Bush to biosphere: drop dead

Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Tue, 07/15/2008 - 01:35

Is this satire? Please tell us this is satire. From AsiaOne News, July 12:

Bush's farewell joke falls flat
US President George W. Bush, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended his final Group of Eight summit this week with the words: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."

He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present, including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, looked on in shock, reported The Telegraph newspaper yesterday.

Mr Bush, whose second and final term ends this year, then left the meeting at the Windsor Hotel in Hokkaido, Japan, where the leaders of the world's richest nations had been discussing new targets to cut carbon emissions.

"Everyone was very surprised that he was making a joke about the US' record on pollution," the newspaper quoted an official who had witnessed the extraordinary scene as saying afterwards.

It was a defiant farewell from the President over his refusal to accept global climate change targets, said the Independent newspaper.

Mr Bush had given some ground at the summit by saying he would 'seriously consider' a 50per cent cut in carbon emissions by the year 2050.

See our last posts on the G8 Summit and global climate destablization.

It's not funny

Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Tue, 07/15/2008 - 01:41

From AP, July 8:

Cheney wanted cuts in climate testimony
WASHINGTON — Vice President Dick Cheney's office pushed for major deletions in congressional testimony on the public health consequences of climate change, fearing the presentation by a leading health official might make it harder to avoid regulating greenhouse gases, a former EPA officials maintains.

When six pages were cut from testimony on climate change and public health by the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last October, the White House insisted the changes were made because of reservations raised by White House advisers about the accuracy of the science.

But Jason K. Burnett, until last month the senior adviser on climate change to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson, says that Cheney's office was deeply involved in getting nearly half of the CDC's original draft testimony removed.

"The Council on Environmental Quality and the office of the vice president were seeking deletions to the CDC testimony (concerning) ... any discussions of the human health consequences of climate change," Burnett has told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.