No one said it better than in an issue of Road & Track magazine: "Are we ignorant at changing the climate, or ignorant in thinking we can?"
You could look at this in several ways. First, fighting global warming would give the Bush administration a legal pretext for trying to impede the development of oil-dependent industrialisation in the developing countries, which would eliminate them as competitors for the same oil resources. Supplying them with the nuclear technology to make their economy tick would make those economies dependent on the US. It is a bit like selling reactors being the new arms trade. In the end you would engineer two camps: those developing countries that are US friends, who get thriving industries fueled by nuclear power and nukes to defend themselves, but are totally dependent on the US, and those that are enemies which are left behind the industrialisation curve with faltering economies, and no nukes to defend themselves. Of course it won't work anywhere as neatly as that. There are other big competitors like China, who are making similar plans.
So, the official US line now is; Climate change is a fact Man-made emissions play a part Making a lot of hot air will solve the problem The proposed timescale nicely makes implementing any unpopular measures the next US government's problem.
I can't believe Bush fell into this garbage. Of course, it could be a double play. He scores points for addressing this supposed issue, and by turning it over to the UN, he insures that nothing of any importance will ever get done about it.
How to make a lot of noise and get nothing done. Give it to a comission.. Bureaukrats. I hate the lot of them. Bush needs to start on home turf. Not by pulling something down over the rest of the world. The EU are no better, and for that matter my small country found here lat 55°29'27.85"N long 9°28'50.28"E have issues that I'm pissed about. The way I see it the UN, EU and any other Union above 20 people never gets anything done.
Hmmm... no, I don't think this is about point scoring. He knows he is on the way out anyway, so he doesn't care about his popularity anymore. He is just coasting it out while keeping fingers crossed that he doesn't have to deal with the mess in Iraq or Afghanistan before he leaves. I think this is long-term planning by his administrators. They are setting in motion the next move to secure US access to foreign oil, and to make developing countries beholden and dependent on the US. They have learned from the Middle East how influential you can be if you control the fuel that powers other country's economies. The world is hooked on Middle Eastern oil; now the US wants the world hooked on their nuclear technology. Global warming offers the perfect sales pitch while making them appear the good guys.
Kyoto was "fatally flawed" in American government eyes; it expected the signing nations to actually do something about reducing their carbon footprint. "Actions speak louder than words" is the phrase we're looking for. Or in Bush's case,
