kyoto, yet drive big
SUVs. I do not write this to brand them as hypocrites — but to point out
that if the folks who believe global warming is a severe threat to the
planet don't ride the bus, why would anyone else?
Last week, The New York Times reported that polar icecaps have shrunk to
their smallest size in a century (not so very long, geologically speaking),
and some scientists posit human-induced global-warming must be a factor. But
wait. The Houston Chronicle reported this month that NASA has observed that
polar icecaps are shrinking — on Mars.
You can't blame SUVs for polar melting on Mars. The enviros say that
scientists are on their side. That's easy to say, as the left ignores
scientists who aren't. The fact is, this is a highly political issue, and
even scientists who want to go strictly by the data get sucked into the
political vortex. Pro or con, they can't help but become partisans.
So, see what happened when Blair finally got real on Kyoto? He spoke the
truth — not particularly forcefully, I might add — and Our Betters in
Europe dismissed him as Dubya's lapdog. After all, how dare he not fawn over
the beautiful vestments on the emperor's nude body.
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Comment JWR contributor Debra J. Saunders's column by clicking here. © 2005, Creators Syndicate |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
