Beckett calls for U.S. climate focus

[cal04]

Foreign secretary Margaret Beckett said on Thursday the next U.S president should quickly get involved in global negotiations to slow global warming, which she warned was fast becoming a crucial foreign policy issue.

"What I would like for the next administration to do is to engage fully in the international dialogue," Beckett told a meeting of Wall Street bankers at New York's Council on Foreign Relations.

President George W. Bush, who leaves office in January 2009, withdrew the United States from the 163-nation Kyoto Protocol for curbing global warming early in his first term, saying the agreement would hurt the economy and unfairly exempt developing nations like China and India from emissions limits in the first round.

In July, Prime Minister Tony Blair, one of Washington's closest allies, bypassed the Bush administration and met with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to explore ways to link emissions trading between Britain and that state.

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1401232006

[theophilus]

1. I don't feel a ground swell but I am detecting some tremors under

foot! The bad environmental news keeps on coming with monotonous regularity. And today....on CNN of all places.....there was some "scary" stuff being thrown down about global warming. And I mean the kind of "scary" stuff that everyone needs to see. They had a spot on the disappearance of the sea ice around the north pole. This was discussed and then they went to the weather guy who added that the man made problem of global warming was also causing the oceans to become more acidic. He said, "And if the oceans die, well....you don't want to know what will happen then." This caught my attention. Lots of folks see this "stuff" who have only been hearing global warming (catastrophic climate change) poo poo'ed. I think opinions are changing. Then fear will start building. By 2008 Mr. Gore, or at least someone he endorses, will be forced to step in to the office of president. I can dream.

Change WILL happen.

[sweetheart]

2. bush is already gone

and everyone's dealing in advance with the next administration, whilst hmmmm, thats 2 years away,
somebody tell margaret beckett that its unlikely she'll still have anything to do with it by then.