Bush's "striking shift" on global warming.(Ahead Of The Curve)

ITEM: On August 26, 2004 the New York Times reported a "striking shift in the way the Bush administration has portrayed the science of climate change...." The Times detected the supposed shift in position in a new report the administration submitted to Congress. That report, noted the Times, "focuses on federal research indicating that emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases are the only likely explanation for global warming over the last three decades." The Times story continued: "In delivering the report to Congress yesterday, an administration official, Dr. James R. Mahoney, said it reflected 'the best possible scientific information' on climate change. Previously, President Bush and other officials had emphasized uncertainties in understanding the causes and consequences of warming as a reason for rejecting binding restrictions on heat-trapping gases."

The Times story made a number of additional points reinforcing the "striking shift" theme. The article declared: "American and international panels of experts concluded as early as 2001 that smokestack and tailpipe discharges of heat-trapping gases were the most likely cause of recent global warming. But the White House had disputed those conclusions." The article also described President Bush as having "gradually come around to the position that warming is at least partly caused by emissions." And it reminded readers: "'The last time the administration issued a document suggesting that global warming had a human cause and posed big risks was in June 2002, in a submission to the United Nations under a climate treaty. President Bush distanced himself from it, saying it was something 'put out by the bureaucracy.'"

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: The supposed "striking shift" that the New York Times recently detected did not occur--but that's only because George W. Bush himself had already called for stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gases. Bush has in the past voiced opposition to the Kyoto (global warming) treaty, but he has not opposed the underlying assumption behind Kyoto that something must be ...