President Bush Still Clueless About Global Warming
Statement of David Hirsch, Program Director, Friends of the Earth
David Hirsch, [email protected], 202 558-8970
Today, President Bush announced that “global warming is a serious problem.” After this sensible statement, however, he continued talking.
First, he said that there is a debate over whether or not global warming is man-made. However, it has been more than a decade since the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found that man-made pollution has contributed substantially to global warming. There have been numerous scientific studies since then that back up this fact.
Second, President Bush said we need to “become less dependent on foreign sources of oil.” While this is true, it misses the key fact: we simply need to become less dependent on all oil, regardless of the source.
Third, coal is not “clean,” no matter how many government research dollars we throw at the coal industry. Even so-called “clean coal” generates thousands of tons of pollutants like mercury and carbon dioxide. Coal mining permanently scars our landscapes.
Fourth, nuclear power is neither a safe nor cost effective solution to climate change. To make a dent in global warming, it would take the construction of more than a thousand new nuclear power plants. There is no solution to the thousands of tons of radioactive waste generated by nuclear power plants, and these plants are potential terrorist targets.
Bush’s plan to deal with global warming might actually be funny if the consequences of delay and inaction were not so severe.