Posted on 02/20/2004 9:10:00 AM PST by presidio9
Environmentalists fete John Kerry as a possible savior in a stalled battle against global warming if the Democratic front-runner topples President Bush in the November election.
"Kerry has probably been the greatest champion of climate change issues with (Joe) Lieberman in the U.S. Senate," said Jennifer Morgan, director of the WWF environmental group's climate change program.
European governments, among the strongest backers of the U.N.'s stalled 1997 Kyoto protocol meant to limit global warming, would welcome a shift toward Kerry's environmental policies after years of transatlantic feuds with Bush.
"Clearly we would like the new administration, whether Republican or Democrat, to come closer to European policies on the environment in particular," said Diego de Ojeda, a spokesman for the European Union (news - web sites)'s executive Commission in Brussels.
"It's better late than never," he said.
Bush stunned the world in 2001 by pulling the United States -- the globe's biggest polluter -- out of Kyoto, arguing the plan was too costly and wrongly excluded developing nations.
Massachusetts senator Kerry, who has won 15 of 17 Democratic primary contests so far, has berated Bush for ditching Kyoto rather than seeking to renegotiate.
Kerry now talks of taking part "in the development of an international climate change strategy to address global warming" -- music to the ears of many Kyoto backers who view climate change as the biggest long-term threat to life on earth.
Kerry has also campaigned for green issues like better fuel efficiency in cars or against plans for Arctic oil drilling. By contrast, Bush did not use the word "environment" in his 2004 State of the Union address.
NO MAGIC WAND
But a Kerry presidency would be no magic environmental wand.
Kerry judged in 1997 that Kyoto would be unacceptable to the U.S. Senate and now reckons it is too late for Washington to sign up for the first round of cuts under Kyoto, in 2008-12.
The protocol aims to curb emissions of gases like carbon dioxide (CO2) spewed by factories and cars and blamed by scientists for blanketing the planet and driving up temperatures, bringing more droughts, floods or typhoons.
Even so, some experts say the rise of a credible Democratic challenger to Bush could nudge an undecided Russia toward ratifying Kyoto, which will collapse without Moscow's backing.
"The fact that the United States has decided to stay out has been cited by analysts as an important factor in the reticence by Russia," de Ojeda said. "If the U.S. administration changed its position it might have a positive effect."
Kyoto has been ratified by countries producing 44 percent of industrialized nations' emissions but will only enter into force if it reaches 55 percent. Without the U.S. stake of 36 percent, Russia has a casting vote with 17 percent.
"Russia looks very attentively at the opinion of the U.S. administration, saying if the U.S. won't do anything then we won't either," said Alexander Nikitin, a Russian environmentalist. "A change in the U.S. position could well cause a change in Russia's as well."
Steve Sawyer, climate policy director at Greenpeace, praised Kerry for policies stretching back to opposing oil drilling off New England in the 1980s. "It's probably true that it's too late for the United States" to sign up for Kyoto, he said.
A surge in U.S. emissions since 1990 means that an abrupt shift from fossil fuels to meet Kyoto targets would threaten U.S. industries from coal fields in Montana to automakers in Detroit.
Oh, if only he had to chose. Unfortunately the lefties will pick what they want to hear from what he says therein pleasing them all.
Savage is all over the lot... Last night he claimed he was trying to save Bush from the defeat and if he only listened to savage ... a few weeks back he was talking like he didnt care about the Presidency ... the guy is great, but he's a nut.
Someone has to channel the energy and emotion into a more rational and strategic response that LEADS CONSERVATIVES TO VICTORY.
Conservatives need a voice and a vision - not marketing, not rants, not whining, not 'same old' promises that dont happen ... but a VISION of where we can go, communicating that with a VOICE that speaks for conservatives, and a STRATEGY that knows how to get the VISION implemented.
The madness of the manic-depressive conservatives running from hate-to-love-to-hate for our 80% allies like Bush does nothing to advance our cause. Voting for Bush is necessary but far far far from sufficient to advance the cause. Even Bush knows that - in the end, he is mostly hostage to the political possibilities laid out before him, possibilities that are constructed through the media and political process THAT WE AS ACTIVISTS CAN INFLUENCE. Quit fretting about what our leaders will do - what will YOU DO to change things?
Here is MY ANSWER: Support and vote for Republicans. Support Conservatives in primaries and Conservative Republicans in general elections. Try to spread the word on conservative issues. Challenge liberal media bias. Hold elected officials feet to the fire. All of them - Rs or Ds, whatever the stripe of ideology, should hear our demands that they support our agenda. Be a source of ideas, of light, of encouragement to our side. Be a builder not a tearer-down, be a uniter not a divider, be a 'happy warrior' and not a grumbling deserter-at-the-worst moment. Be a work horse to advance the cause and not a show horse. In short, be a citizen and a patriot for a better America.
Maybe she'll wind up accidentally voting for Lieberman!
MATTHEWS: How about ANWR? You guys want to see ANWR because you want to see guys working in your business. I guess there‘s a lot of Teamsters jobs up there lined up and organized, if you could put a pipeline up to the Alaska wilderness. He is against that.
HOFFA: Well, we talked about that.
He says, look, I am against ANWR, but I am going to put that pipeline in and we‘re going to drill like never before.
MATTHEWS: What, are they going to run water through it?
HOFFA: ... more jobs than the ANWR would have ever created.
MATTHEWS: What are they going to run through the pipeline?
HOFFA: And that‘s the position he‘s taking.
MATTHEWS: But he is against drilling up there. What are they going to run through the pipeline?
HOFFA: Well, they are going to drill all over, according to him. And he says, we‘re going to be drilling all over the United States. And he says that is going to create more jobs.
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: You got that guy rolling.
MATTHEWS: What position was he in when he made all these promises?
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: It just seems amazing that he has turned around on NAFTA, turned around on WTO, turned around on ANWR, anything to get the Teamsters.
HOFFA: Oh.
MATTHEWS: Who is going to be boss if he gets in there, you or him?
HOFFA: Well, I think that
MATTHEWS: It sounds like you are the boss.
Mark my words.
Then your head has a sunlight problem.
Just because something is labelled a "national wildlife refuge" or a "wilderness" does not mean that it is worth preserving in its "pristine" state.
And given current technology, it can be pretty precise and they won't have to drill the entire place, just the specific spots.
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