Bush holds the line on Kyoto as debate grows in US public

[paineinthearse]

Police look at a defaced poster of U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites), while environmental activists protest against Essso's alleged lobbying of the U.S. President to refuse to abide by the Kyoto Protocol (news - web sites). With the pact on climate change set to take effect, the Bush administration still rejects it as too costly for the US economy and based on questionable scientific hypotheses(AFP/File/Gerry Penny)

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Bush holds the line on Kyoto as debate grows in US public

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/unclimatekyotous

14 minutes ago

WASHINGTON, (AFP) - With the Kyoto Protocol (news - web sites) on climate change set to take effect, President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s administration still rejects it as too costly for the US economy and based on questionable scientific hypotheses. But criticism of the White House stance is growing, even from the ranks of the Republican majority in Congress, and in a handful of states where critics say US environmental policies are too often shaped by economic concerns.

"There is no serious initiative that the administration has proposed that will come anywhere close to dealing with the soaring US emissions," said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists, an influential professional association. In his view, the voluntary programs for reduction of emissions set forth by Bush in 2002 are toothless. But Bush continues to oppose caps on carbon dioxide emissions, largely deemed responsible for the greenhouse effect and global warming.

The United States initially signed up to Kyoto's framework but in one of his first acts after taking office, Bush abandoned the accord in March 2001 on the grounds that it would be too costly for US industry. Congress, where a majority opposed US participation in the treaty, was compliant. A bipartisan Senate resolution, unanimously adopted in 1997, said the president should not even sign an accord that forced the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without developing countries, including China, shouldering the same obligations.

<snip>

Thursday, Republican Senator John McCain and Democrat Joe Lieberman (news - web sites) presented draft legislation that would establish caps on 80 percent of polluting emissions in the country. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, who opposed Kyoto, called in a speech Thursday for new public and private actions including in developing countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

[LynnTheDem]

1. Poor stupid rightwingnuts; only 39% thought bush opposed Kyoto.

So there are 61% very stupid rightwingnut RUBES who are now discovering they were WRONG about what bush's stance on the issue is.

[cvoogt]

2. Bush makes me question

the questionable hypothesis of evolution .... on the other hand, he could be the missing link. </sarcasm>

Edit to add /sarcasm

[Stop_the_War]

3. That poster makes me wonder...

is that poster put there by the government. Is it propaganda? I was thinking it might've been an anti-Bush poster, but why then are there police there after it was defaced? It must've been some kind of government propaganda. That worries me.

[paineinthearse]

6. Sure looks photoshopped to me....

...not genuine at all.

1. The blue on red looks like the work of Andy Warhol.
2. The E$$O is too "clean".
3. The people in the foreground don't appear to match the background.

[EVDebs]

4. The Netherlands and Pacific Island nations, soon to be inundated

will surely greet Bush with open arms when he comes to visit, as long as their 'Mae West' lifejackets don't get in the way. I just saw Michael Creichton doing a talk poo-pooing global warming while lecturing on CSpan2 BookTV about "State of Fear".

The public who reads more than halfbaked novels about eco-terrorists would do better reading Jack Doyle's "Taken For A Ride" about Detroits' Big 3 and pollution; also, Marc Reisner's "Cadillac Desert" on water in the US West would go a long way to informing rather than proselytizing for the right wing.

Reality is always much more interesting than fiction.

[LiberallyInclined]

5. when condi went to europe to "patch things up" with our European allies-

They should have told her that to prove that the U.S. was serious about a reconcilliation and future relations, she should go home, and come back once kyoto has been ratified in the U.S..

[paineinthearse]

7. She did such a good job....

That Kissenger had to go to Russia to talk with Putin. I thought the old Soviet Union was HER specialty????

[despairing optimist]

8. Bush holds the line on Kyoto as Capitol Hill moors the Queen Mary 2

EDIT for headline change.