 Global
Connections
with David Suzuki
America's head in the sand on climate change
The United States is not exactly known for having a progressive official policy
on climate change. President Bush goes out of his way to avoid talking about the
issue and prefers to discuss "climate variability", thereby removing
the human hand from the problem and downplaying the urgency of the situation.
In fact, the US Government has been accused of softening - even altering -
scientific statements about global warming. The US was also instrumental in watering
down a proposed joint statement on climate change from the G8 leaders summit this
week in Scotland. A draft statement showed no targets or timelines and is essentially
meaningless.
But while the official US position may involve sticking its head in the sand,
many US states and cities are stepping up to the plate, taking the problem seriously
and recognising the benefits of reducing the emissions that are disrupting the
climate. And some of the emerging leaders are also some of the least expected.
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is one. The former actor and current
leader of the world's fifth-largest economy recently announced plans to reduce
his state's heat-trapping emissions to 80 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050.
"Not bad - for a Republican," some might be tempted to say. But changing
the way we produce and use energy is not a partisan issue. Mr Schwarzenegger deserves
full credit for setting such an ambitious (yet achievable) target that may have
raised more than a few eyebrows in his own party.
Regardless of one's political affiliations, shifting to more sustainable forms
of energy production and using energy more wisely makes sense. Doing so will save
money, partly because energy in any form is expensive. But it will also save money
in the long term because it will reduce other burdens to society like climate
change and air pollution - burdens that have real economic costs in terms of health
care, infrastructure and agriculture. They also hurt our quality of life.
Schwarzenegger isn't the only US leader to recognise the advantages of changing
our energy economy. Seattle mayor Greg Nichols, a Democrat, has organised some
300 other American mayors (including many Republicans) to agree to meet or beat
the targets set out in the Kyoto Protocol. That's the very same Kyoto Protocol
that the US officially dropped out of years ago, saying that reducing heat-trapping
emissions would damage the American economy.
Meanwhile mayors like Mr Nichols are embracing the transition away from fossil
fuels as an economic opportunity for their cities. Mr Nichols recently told Grist
Magazine that the change is inevitable, so we should embrace it and encourage
entrepreneurs to figure out how to make it profitable and create "green jobs."
It's too bad that kind of leadership hasn't trickled up to the G8 meetings.
Together, G8 countries are responsible for nearly half of the world's carbon dioxide
emissions - the main heat-trapping gas. They are also the most technologically
and scientifically advanced, accounting for 70 per cent of the world's scientific
citations. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been a vocal proponent of a stronger
climate commitment from the leaders, but President Bush has consistently shut
down any meaningful action.
A month before the G8 meetings the scientific academies of each of the G8 countries
(including the US) released a joint statement calling on the leaders of these
countries to take action on climate change. They pointed out that failing to act
quickly will make a problem that we will inevitably have to deal with much worse.
That's something many world leaders, US governors and hundreds of US mayors
clearly understand already. Change is happening, whether the White House likes
it or not. It's only a matter of time before the Bush administration will have
to pull its head out of the sand and face reality. With the US responsible for
a quarter of the world's heat-trapping gases, we must hope that will happen soon.
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