3.27.2005
Hot Air and Global Warming (IHT.com)
By Derrick Z. Jackson
The Boston Globe
Saturday, March 26, 2005
BOSTON Every time the world calls for action on climate change, the United States emits more White House gases. The latest puff came from James Connaughton, the director of environmental quality, during last week's conference of 20 nations that met in London to try once again to make global warming a global priority.
At the conference, Gordon Brown, Britain's finance minister, said: "Climate change is a consequence of the buildup of greenhouse gases over the past 200 years in the atmosphere, and virtually all these emissions came from the rich countries. Indeed, we became rich through those emissions." Connaughton's response, in a BBC interview, was, "We're still working on the issue of causation."
Brown said, "We now have sufficient evidence that human-made climate change is the most far-reaching and almost certainly the most threatening of all the environmental challenges facing us." Connaughton's response as to "the extent to which humans are a factor," was, "They may be."
Brown said, "The industrialized countries must take responsibility first in reducing their emissions of greenhouse gases." Connaughton complained instead that the Kyoto target for the United States to reduce emissions "was so unreasonable ... that the only way we could have met it was to shift energy-intensive manufacturing to other countries."
Derrick Z. Jackson: Hot air and global warming ¶ 11:46
The Boston Globe
Saturday, March 26, 2005
BOSTON Every time the world calls for action on climate change, the United States emits more White House gases. The latest puff came from James Connaughton, the director of environmental quality, during last week's conference of 20 nations that met in London to try once again to make global warming a global priority.
At the conference, Gordon Brown, Britain's finance minister, said: "Climate change is a consequence of the buildup of greenhouse gases over the past 200 years in the atmosphere, and virtually all these emissions came from the rich countries. Indeed, we became rich through those emissions." Connaughton's response, in a BBC interview, was, "We're still working on the issue of causation."
Brown said, "We now have sufficient evidence that human-made climate change is the most far-reaching and almost certainly the most threatening of all the environmental challenges facing us." Connaughton's response as to "the extent to which humans are a factor," was, "They may be."
Brown said, "The industrialized countries must take responsibility first in reducing their emissions of greenhouse gases." Connaughton complained instead that the Kyoto target for the United States to reduce emissions "was so unreasonable ... that the only way we could have met it was to shift energy-intensive manufacturing to other countries."
Derrick Z. Jackson: Hot air and global warming ¶ 11:46
