I know JB just posted about George Bush, and not that it’s even any fun anymore to point out his infinite stupidity, but here’s yet another one. Last week, at the G8 summit in Tokyo, Bush ended a meeting with other world leaders with this amazing quote, presumably referring to the fact that he will be leaving office soon: “”Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.”
According to this article:
He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock. One official who witnessed the extraordinary scene said afterwards: “Everyone was very surprised that he was making a joke about America’s record on pollution.”
What a disaster. I’m amazed that George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush have not died in shame and remorse yet.
Good old George W. is at it again: today, he lifted the executive ban on offshore oil drilling, citing increasing gas prices as the reason. His rationale: Every dollar that is spent towards gas could be spent towards putting food on the table.
Sure, I suppose this is true, but I don’t particularly have any confidence in Big Oil companies that they will lower prices as supply increases…do you? They have a long history of greediness.
I thought these quotes were good:
From Senator Barbara Boxer:
President Bush is giving another gift to the oil companies that will do not one thing to lower gas prices for the American people. This proposal is something you’d expect from an oil company CEO, not the President of the United States.
Senator Dianne Feinstein said the President was “deluding the American public” into believing that new offshore drilling is a quick fix to $4 per gallon gasoline.
Nothing could be further from the truth. We cannot drill our way out of this problem.
I totally agree.
McKinsey’s Global Institiute released another study recently discussing what it would cost to reduce carbon emissions. As it turns out, not that much. I mean, yes, it does cost something, but according to their calculations, just 0.6-1.4% of GDP to get to managable levels, which is less than the 3.3% we pay as a society for insurance. And as they have noted before, many of the reductions can actually increase GDP! So in other words, we have no excuse for stronger leadership and more action. Money quote:
The microeconomic changes needed to increase carbon productivity at the levels required will not occur without the active leadership and collaboration of governments and businesses globally. We need new policies, regulatory frameworks, and institutions focused on four areas: creating market-based incentives to innovate and raise carbon productivity; addressing market failures that prevent abatement opportunities from being captured profitably; resolving issues of allocation and fairness, in particular between the developed and developing worlds and between industry sectors; and accelerating progress to avoid missing critical emissions targets.
Thanks to Climate Progress for pointing this out.
Today Al Gore gave a powerful speech calling for, as the New York Times put it:
