Bush: "I Can Has Change Climate Too!"

Last week, the White House hosted a conference on climate change, with representatives from more than 20 countries in attendance. In classic CYL (cover your legacy) fashion, Bush is using the 11th hour of his term to show how serious he is about the issue of global warming, despite his unfashionably late arrival to the party. He tried his best material, but the audience wasn't having any of it.

"Energy security and climate change are two of the great challenges of our time. The United States takes these challenges seriously," Bush said in a speech at the State Department on the second day of the meeting. He proposed a summit next year of major CO2 emitters to set a long-term global goal for reducing greenhouse gases.

"By setting this goal, we commit ourselves to doing something about it. By next summer, we will convene a meeting of heads of state to finalize the goal and other elements of this approach," Bush said. However, he repeated his position that the goal should be an aspiration, not mandatory, and that each country should design its own strategy for achieving the long-term goal.

By not agreeing to binding mandatory resolutions, Bush has managed to isolate himself, and our country, even further than originally imagined. Even China and India aren't on board with the voluntary aspirations idea. It gets worse, though.

The reviews are in, and they're not at all good:

"It was a total charade and has been exposed as a charade," the [European] diplomat said. "I have never heard a more humiliating speech by a major leader. He [Mr Bush] was trying to present himself as a leader while showing no sign of leadership. It was a total failure."

John Ashton, Britain's special envoy on climate change, who attended the conference, said: "It is striking here how isolated the US has become on this issue. There is no support among the industrialised countries for the proposition that we should proceed on the basis of voluntary commitments."

[...]

Although many of those attending had predicted the conference would break up without significant agreement, there had been hopes that Mr Bush, in search of a legacy, might produce a surprise.

That last bit is pretty telling, and pretty pathetic. Bush's megalomania has gotten to a point that people have to base their hope of policy change on his concern about his legacy instead of something novel like trying to do the right thing. You can just add this one to the list of ever growing items (Iraq, plummeting dollar, endless debt, etc.) that is continuing to destroy our credibility with other countries. I guess if there's any consolation, it's that other countries are now explicitly joining us in wondering what the fuck is wrong with Bush.