It is now being widely reported overseas that in closing a private meeting at the conclusion of this week's G-8 meeting the beloved (despised) leader of the free world George W. Bush, gleefully punched the air after exclaiming "goodbye from the world's biggest polluter." As we have come to expect, he has once again managed to stall (as in enclose like livestock) any possible action to address global carbon emissions. It is now certain that in a short period of time, his administration will be viewed as wasting the critical period of time when anthropogenic climate change was proven to both real and serious threat to the short and long term viability of life support systems on the planet. At the same time the EPA announced that the agency would be taking no action to address carbon emissions during the remainder of the Bush/Cheney Presidency but would proceed with all possible haste to gather in additional reports and elicit public opinion instead. This in answer to the Supreme Court's ruling that it is the legal responsibility of the EPA to respond.
At a moment in history in which not only has it become clear that the level of CO2 in the atmosphere is rising faster than anticipated, it has become equally clear that the undesirable consequences of global warming are accelerating at a much faster pace and feedback mechanisms are becoming active sooner than forecast. For a world leader, or indeed anyone in a position of responsibility to ignore the facts is unconscionable. To undermine any and all efforts to make changes in an effort to control and reduce greenhouse gas emissions is nothing short of criminal.
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