"Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter," Says Bush

According to the Telegraph, as U.S. President George Bush left the G8 summit in Japan, he departed with the words, "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter." Those present were shocked and surprised.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the White House response was "I don't have anything on this for you."

The G8 summit is a meeting of the heads of the richest industrialized nations to discuss world issues. This year's topics were Africa, climate change, intellectual property rights, political issues, world economy, and the food crisis.

Revised July 11, 2008.

Under Pressure, White House Issues Climate Change Report

From the New York Times, May 30, 2008:

The Bush administration, bowing to a court order, has released a fresh summary of federal and independent research pointing to large, and mainly harmful, impact of human-caused global warming in the United States.

The report, released Thursday, is online at climatescience.gov, along with a new report updating the administration’s priorities for climate research.

Most of the findings, like the spread of warmth-loving pests and the inevitable loss of low-lying lands to rising seas, are not new. But the report included new projections of how the poor, elderly and communities with lagging public-health and public-works systems will face outsize health risks from warming.

Among the report’s new conclusions on health: “An increased frequency and severity of heat waves is expected, leading to more illness and death, particularly among the young, elderly, frail and poor.” It added that deaths from cold would decline, but said uncertainties on both projections made it impossible to characterize the overall risk.

It gave high odds (essentially a two out of three chance) that Lyme disease and West Nile virus would have expanded ranges because of warming. The report gave the same odds that some food- and water-borne diseases would also increase among susceptible populations, but said “major human epidemics” were unlikely as long as public-health systems remained effective.

Under a 1990 law, presidents must submit a report to Congress every four years summarizing what is known about impacts of climate change and other global environmental problems on the United States.

The last such assessment, undertaken in the Clinton administration and published in 2000 in the early days of the Bush presidency, was attacked by groups and industries opposing restrictions on greenhouse gases. References to it were deleted from some government reports by political appointees in the White House.

Environmental groups sued to force the completion of a new study. In court, the White House contended that a series of more than 20 studies requested by President Bush in 2003 satisfied the 1990 law, but Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong of Federal District Court for the Northern District of California rejected that assertion last August and ordered a comprehensive assessment to be published by the end of May.

“This assessment is an example of what federal scientists can and should be doing when they are freed from political interference and allowed to actually do their jobs,” said Kassie Siegel, climate program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit.

Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who was the lead author of the 1990 law, strongly criticized the White House.

“The three-year delay of this report is sadly fitting for an administration that has wasted seven years denying the real threat of global climate change,” Mr. Kerry said in a statement. “In these lost years, we could have slowed global warming and advanced clean energy solutions, but instead America’s climate change strategy has been at best rhetorical, not real.”

By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: May 30, 2008

U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Fall

The Energy Information Association has released their report, "Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States 2006." Among the key findings published in the report:

• Total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2006 were 1.5 percent below the 2005 total—the first annual drop since 2001 and only the third since 1990 (largely a result of reductions in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions)
• Relatively robust economic growth in 2006, at 2.9 percent, coupled with a 1.5-percent drop in total greenhouse gas emissions, led to the decrease in greenhouse gas intensity
• Some of the factors that led to the decrease (such as weather) are variable; others (such as increased use of renewable energy for electricity generation) may indicate trends that are likely to continue.
• The steady decrease in carbon intensity (carbon/GDP) has resulted mainly from reductions in energy use per unit of GDP (energy/GDP) rather than increased use of low-carbon fuels
• The important factors that contributed to a drop in carbon dioxide emissions in 2006 included: total energy consumption in 2006 that was 0.5 percent below the 2005 total—due in part to favorable weather conditions (both heating and cooling degree-days were below 2005 levels) and in part to higher energy prices that helped to dampen energy demand. A decline in the carbon intensity of electric power generation that resulted from increased use of natural gas, the least carbon-intensive fossil fuel, and greater reliance on non-fossil energy sources also contributed to the decrease.

According to a statement issued by President Bush today:
"I was pleased to receive the Energy Information Administration's final report today, which includes U.S. greenhouse gas emissions for 2006. The final report shows that emissions declined 1.5 percent from the 2005 level, while our economy grew 2.9 percent. That means greenhouse gas intensity - how much we emit per unit of economic activity - decreased by 4.2 percent, the largest annual improvement since 1985. This puts us well ahead of the goal I set in 2002 to reduce greenhouse gas intensity by 18 percent by 2012."

Climate Change: Filling the Bush Gap

From Time magazine, the article "Climate Change: Filling the Bush Gap" offers an overview of three international meetings last week on the topic of climate change: the United Nations' meeting, the Pres. Bush summit, and the Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting.

Read the full story here.