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The President's Foul Joke

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 16, 2008

President Bush's snarky comment at the end of a private meeting with world leaders shows why the United States' international standing faces low tide.

As the meeting of G8 countries concluded in Japan last week, the president said with a grin, "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."

The sarcastic reference shocked his colleagues and drew unneeded attention to his administration's refusal to curb the emissions that contribute to climate change.

It was a bad joke and bad manners, at best. It conveyed disdain for the nations that desire to be good stewards of Earth. Most assuredly, it undermined sympathy for the argument that the United States should not have to adopt tough standards that could jeopardize its economy, while developing nations such as China and India pollute with abandon.

Bush's environmental record is lamentable. His administration teamed with industry in a failed effort to stop states from trying to curb air pollution. And it has ignored a Supreme Court directive to assess the public threat of climate change, instead choosing to leave that job for the next president.

America has reason to be concerned about international limits on greenhouse gas emissions. There will be economic consequences, so we should proceed cautiously.

But we must proceed.

Scientific studies and growing natural evidence - from dying coral reefs, to chronic droughts, to melting ice caps - make clear that climate change is real.
Even skeptics should appreciate the advantages of transitioning to clean, efficient technologies that not only clean the air but create new industries and more domestic jobs than our dependence on foreign oil.

Should the United States become a leader in clean technology, it could regain its competitive edge in the world marketplace.

Instead, with his snide remark, Bush thumbed his nose at the globe's health. That's not the kind of leadership that wins respect, much less support.

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