Al Gore, Back in the Oval Office

George invited Al to the Oval Office for a half-hour visit after the Nobel Prize presentations.

Bush aides said it was private and would not comment on it. Gore, trailed by the press as he left the White House very publicly on foot, allowed that he and Bush spent the whole time talking about global warming.

"He was very gracious in setting up the meeting and it was a very good and substantive conversation," Gore said.

  Times of India

Oh, no doubt.

Who Are You Going to Believe?

Me or your lying eyes?

"Not actually linked to regional events."

That's the quote Bush's top science adviser made yesterday, saying there's no conclusive evidence that limiting the earth's temperature increase of two degrees Celsius would actually do anything.

His remarks run counter to that of most scientists and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- which won the Nobel Peace Prize last week.

Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy John H. Marburger III said Thursday the target of limiting planetary heating to two degrees Celsius or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit "is going to be a very difficult one to achieve and is not actually linked to regional events that affect people's lives."

  Raw Story

Two words: butterfly effect. Wise men throughout the ages have understood that everything is connected. But, the weather?? A “planetary” event doesn’t affect people’s lives?

While admitting that humans are producing too much carbon dioxide, he added, "you could have emerging disasters long before you get to two degrees... "

And with him and his administrative leaders at the helm, emerging disasters are well underway, so I have to agree with him on that one. Hey, why worry about global warming? We’re going to be nuked out of existence long before that does us in.

Under other circumstances – say if you were an Olympic God – this administration would be laughable.

Global Warming Is a Good Thing

With the melting Arctic ice, we'll be able to get ships through to exploit a "potential resource honey pot" of oil and gas.

Draft in the Future?

Yesterday I heard a reporter on NPR interview General Lute, the new War Czar, who said he talks with Bush every day. When asked whether he thought a draft made sense, not from a political perspective, but from a military one, he answered that a draft has always been "on the table" as a tool to protect the nation "by one means or another."

Steve Benen at TPM reports that the answer caused a stink and will probably be the last time we hear directly from General Lute.

I'd agree with his reasoning, but I'd say it may be the second-to-last time. The last time will be when General Lute "clears up" that statement.

Those Wasteful Democrats

The Chairman and Ranking Republican on a committee in the House of Representatives that oversees America's spy agencies continued a war of words over whether or not the Central Intelligence Agency should complete an assessment of the threat to the United States from global warming.

[...]

"House Democrats want to return to the days when the CIA wasted valuable resources on 'bugs and bunnies.'"

   Raw Story article

Or was that Bugs Bunny?

Anyhoo, I'm inclined to agree with Hoekstra's wonderment about why the CIA should be investigating this matter. But then, perhaps it's because Georgie and Company don't listen to scientists, eh?

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

The Emperor's New Clothes

In rejecting any emissions standards at all, Bush has been explaining that global warming can be overcome entirely through technological advances, which the United States will be delighted to sell the world. Because nothing says capitalism like first getting rich creating a problem, and then getting rich again trying to fix the problem you created.

Bush has a similar approach to African poverty, as George Monbiot explains in the Guardian. Under the“African Growth and Opportunity Act,” African countries would only get American help if they fully open their markets to American multinational corporations, in return for which they get limited access to the American market, limited, that is, to the shit sectors the multinationals don’t want:

Clothing factories in Africa will be allowed to sell their products to the US as long as they use “fabrics wholly formed and cut in the United States” or if they avoid direct competition with US products. The act, treading carefully around the toes of US manufacturing interests, is comically specific. Garments containing elastic strips, for example, are eligible only if the elastic is “less than 1 inch in width and used in the production of brassieres”. Even so, African countries’ preferential treatment will be terminated if it results in “a surge in imports”.

  WIIIAI article

Butthead Two takes on Butthead One

The Republican governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, today sent a robust message to US President George Bush to face up to the reality of global warming.

Climate change is at the top of the agenda for next week’s G8 summit in Gleneagles, but reports suggest that Mr Bush is blocking a deal on action to tackle it, with some commentators even predicting the other seven nations may agree a statement excluding the US rather than leave Scotland without an accord.

Leaked drafts of the proposed communique on climate change appear to suggest that Washington is unwilling even to sign up to a document which states that global warming is occurring or that human activity is responsible for it.

Without mentioning his president by name, Mr Schwarzenegger used an article in tomorrow’s Independent on Sunday to send a clear message of his disagreement with Mr Bush’s stance.

“The debate is over,” wrote the Governor of the US’s largest and most economically powerful state.

“We know the science. We see the threat posed by changes in our climate. And we know the time for action is now.”
  Breaking News article

Well, some of us don't believe in science. And some of us don't believe in placing environmental concerns in the way of corporate profits.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.