If you're of a certain age - OK, if you can remember '70s television -
then you probably remember the little old man character that comedian
Tim Conway would play on
The Carol Burnett Show.
It always took an interminable amount of time for the geezer to walk
across the stage, bringing to mind just how long it has taken for
President Bush to move forward on global warming.
For most of his first term, the president refused to acknowledge that
human activity might be causing climate change. The subject was never
deemed important enough for one of Bush's State of the Union speeches
until the one last year.
Finally, Thursday, with nine months left in his presidency, Bush
announced a plan to limit greenhouse-gas emissions. Not only does the
plan come late, but experts say its goals would not be enough to stop
global warming from hurting the planet.
Bush's plan wouldn't stabilize U.S. carbon dioxide emissions until the
year 2025, with reductions occurring only after that date.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says the worst effects of
global warming - a massive rise in sea levels, maybe even the
extinction of species worldwide - likely cannot be avoided unless the
growth in emissions is stopped by 2015.
The IPCC, which with Al Gore was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize,
wants industrialized countries to cut their carbon dioxide emissions to
40 percent of what they were in the 1990s by 2015 and to 95 percent of
1990s levels by 2050.
"The science is clear on what is necessary to tackle global warming,
and the Bush administration's plan doesn't come close in getting the
job done," says PennEnvironment field organizer Adam Garber.
"Since Pennsylvania is the third-highest emitter of global- warming
pollution, we need Gov. Rendell to introduce a state-level
global-warming plan that follows the science," Garber said.
Perhaps the states should take more action. But the federal government
can do better. In fact, the Senate has before it a plan that would stop
the growth in greenhouse emissions by 2012 and cut them to 66 percent
of 2005 levels by 2050.
It's a good sign that each of the remaining viable presidential
candidates - Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain - has
promised to do more to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Bush has expressed a justifiable caution against crippling American
industry to fight global warming. Developing nations such as China and
India don't want their economic growth stunted either. But it's time to
pick up the pace.
