Bush once again alienates America in his Neanderthal Speech

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Bush under fire at Paris climate meeting
By Marlowe Hood and Richard Ingham Posted Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:42am PDT

PARIS (AFP) - Leading players in talks to forge a pact for tackling climate change took the lash on Thursday to President George W. Bush's new blueprint for global warming, with one country mocking it as "Neanderthal."

At a ministerial-level meeting of the world's major carbon emitters, South Africa blasted the Bush proposal as a disastrous retreat by the planet's number one polluter and a slap to poor countries.

The European Union -- which had challenged the US to follow its lead on slashing greenhouse-gas emissions by 2020 -- voiced disappointment, delegates said.

Germany accused Bush of turning back the clock to before last December's UN climate talks in Bali and even to before last July's G8 summit.

In a statement entitled "Bush's Neanderthal speech," German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said: "His speech showed not leadership but losership. We are glad that there are also other voices in the United States."

Bush's speech on Wednesday came at a key time in efforts to craft a new UN treaty for slashing the heat-trapping fossil-fuel gases that scientists fear will ravage Earth's climate system.

The Bali talks yielded a two-year "roadmap" designed to culminate in a planetary deal that will tackle carbon emissions beyond 2013, after the present pledges in the Kyoto Protocol run out.

These negotiations have the delicate task of bridging the US on one side and the EU and developing countries on the other -- and Bush's critics said his speech had provocatively staked out old positions already blamed for prolonged stalemate.

Instead of setting a date for cutting US emissions, Bush had merely outlined a year -- 2025 -- by which the emissions would peak, they said.

In addition, he renewed his attack on Kyoto-style mandatory emissions caps and pressed big emerging countries to make concessions, saying they should not get "a free ride" in the next climate treaty.

"There is no way whatsoever that we can agree to what the US is proposing," South African Environment and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said.

"In effect, the US wants developing countries that already face huge poverty and development challenges to pay for what the US and other highly industrialized countries have caused over the past 150 years," he said.

"On this issue, the current US administration is isolated. It is them against the overwhelming majority of the world, developed and developing countries alike."

Jim Connaughton, heading the White House's Council on Environmental Quality, said this had been a "misreading" of what Bush had said, and hoped countries would focus on the practicalities of a deal rather than on the "rhetorical."

UN climate chief Yvo de Boer added that he saw a positive contribution from Bush, in that by putting a proposal on the table, the US would spur real negotiations.

Launched by Bush last September, the so-called Major Economies Meeting (MEM) aims at being a forum where a small group of countries can talk plainly and informally, thus helping to speed up the overall UN negotiation process.

It is also looking at how to enlist smart technology and energy-intensive industries in action to cut greenhouse-gas emissions.

The MEM gathers Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and the United States. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and EU are also represented.

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), gathering top climate scientists, last year urged rich countries to slash their emissions by 25-40 percent by 2020 compared with 1990 levels.

The European Union (EU) has set its sights on a 20-percent cut, and offered to deepen this to 30 percent if other developed countries follow suit.

At present, US emissions are already more than 16 percent above the 1990 benchmark.

The United States by itself accounts for roughly a quarter of global carbon emissions, but it is closely followed -- and by some estimates has already been passed -- by China.


This is one of the MANY reasons I can't wait for 20 Jan 09 to get here. He disgusts me on so many levels.

I can't even stand to listen to his or his ship of fools, (Rice, Chaney) voice. I have to let my BF listen and sum it up for me.

To play devils advocate, there is one thing that I do think is important. China can not just take our place in becoming poluters. It will do no good for us to cut down if they just take up our model of indifference with the plan to eventually "cut back". If they can afford to a million man army, they can afford to create an environmentaly friendlier model for their society. Moving all our factories to third world countries means those companies(and not just the country they are in)should take responsibility for funding the changes. Two wrongs are not going to make a right and just because USA was irresponsable doesn't mean that developing countries should get a free pass. The developed countries should assist them with giving them the research we develop in geo friendly technology and loans to help those who need them to comply. (It is an investment in the planets future and a better use of funding then the current illegal war.)

Google 'HAARP'.

I hope, being an American, that you guys from across the ocean won't look down on me because of the actions of my president. To tell you the truth, had it been up to me neither him nor his family would've had anything to to with the U.S. Government. I apologize.

What else is new and what else would you expect? Can't imagine how anyone can even stand to look at him anymore, let alone listen to him. My husband and I have a "Countdown to the end of the Bush presidency" calendar up and we enjoy laughing at the stupid Bushisms it has listed for every day. We're both political junkies, which is how we met in the first place.

Don't look down on you Americans at all, don't worry! It's not like you actually voted that administration in anyway, so it's not your fault - I think the average American is big a victim as any to be honest.

Westernwild, I love the calender idea!! Whatever happened to the bushisms site, it's not up anymore?!

Global warming is the biggest hoax to come down the pike since Scientology. It is the biggest big lie since Hitler. It reeks. The debate is over is what global warming idiots say - there never was a debate! All that there has been is good public relations.

Bush is an idiot though. His mentality is as near a stochastic process as any quantum random number generator.

Bush is kind of old news, you know?
He's not running in any election, and he's history in just half a year from now.
Better that we focus on the future: Obama, Clinton, and McCain.
We're gonna get stuck with one of those people,
so that's where we should be focused.