The Headline Says It All

Bush seeks new image on global warming

Bush doesn't want to actually do anything about global warming, he just wants to make it seem like he's doing something. The purpose of the two-day "summit" is to "come together to set a goal" for reducing greenhouse gag emissions, but of course there's no talk about nay mechanisms for reduction. Because it's all about individual choice for various nations to figure out. Apparently, international treaties are voluntary now.

Meanwhile, other world leaders are pleading for mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases, and suggesting that Bush's summit was designed to take attention away from the work being done at the United Nations.

Using unusually blunt language, several high-ranking ministers from abroad, as well as American lawmakers, said the Bush administration's resistance to a national, economy-wide carbon cap is jeopardizing the world's ability to address climate change. Administration officials said they hope the talks Thursday and Friday will help the major carbon-emitting nations set a goal for cutting greenhouse gases by the end of 2008, but several foreign climate negotiators said that approach will not avert catastrophic climate change.

Environment Minister Connie Hedegaard, a self-described "Danish conservative," said she and other European leaders "are getting a bit impatient, not on our own behalf but on behalf of the planet."

"We need the support of the U.S.," she said at a Capitol Hill briefing with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and other U.S. and European officials. "China, India and the other industrializing countries, they will not do anything unless the U.S. is moving."

Bush's tactic is to delay action. And the world can't wait that long.