Common Dreams / Published on Tuesday, May 17, 2005 by the Guardian/UK
It would be easy to think that America doesn't doesn't give a fig for the rest of the world's concerns about global warming. President Bush has ignored his own scientists and kept the US out of the Kyoto treaty, and last week his chief climate negotiator, Harlan Watson, seemed to dash Tony Blair's hopes of a breakthrough at the G8 summit in July when he provocatively said that he saw no reason to take any speedy action. The ice caps may be melting and 19 of America's warmest years on record may have occurred since 1980, but the country responsible for a quarter of the world's greenhouse-gas emissions regrettably sees no reason to act. Wrong.
The White House is not America, and over the past few years concerned local authorities, institutions and groups of all political persuasions have quietly cocked a snook at the president by committing their communities to the same targets and timetables that the US would have been legally obliged to meet had it signed up to Kyoto. As of yesterday, 154 US local governments - representing more than 50 million people and responsible for 20% of all US greenhouse emissions - are part of a coalition that has pledged to reduce emissions by 7% below 1990 levels by 2012: more than Europe has committed to. Rather than fall for the White House line that meeting Kyoto targets means higher petrol prices and millions of lost jobs, they are taking industry and voters with them, dramatically cutting energy costs. Some, such as Salt Lake City and Seattle, have targets well below most European countries, and others are ditching SUVs and rethinking transport and heating strategies.
Not to be outdone, hundreds of universities have followed suit, But while these voluntary initiatives show America in a welcome light, they are, regretfully, not enough. If the world is to really address climate change, it needs the US government on every level to encourage, cajole, educate and insist on early action. George Bush should listen less to the vested interests of the oil and coal industries and more to his grassroots where common sense is often found.
