A roadmap on climate changeBy John F. Kerry and Jonathan Lash
Monday, December 3, 2007
After years of denial, delay, distraction and distortion, climate change is changing the political climate.
Australia's John Howard recently became the first national leader voted out of office in large measure because of his failure to respond to citizens' concerns about global warming. Newly elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has said he'll make global warming his first priority in office.
Australia's awakening is not an isolated example. Eighty-three percent of Chinese support action on climate change. Between 2006 and 2010 China plans to improve energy efficiency by 20 percent, increase use of renewable energy sources by 15 percent and continue their very large scale reforestation program.
The dialogue in the United States is also shifting, albeit too slowly. While all of the Democrats running for president endorse strong action to reduce emissions, among the Republicans, Senator John McCain is the lone sponsor of national legislation to combat warming, and while Fred Thompson acknowledges global warming on his Web site, he won't concede it's human-caused.
Maybe Fred thinks it's the hats. I wouldn't be surprised.
In addition to the op-ed by Sen. Kerry and Jonathan Lash in yesterday's International Herald Tribune, CQ Politics quoted Sen. Kerry in a piece on the role of Congress at the talks.
As the Bali conference gets underway this week, expect to hear more from Sen. Kerry and Sen. Boxer, who are leading the Senate delegation. Although representatives of the Bush administration aren't expected to bring much to the table in Bali, the Congressional contingent will be on hand to represent the concerns of the majority of Americans.
“We plan to send a very clear message that the hesitant, weak approach of the last seven years on climate change does not represent the American perspective,” Kerry said in an e-mail interview. “We will meet with many of the leaders at the conference and lend our opinion on ways the next administration can raise the bar. Our delegation will communicate the willingness of Congress to adopt mandatory emissions targets and will push for greater American leadership in future climate change negotiations. This is only the beginning of the process.”
We're ready to go to the next level in addressing global warming and climate change. VP Gore moved climate change to center stage in 2007. With people like Sen. Kerry and Sen. Boxer, who have been focused on climate change for many years, leading in Congress, we'll set a new level of commitment that far exceeds the myopia of the last 7 years with the Bush administration.
And that if we start now, there may still be a way to turn it around.
Comments (1)
Posted by fedup | December 4, 2007 1:21 PM
Great video. Now if we could only get the humans to get more serious and discuss climate change.
As Senator Kerry says: "Let's not just hope for progress in Bali, let's make it happen."