Has Bush gone green?(THE LAST WORD)

When President George W. Bush announced a new greenhouse gas reduction goal in his April 16 Rose Garden speech on climate change, environmentalists and politicians who have been warning for years about global warming were not impressed. German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel was harsh in a written statement issued from Berlin headlined: "Gabriel criticises Bush's Neanderthal speech. Losership, not Leadership." In Washington, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) echoed the sentiments of many Democrats--and some Republicans too--when he called the president's proposal "too little, too late."

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"Too little, too late"? What should the president have done sooner? And how much more should he have done? Well, Gabriel noted in his statement that there are "other voices in the United States" that take combating global warming seriously. Indeed there are. Consider this warning uttered by a U.S. president some years ago:

 
   The issue of climate change respects no border. Its effects cannot 
   be reined in by an army nor advanced by any ideology. Climate 
   change, with its potential to impact every corner of the world, is 
   an issue that must be addressed by the world.... 
 
      The process used to bring nations together to discuss our joint 
   response to climate change is an important one. That is why I am 
   today committing the United States of America to work within the 
   United Nations framework and elsewhere to develop with our friends 
   and allies and nations throughout the world an effective and 
   science-based response to the issue of global warming.... 
 
      My administration is committed to a leadership role on the issue 
   of climate change. We recognize our responsibility and will meet 
   it--at home, in our hemisphere, and in the world.... 
 
      I've asked my advisors to consider approaches to reduce 
   greenhouse gas emissions.... Our approach must be consistent with 
   the long-term goal of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in 
   the atmosphere. 

But wait, didn't Bush oppose the Kyoto Treaty? He did, but not because he disagreed with the treaty's underlying assumption that man-made greenhouse gases threaten the environment and must therefore be reduced. He simply disagreed with particulars, such as the fact that developing countries that pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere are exempt from the requirements of the Kyoto treaty. China, the president pointed out in his 2001 ...