Strange things happen in the hot sun. A few hours out in the midday glare and people are doing all kinds of things they would never do on a sober winter’s evening. If you don’t believe me, take a peek at the asinine fashions that show up at your Fourth of July barbecue.
Five years ago, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janiero, world leaders got together for the first-ever environmental summit. The hot tropical sun must have gotten to them because, astoundingly, they turned their backs on the big oil companies for a moment and drafted the Framework Convention on Climate Change. The convention recognized we are warming the earth’s climate by burning fossil fuels. In the fever of heatstroke, world leaders nearly made a commitment to reducing the use of fossil fuels, but they were pulled back from the brink by then-President George Bush. George had been lying in an air-conditioned hotel room with a cold cloth on his forehead and he wasn’t about to sign any cockamamie agreement that would upset big oil.
In the end, the Rio summiteers agreed to defer action, but promised to cut carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000. Well, 2000 will be fast upon us and the United States has not reduced emissions, we’ve increased them by 13 percent. Increased. Not down, but up. Why am I bringing all this up, ancient history, five years ago, the Bush administration? Because today, June 26th, Bill Clinton is addressing Earth Summit Two in New York. Maybe he’ll surprise me, but I don’t think he will. I think Bill Clinton will continue to block progress on global warming, just as George Bush did. Things have changed in five years. The body of evidence that points with assurance toward global warming has grown considerably. The science community is of one voice. John Browne, chairman of British Petroleum, a nasty company in many respects, has publicly acknowledged the threat of global warming, and has called for action.
Last week at the Denver Summit of Eight, French President Jacques Chirac was scolding Clinton because the average American produces three times as much greenhouse gas as the average Frenchman. Jacques Chirac, who until recently was detonating nuclear devices in the South Pacific, is now lecturing us on the environment – and he’s right. Meanwhile, the Greek government has opened the world’s largest solar power generating station on the island of Crete. Greece was the cradle of western civilization, and may yet lead us to a better one. And what is the United States, the measure of all nations, doing in the face of this? Nothing. In fact, worse than nothing. Bill Clinton, hostage of the oil companies, the car companies, the coal-burning utilities, is blocking progress on climate change. We still subsidize fossil fuels and we pay oil companies to go out and look for more. Twenty-five years ago we put an electric car on the moon, but we can’t put one on the streets of an American city.
And what of Al Gore, the heir apparent? Five years ago in “Earth in the Balance,” he wrote global warming is the most serious problem we face today. Science has done much to confirm that view since then, but Al Gore is now the junior partner in the biggest roadblock to change. In last Sunday’s New York Times, Gore was asked point-blank why he is such a sell-out on the environment. His response was that he is not going to paint Bill Clinton into a corner, that he would not be disloyal. What about your loyalty to the American public, Al? How about some loyalty to the truth?
Come Hell or Hot Weather
Strange things happen in the hot sun. A few hours out in the midday glare and people are doing all kinds of things they would never do on a sober winter’s evening. If you don’t believe me, take a peek at the asinine fashions that show up at your Fourth of July barbecue.
Five years ago, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janiero, world leaders got together for the first-ever environmental summit. The hot tropical sun must have gotten to them because, astoundingly, they turned their backs on the big oil companies for a moment and drafted the Framework Convention on Climate Change. The convention recognized we are warming the earth’s climate by burning fossil fuels. In the fever of heatstroke, world leaders nearly made a commitment to reducing the use of fossil fuels, but they were pulled back from the brink by then-President George Bush. George had been lying in an air-conditioned hotel room with a cold cloth on his forehead and he wasn’t about to sign any cockamamie agreement that would upset big oil.
In the end, the Rio summiteers agreed to defer action, but promised to cut carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000. Well, 2000 will be fast upon us and the United States has not reduced emissions, we’ve increased them by 13 percent. Increased. Not down, but up. Why am I bringing all this up, ancient history, five years ago, the Bush administration? Because today, June 26th, Bill Clinton is addressing Earth Summit Two in New York. Maybe he’ll surprise me, but I don’t think he will. I think Bill Clinton will continue to block progress on global warming, just as George Bush did. Things have changed in five years. The body of evidence that points with assurance toward global warming has grown considerably. The science community is of one voice. John Browne, chairman of British Petroleum, a nasty company in many respects, has publicly acknowledged the threat of global warming, and has called for action.
Last week at the Denver Summit of Eight, French President Jacques Chirac was scolding Clinton because the average American produces three times as much greenhouse gas as the average Frenchman. Jacques Chirac, who until recently was detonating nuclear devices in the South Pacific, is now lecturing us on the environment – and he’s right. Meanwhile, the Greek government has opened the world’s largest solar power generating station on the island of Crete. Greece was the cradle of western civilization, and may yet lead us to a better one. And what is the United States, the measure of all nations, doing in the face of this? Nothing. In fact, worse than nothing. Bill Clinton, hostage of the oil companies, the car companies, the coal-burning utilities, is blocking progress on climate change. We still subsidize fossil fuels and we pay oil companies to go out and look for more. Twenty-five years ago we put an electric car on the moon, but we can’t put one on the streets of an American city.
And what of Al Gore, the heir apparent? Five years ago in “Earth in the Balance,” he wrote global warming is the most serious problem we face today. Science has done much to confirm that view since then, but Al Gore is now the junior partner in the biggest roadblock to change. In last Sunday’s New York Times, Gore was asked point-blank why he is such a sell-out on the environment. His response was that he is not going to paint Bill Clinton into a corner, that he would not be disloyal. What about your loyalty to the American public, Al? How about some loyalty to the truth?