Posted on 12/09/2005 3:03:35 PM PST by proud_yank
Word out of the White House is that the Bush administration is powerfully peeved by remarks delivered Wednesday by Prime Minister Paul Martin at the UN Conference on Climate Change.
"There is such a thing as a global conscience," Martin told reporters at the Montreal conference, referring specifically to the American refusal to commit to even a watered-down plan to cut greenhouse gasses.
The Americans, not surprisingly, took exception to Martin's scolding, and delivered one of their own to Canadian Ambassador Frank McKenna on Thursday.
Jim Connaughton, chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality, told McKenna that Martin's comments are the worst slight against President George W. Bush since Germany's Gerhard Schroeder had the temerity to suggest that Bush's stance against the Kyoto Protocol was responsible for hurricane Katrina.
Do the Americans have reason to be upset? American officials speaking at the Montreal conference after Martin delivered his broadside, correctly pointed out that the Americans have actually done a better job than Canada at reducing greenhouse gasses, even without signing on to Kyoto.
The rise in Canadian emissions has been twice that of the U.S. between 1990 and 2003, although a large part of the Canadian increase is directly attributable to increasing oil and gas exports from Canada to its energy hungry neighbour to the south (add Reality Check link). Nevertheless, it is not surprising that the Americans are getting a bit weary of being lectured to by a Canadian government that seems incapable of practising what it preaches.
But the prime minister really muddied the water by raising the question of a "global conscience". That is not something that can be measured as easily as greenhouse gasses.
The Americans are acutely aware of how much their global image has been damaged by their misadventure in Iraq and other unilateral foreign policy decisions, including Kyoto. They are currently spending millions of dollars on a massive public relations campaign to, among other things, convince people around the world that they do indeed have a global conscience.
The last thing the Bush administration needs is for the leader of one of its closest allies to raise that issue in front of the world's media at an international conference where the Americans were already being portrayed as standing in the way of progress on global warming.
Canada and the U.S. have had a series of highly visible disagreements over the past few years, from Iraq, to missile defence, to Kyoto and softwood lumber. It is clear that in this election campaign, Paul Martin intends to use all of these disputes as a way of differentiating himself from the Conservatives.
He will claim that he has stood up for Canada, while Stephen Harper would have rolled over. The American's rebuff of Martin's comments on Wednesday indicates Washington has no intention of spending the next six weeks playing the role of Paul Martin's punching bag. It was a signal that there will be consequences if the Liberals want to play politics with Canada-U.S. relations.
And as for that photo op between Martin and Bill Clinton in Montreal on Friday afternoon, expect that they won’t be jumping for joy in Washington about that one either.
"Do the Americans Have a Global Conscience?"
No, but we got the "Global Wallet".
:)
Do we get extra credit for putting out the oil well fires in Kuwait?
If global warming is real, where are the changes in global sea level?
Liberal morons of the media. They just cannot stand it because their failed socialism does not work.
No, there is not.
"The Americans are acutely aware of how much their global image has been damaged by their misadventure in Iraq and other unilateral foreign policy decisions, including Kyoto."
Im getting sick of these people.
Yes. This whole Kyoto travesty was nothing more than a failed effort to shake down the U.S. and now is being used by our enemies at home as well as abroad as another venue for venting their anti-American idiocy. Enemies at home include most of the democrat party and the leftist media.
Do the Canadians Have any Global Testicular Fortitude?
Canada - the hall monitor for the world!
I'm rather sick of them too. When idiots like Walter Cronkite come out with statements like 'The American voter is not intelligent enough to elect a good leader', I do have to smile. It is nice to know that with the rise of the internet, and other means, people can seek accurate information on their own besides the biased dribble the leftist MSM spews.
Even if we agree there is such a thing as "global conscience" and that manmade global warming exists and is seriously affecting climate changes, and that something needs to be done to curb the carbon dioxide we produce, there are some figures to consider:
Between 1990 and 2003, the carbon dioxide level Canada produced rose by 24%.
Between 1990 and 2003, the carbon dioxide level the United States produced fell by 2%.
Talking about model citizens. Yeah right.
LOL, that pretty much sums up liberalism in general. 'Keep whining for someone else to do something'
absolutely. An interesting thing to know is that one of the founding members of Greenpeace left for that reason, he saw that the environmentalist cause he supported was being taken over by those trying to push a political agenda. (He was on Penn & Teller, great show!)
I don't get it.
Somebody is peeing on my leg and telling me that it's raining.
I'm having Beans tonight in celebration of the death of kyoto!~}
Might I suggest that you drive (in SUV of course) to a store farther away than usual, and cook them on a gas-grill instead of on your stove.
I think I should go for a drive to celebrate Kyoto as well.
I'd love to go for a drive, but 4 inches of snow fell here in central Maryland this morning. During the day it only got warm enough for snow melt to cover the local streets. Now the temperature is falling to a predicted 18 F, and the streets are covered in ice.
Global warming? This is my fifth winter in Maryland. Four of those five have had average temperatures well below normal. Europe has had similar conditions. Looks like global cooling, to me.
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