- In a dramatic reversal of its previous position, the
White House this week conceded that emissions of carbon dioxide and other
heat-trapping gases were the only likely explanation for global warming.
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- Citing the "best possible scientific information,"
an administration official, James Mahoney, delivered a report to Congress
that essentially reversed the previous White House position set out by
George Bush, who had refused to link carbon dioxide emissions to climate
change.
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- Two years ago, when his administration last published
a document claiming that global warming over the last few decades had been
prompted by human behaviour, Mr Bush dismissed it as something "put
out by the bureaucracy".
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- One of Mr Bush's first acts on the international scene
as president was to refuse to ratify the Kyoto treaty, which aimed to cut
emissions by 5.2% from 1990 levels by 2012 - prompting outrage throughout
the world.
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- "We must argue with the Americans and get them to
agree we have to have a global solution, and America is a very important
part of that solution," the deputy prime minister, John Prescott,
said at the time.
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- But Mr Bush also alienated himself from members of his
own cabinet as he overrode the recommendations of his newly-appointed head
of the Environmental Protection Agency, Christine Todd Whitman. This was
widely seen as a payback to the energy lobby which had donated a huge amount
to his campaign.
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- At the time Mr Bush cast doubts on the science, claimed
restrictions would hamper economic growth, and said the treaty was "unfair
to the United States and to other industrialised nations" because
it exempted developing countries.
-
- However, it will be far more difficult for him to distance
himself from the current report, because it has been signed by the secretaries
of energy and commerce in his administration.
-
- Coming just days before the Republican convention opens
in New York, it is thought to be another attempt by the administration
to show moderate leanings.
-
- The report, which also quotes studies that indicate that
carbon dioxide stimulates the growth of invasive weeds more than it does
crops, is part of a regular series submitted to Congress to monitor global
trends.
-
- Mr Bush's former allies in the energy industry criticised
the findings. Myron Ebell, of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told
the New York Times it was "another indication that the administration
continues to be incoherent in its global warming policies".
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- Environmentalists say the report's conclusions simply
highlight the distance between what the Bush administration has done and
what good science suggests should be done.
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- "For four years the Bush administration has brought
the international global warming negotiations to a virtual standstill by
claiming that uncertainties in climate science do not justify the cost
of tackling it," said Rob Gueterbock of Greenpeace. "Now they
have finally accepted that CO2 is causing global warming, they have absolutely
no excuse for not rejoining the Kyoto process. Every day they continue
to stall will now be held to be criminally negligent by future generations."
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- A New York judge has rejected a request from New York's
largest anti-war group to hold a rally in Central Park the day before the
Republican convention.
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- State supreme court justice Jacqueline Silbermann ruled
that United for Peace and Justice was "guilty of inexcusable and inequitable
delay" in bringing the case to court.
-
- The group said it still planned to march past Madison
Square Garden, the convention site.
-
- The city's parks department had argued that a protest
in the park would ruin the lawn.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/
story/0,12374,1291986,00.html
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