Bush Realistic in Dealing With Environmental Issues

President Bush is charging ahead in creating an administration based on reality. Last week it was the environment-at-any-price greenies’ turn to get their noses out of joint.

The Kyoto Protocol, favorite pipe dream of the late Clinton-Gore team, was deep-sixed. The message is clear to the 102 nations that signed the document in 1997 -- put up or shut up.

Industrialized nations met in Japan, to combat “global warming.” Shortly thereafter, Vice-president Al Gore responded with a book titled “The Earth in Balance.” President Clinton adopted clean air as his personal crusade.

The aim at Kyoto was to reduce emissions of carbon- dioxide by 5.2 percent of 1990 levels by 2012.

Greatest “offender” was judged to be the United States. It was said to produce 25 percent of heat- trapping gasses, though having only 4 percent of the world population.

Each nation was to be allotted a certain discharge of CO2. Those unable to meet their quota would be allowed to “purchase” emission rights from other nations. In other words, developed nations would pay ransom to developing nations.

The whole plan was stupid in that it didn’t do a thing to reduce total emissions worldwide. Kyoto was a shakedown of Uncle Sam.

It interesting to note that of the diplomats signing the Kyoto agreement, only Romania has officially ratified it. Clinton submitted the agreement to the U.S. Senate, which rejected it 95 to 0.

Oddly enough, Bush’s decision to abandon the Kyoto protocol may open the way to craft a workable environmental plan at a last-ditch summit at Bonn, Germany, in July.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Global Warming will take up the matter one last time. Bush has indicated he will cooperate if “developing nations” – read that China and India – also sign and abide by the agreement. No tickee, no washee.

Those two nations already are the world’s worst polluters. A few years ago I spent a week in Bejing and developed the notorious “China cough” brought on by breathing permeating coal smoke there.

Bush is a realistic environmentalist. Air and water should be as pure as possible -- commensurate with human needs and technology.

The NIMBY mentality – Not In My Back Yard – works fine as long as one’s neighbors are willing to do the dirty work and share the clean output with purists. Those days are over – as Californians have learned the hard way.

William Meadows, president of the Wilderness Society, says, “Bush has declared open season on basic environmental laws and safeguards.” Presumably the enviros expected Dubya to resurrect a dead horse.

House minority leader, Dick Gephardt, says Bush’s “go-it-alone policy must not stand.”

Bush insists Kyoto would cost U.S. businesses an “enormous sum of money and is not in our national interest.” He goes to Bonn with a new deck of cards – and he’s dealing.

German chancellor Gerhard Schroder came to the White House last week to encourage a reconsideration of Kyoto. The U.S. president was polite, but steadfast. Include China and India, or include the United States out.

While we’re getting real, lets give up on the global-warming bogeyman. It may or may not be true. It may or may not be due to industry and internal combustion engines. Whatever. It doesn’t mean the world will become a vast desert.

On the contrary, a warmer climate would bring more evaporation of ocean water which inevitably falls down as more rain. Just ask the dinosaurs.

Global warming would make Canadians, Siberians and desert dwellers happy. Florida would become more jungley than it now is, but who cares as long as there is gasoline to power our cars and electricity to run our air conditioners?

The greatest contributor to CO2 abundance, by far, is the breathing and flatulence of humans, cows and termites. Honest.

Green plants need carbon-dioxide to produce the starch-sugar and oxygen on which all living things depend.

President Bush says, correctly, that humans must invent their way out of their contributions to excess pollution. That process is well underway with environmentally neutral hydrogen. Not much we can do about termites and the animals we eat. We certainly are not going to give up our cars and electricity.

Until Nirvana, pay attention to our one and only president.

PARTING SHOTS

W plans a Little League type baseball field on the White House lawn for boys and girls 5 to 8 years old. Teams will not have pitchers because the ball is set on a waist-high “tee” – thus depriving the president of the honor of throwing out the first ball. He expects the Faith Based Initiative office to pitch in with construction. Who’s on first?

* * *

At an impromptu press conference, Bush said critics “misunderstated” his policies. To peals of laughter he responded, “Just testing to see if you are listening.” They were.

Lindsey Williams is a Sun columnist

Williams - Kyoto

Sunday – Apr. 1, 2001

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