Global Warming

George W. Bush would not be president if it were not for his expressed willingness to grovel before the might and money of Republican fat-cat big-businessmen. It also helped that he was the son of a president and the recipient of outrageous decisions by one of his campaign chairpersons, the Florida Secretary of State, and by the Republican-dominated Supreme Court.

When the time came for the United States to sign-up to the Kyoto global warming treaty, Bush returned the favor to the fat-cats. Acting on the basis of pressure from Exxon/Mobil and other industries, he declined to sign the treaty. This must have been reassuring to the magnates and tycoons who bought and paid for the Bush presidency. For the rest of us, however, it meant continuation of a policy allowing the emission of greenhouse gases in amounts that will be catastrophic for the world.

In the Kyoto Protocol, the developed countries committed themselves to reducing their collective emissions of six key greenhouse gases by at least 5%. This group target was to be achieved through cuts of 8% by certain European countries, 7% by the United States, and 6% by Canada, Japan, and other countries. Each country’s emissions target had to be achieved by 2008-2012. The three most important greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N20). These gasses are produced in America by cars and by industry.

Instead of signing the treaty, the Bush Administration and its Republican lackeys in Congress denied that there was any such thing as global warming. Republican Senator James N. Inhofe of Oklahoma said, “the threat of catastrophic global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people." The conservative American Policy Center stated flatly: “There is No Global Warming. Period.” The “Cooler Heads Coalition,” a front group for big business, claimed that global warming was a myth. The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a business lobbying group, claimed that Carbon dioxide was not pollutant and did not contribute to global warming. There is a whole industry of scientists and scientific organizations paid by the oil companies and other energy and automobile companies who attempt to sow doubts in the public mind about the threat of global warming.

There has been, of course, plenty of evidence for global warning. Global warming is a fact, not a hoax. It is caused by the emission of greenhouse gasses. Al Gore has been campaigning for steps to be taken since before he was Vice President. There is now no doubt that he was right. Even the Bush Administration has tentatively acknowledged the existence of the problem, but denies that it is caused by human activity. Bush has rejected calls by environmentalists and some in Congress to regulate carbon dioxide, the leading heat-trapping greenhouse gas going into the atmosphere.

In a report issued recently by The National Academy of Sciences, which advises Congress and the government, the Academy stated that a sharp rise in temperatures has made the planet the warmest it has been in 400 years and probably made the late 20th Century the warmest period in 1,000 years. After reconstructing global average surface temperatures for the past two millennia, the Academy said that the data showed that the increase in global warming was caused by greenhouse gasses. Recent reports by international conferences of scientists have declared that global warming is real and that one of the causes is the production of greenhouse gasses by humans.

The consequences of this warming are frightening. The events shown in the movie, The Day After Tomorrow, may not be an exaggeration. Unless steps are taken now to reduce greenhouse gasses and reverse global warming, we are likely to see a melting of the ice caps. This would mean inundation of cities along the coasts of the oceans, including submersion of New York, Baltimore, Miami, and other cities around the world. Global warming will continue to lead to dramatic changes in weather patterns, including more hurricanes with violent weather in some places and droughts in others. The movie and book by Al Gore, “An Inconvenient Truth,” which are currently out, illustrate the dangers of continuing the present course.

Under pressure from industry, the Bush Administration is going to avoid doing anything about the problem. In a case before the Supreme Court, it recently sought to prevent the EPA from controlling the emissions of carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gases," claiming that they are not pollutants and do not cause the greenhouse effect. Such a position is not only wrong, but dishonest.

God forbid that the President and Congress should step in and force big business to lower the emission of greenhouse gasses. Such a requirement would cost the fat cats billions of dollars. It was the fat cats who put the Republicans in office, and such legislation would be treason by the Republicans to their benefactors. On the other hand, failure to act is treason to the American people and to the planet.