It’s Clear That Bush Is No Environmentalist

Re “Bush Cool to Blair on Climate,” July 5: Did British Prime Minister Tony Blair really believe that he’d get anything meaningful out of his backing of President Bush in the Iraq war? Even before 9/11, it was clear that helping out America’s corporations in any way possible is the Bush administration’s top priority. Cleaning up the air we breathe is near the bottom.

Bush will no doubt offer some small and relatively meaningless concessions on pollution standards, but the Kyoto Protocol is the antithesis of what he’s trying to accomplish: the dismantling of regulatory standards for industry and the neutering of the agencies in charge of enforcing them.

If Blair had Bush pegged for a good citizen of the world, then I might have to think again about who’s the smarter of the two.

John Wolfenden

Sherman Oaks

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With the wonders of the Internet, I am able to stay up to date while vacationing in Sweden, a country that is not only beautiful but has a population aware of such oddities (in the mind of Bush) as conservation, a clean environment and the preservation of our precious resources. Bush chides his pal Tony Blair and the world that the Kyoto Protocol is not for us and would cause great ruin to the U.S. if we were to participate. The man is either a fool or is so protective of his petrochemical pals (or both) that he is willing to mortgage the future of our great country.

Instead of ruin, I see opportunity. Instead of having our young men fight and die in Iraq and other foreign lands to protect our oil supply, I see new industries starting in the U.S. to develop new sources of energy. Finally, instead of enriching Saudi Arabia, which supplies financial help and support to Al Qaeda, I see the enrichment of our own people through the development of energy independence with the side benefit of a cleaner environment.

We have much to learn from our friends in Sweden, where the environment is clean, the people are healthy and slim, and the preservation of resources is important. It is time that we as a people wised up.

Robert S. Sage

Woodland Hills

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Bush is passing another opportunity at the G-8 summit to do something good. He has made a debacle of everything else. Now that he is the lamest of ducks president, nothing is changing.

He will be remembered as a president who failed the U.S. and the world.

Karen Suarez

Monrovia