[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: Warming to Global Warming

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Warming to Global Warming

August 27, 2004
 


 

After three years of belittling or suppressing science, the
Bush administration appears willing to concede that humans
and their industrial activity have been largely responsible
for the recent warming of the earth's atmosphere. This
tardy acceptance of what mainstream scientists have been
saying for years does not mean that the administration is
prepared to deal seriously with the problem - by, for
instance, supporting mandatory caps on emissions of carbon
dioxide. But at least nobody is trying to hide the
evidence. 

The administration's views are contained in a report to
Congress accompanied by a letter signed by the secretaries
of energy and commerce and the president's science adviser.
It asserts that natural causes cannot explain significant
warming since 1970 and says that man-made emissions from
smokestacks and tailpipes are the likely cause. 

White House officials, who did not go out of their way to
publicize the report, clearly do not mean it to be
interpreted as a campaign-year change in President Bush's
position on global warming or as a precursor to more
aggressive legislative and administrative measures. But
they did not brush it off, as happened in 2002 when Mr.
Bush dismissed a serious internal study written by his own
experts. Nor did they attempt to suppress it, as happened
later that year with a report on air pollution from the
Environmental Protection Agency. 

So this is progress, of a sort. But it won't mean much
unless Mr. Bush gets serious about remedies. His program of
research and voluntary initiatives has generated modest
enthusiasm in industry but inspires little confidence that
the warming trends will be arrested, much less reversed, in
the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, there are several
initiatives awaiting attention on Capitol Hill that could
begin to restrict greenhouse gas emissions. But they have
no chance of approval unless Mr. Bush gives the nod to the
Republican leadership. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/27/opinion/27fri2.html?ex=1094634598&ei=1&en=9931ecc3bcfcd86f


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