"Bush has it backwards"

Another strongly-worded editorial, this time from the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Looks like the press on both sides of Atlantic is getting worked up about climate change policy!

Here's an abstract:
"..the president's men are attempting to swing the other G-8 industrialized nations away from supporting Kyoto-style reductions, and toward Bush's every-nation-for-itself approach. As negotiators draft a climate policy for approval at next month's meeting of the G-8 leaders, U.S. representatives have insisted on changes that, true to form, minimize the dangers of the warming atmosphere and leave each nation to decide its own responsibility.

Even the document's benign opening statement -- "Our world is warming" -- has been challenged by Washington. It would be just as sensible to remove all references to the world's being round. This is a shameful stance for a country that remains, by far, the world's biggest consumer of fossil fuels and, consequently, the biggest producer of globe-warming pollution. It can only further diminish America's standing as a cooperating member of the world community, and lend cover to the developing countries seeking to resist global accords that would hinder their exploding industrial growth.

Bush has it backwards. As the other G-8 leaders know, as most of the world knows, and as a growing number of big multinational corporations know, the day of reckoning on global warming cannot be postponed forever. In the meantime, it makes sense to begin a transition to industrial systems that ease the loads of warming gases in the earth's atmosphere -- and, in the process, achieve technological leadership that will be prized in the not-so-distant future."