Published: July 15, 2008 11:18 am            

White House wimps out on climate change

Now, that was leadership at its wimpiness.

With the pronouncement that his administration won’t join the war on climate change, George Dubya Bush has sealed his legacy as the worst president in American history.

And he’s rather a remarkable liar, too.

Does Bush not understand — or care — that his words are being recorded, that those records are accessible, and that millions of persons will compare what he said he would do with his actions?

Guess not. But then, Bush has proudly admitted he does not read newspapers.

It would be impolite and snarky to wonder whether the man can, in fact, read at all.

At the G-8 summit in Japan recently, Bush said the U.S. would try to cut global greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century. Friday, Bush essentially said that America can’t afford clean air and a habitable planet.

The White House Thursday rejected an Environmental Protection Agency decision that the 1970 Clean Air Act could be a tool to reduce the causes of climate change.

Essentially, the EPA caved and accepted the administration’s economic and scientific analysis, announcing Friday the law is “ill-suited” for that purpose.

Some credible scientists believe that by 2050, the cycle of climate change will be irreversible, making 42-year-old promises irrelevant. But that’s another column.

So, too, is the probability that Congress will do anything substantive about controlling climate change — or producing an energy policy that is anything more than so much carbon dioxide.

In “The World is Flat Release 3.0,” Thomas L. Friedman suggested that Bush could have ensured his inclusion among the nation’s greatest presidents by calling for “a crash program for alternative energy and conservation to make America energy-independent in 10 years.”

Friedman said the initiative would the equivalent of John F. Kennedy’s “moon shot” — the call to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s.

Instead, Bush’s policies have wrecked the economy, cost Americans millions of jobs and forced workers to find two or three jobs merely to survive.

Fans of the man from Midland may protest that Bush’s announcement he will lift a 27-year-old presidential ban on offshore drilling shows he feels our pain.

It is the Bush version of penalizing the oil companies. It’s meaningless without specific action.

And specific action from the administration, except when it comes to fighting wars, has been a rare best these last seven years.

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Remarks for readers outraged that I celebrated the death of infamous racist and misyogenist (among other grievous faults) ex-Sen. Jesse Helms:

A) Truth is an absolute defense.

B) What part of “opinion” do you not understand?

C) Given that Jesus Christ said the greatest commandment of all is love, how can Helms not possibly not be considered malignant tumor on the body of Christianity?

D) “Repent!”?

More meaningful to me was the comment, “Those of us of a certain age remember the race-baiting, the suppression of the National Endowment grants, and opposition to even the most basic tenets of equality for women. Nice work.”

Remember: Letters to the editor can’t have more than 400 words, excluding headline, salutation, signature and place of residence. E-mail missives happily opened, as our anti-viral software is state-of-the-art. A telephone number absolutely, positively is required, or the letter will go in the recycling bin.

After determining a letter to the editor is not leaking, stained or has multi-colored wires poking through the envelope, the second thing we do is look for a signature. If the letter is not signed, it is made roughly round and used for a game of cubicle volleyball.

— Rod Rose is the assistant managing editor of The Lebanon Reporter. He may be reached at rod.rose@reporter.net.

        

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