March 8, 2006
David Ignatius
Indianapolis Star
WASHINGTON -- The warnings are coming from frogs and beetles, from melting ice and changing ocean currents, and from scientists and responsible politicians around the world. And yet what is the U.S. government doing about global warming? The answer, essentially, is nothing. That should shock the conscience of American citizens.
Photo: harlequin frogs
Actually, the Bush administration's policy is worse than doing nothing. It has actively resisted efforts by other nations to discuss new actions that could reduce emissions of carbon dioxide before the global climate reaches a disastrous tipping point. And it muzzles administration scientists to keep them from warning about the seriousness of this issue. The administration's position is that more research is needed -- and then, as evidence grows that humans are adding to global warming, to call for still more research.
Congress is no better. Most members apparently are waiting for permission from lobbyists and campaign contributors before getting serious about climate change. The McCain-Lieberman bill to cap emissions languishes in the Senate; Pete Domenici, the powerful chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, has issued a white paper calling for ideas for legislation, but there's no word when a bill might emerge from his committee. Meanwhile, the Senate environment committee is also claiming jurisdiction. So what we have in the Senate right now is basically a turf fight.
Some giant corporations such as General Electric and Citigroup have concluded that global warming is real, and they are beginning to mobilize resources to do something about it. This business activism may offer the best hope of moving government off its duff.
Every week brings new evidence that global climate change is real, and that it's advancing more rapidly than scientists had expected. This past week brought a report in Science that the Antarctic is losing as much as 36 cubic miles of ice a year. Last month, researchers reported that glaciers in Greenland are melting twice as fast as previously estimated. Scientist, Richard Alley, told The Washington Post's Juliet Eilperin he was concerned about the Antarctic findings, since just five years ago scientists had been expecting more ice.
Photo: Pine beetles under the bark.
Andrew Revkin of The New York Times reported in January that colorful "harlequin" frogs found in Latin America are dying at alarming rates because of a fungus that seems to be linked to global warming. Doug Struck explained in the Post that climate change is helping the mountain pine beetle devour forests in British Columbia, killing more trees than wildfires or logging. In a meeting in Montreal last December, the chief American delegate, Harlan L. Watson, got so peeved about a proposal for new global "mechanisms" to carry out the 1992 Kyoto Protocol that he walked out. The U.S. side relented after the wording was softened to "opportunities," and there's now at least a hope for future talks about talks about global warming.
But woe unto any administration official who becomes so concerned about global warming that he actually tries to sound the alarm. James E. Hansen, the top climate scientist at NASA, found that political minders at NASA headquarters had ordered a review of his lectures, papers, interviews and Web-site postings after he called for quick reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions to ease global warming. A 24-year-old former Bush campaign worker who allegedly had been involved in efforts to muzzle Hansen later resigned after reports surfaced that he had fudged his resume.
Usually, America's political antics are forgivable, but not on this issue. As evidence grows that human activity is accelerating dangerous changes in the world's climate, the Bush administration's excuses for inaction are running out. History will not forgive political leaders who failed to act on this issue; neither should voters.
Ignatius is a foreign affairs columnist for The Washington Post. Contact him at davidignatius@washpost.com
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