The U.S. Warms the Bench
The effects of global warming are too slow for blockbuster movies, but they’re dramatic if you fast-forward. Eskimos and polar bears in Alaska are being forced inland as their ice habitats melt. Montana’s Glacier National Park is bereft of all but 30 of the 150 glaciers it had a century ago, with each remnant less than one-third its original size. Low-lying Pacific islands are disappearing under rising seas. There’s no precise measure of what amount of the warming is because of the emission of so-called greenhouse gases, but there are few scientists who say humans are not a major part of the problem.
As much of the rest of the world joins a global climate treaty that took effect Wednesday, the United States -- which generates one-quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions -- remains on the sidelines. There are many reasons, including hostility in some quarters to global agreements. The most persuasive is that to comply with the Kyoto agreement (named after the city of its birth) would imperil the U.S. economy while merely slowing the underlying problem.
What most peeves many Bush officials about Kyoto is its exemption of China and India, as “developing nations,” from emission reductions despite their dramatic industrialization since the treaty was signed. If China builds all the dirty-coal plants on its drawing boards, it will create enough pollution in 15 years to nullify the efforts of all 141 nations that ratified the pact.
Kyoto’s flaws, however, are no reason for U.S. inaction. On Thursday, President Bush promised to work with Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Stephen Byers, a former aide to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who are crafting alternatives to present to Bush when top industrial nations convene this summer for their yearly summit.
Bush could take action at home by pressing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) to schedule a vote on a bill by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) that would require U.S. industrial plants to cut fossil-fuel pollution to 2000 levels by 2010.
More immediate, Congress should stop the phaseout of the tax deduction given to people who buy hybrid-fuel cars. The deduction started at $2,000 in 2002 but dropped to $1,500 this year and will fall to nothing in 2007 unless there is new funding.
Such measures would also reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. All these steps won’t restore melting icecaps, but that’s no reason to stop trying. Otherwise, China and India have no reason to take U.S. demands for environmental improvements seriously.
