Apparently, the humourless twerps who lead many of the world’s main industrial nations got a touch of the vapours over these parting remarks from the President as he left the G8 cant-fest in Japan:
The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: “Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.”
He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.
Oh please. Mr Bush, who I imagine is fed up to the back teeth at the preening hypocrisy, moral posturing and downright dishonesty of the Green lobby, has clearly decided that the US is not going to be ashamed of being an industrial nation. The constant calls by various environmental groups for the US and other major states to slash CO2 emmissions by more than a half by tomorrrow afternoon or whatever are unworkable, and they know it. The massive cost of shifting energy sources to supposedly cleaner ones could help to tip parts of the world economy into recession or make the existing slowdown even worse; the push for biofuels, for example, is, arguably, hurting poor people in countries that are traditionally highly dependent on grains etc for basic foodstuffs.
In case any commenters ask, no, I am not a climate change denier, but I do seriously doubt whether a massive cut in carbon emissions over the timescale demanded by some is going to work without causing havoc.
No, I am glad Mr Bush gave his rival leaders the verbal equivalent of a kick in the nuts. More please.
George W Bush is still a moron.
The world’s largest polluter is now The People’s Republic of China.
So there!
Mark, Dubya will be soooo upset to hear that!
Puh-leese! I am getting so tired of this “Bush is a moron” crap. You might disagree with his policies (and I do, on many issues), but not being particularly articulate does not equate to low intelligence. In fact, based on SAT and other test scores his IQ is probably significantly higher than the norm (probably in the mid-120’s, compared to a norm of 100). Not genius level, but pretty average for Presidents, and I would bet significantly higher than the average politician.
In fact, that makes The Goblin King & Sarko look like morons as well.
If they took the slightest interest in this MMGW myth, they ought to know about China, and their response should have been “Ya boo sucks! You’re only the world’s SECOND biggest polluter”.
But as ever, piety comes before facts (and miles ahead of humour) so they had to “look on in shock”.
Love it
“Climate change denier”? Can’t we leave underhanded language like that to the Guardianistas?
I am not a climate change denier; I do not deny that the climate is changing, naturally, as it has for as long as earth has had an atmosphere and a climate.
I do deny that such changes are a result of any human agency, and that human agency will slow, stop or reverse them.
Does that make me a man made denier?
Climate change models – bah humbug!. Neither the official Canadian or American weather forecasts are able to predict the next 24 hours with much accuracy. Taking their predictions of rain as gospel, I lounged around the swimming hole instead of watering the garden and shut the windows down before going to bed. All I got was wilting plants and a sweltering house. Bah humbug! Yes I know I know weather is not climate and pull the other one.
I too am a proud, unrepentant ‘climate change denier’, at least in the sense that totalitarians like Gore and Hansen use the term. The climate is changing as it always does and man’s attempts to control it are pathetic. Those who advance the idea that reversing our technological progress will somehow cause the earth to achieve some mythical ‘balance’ are liars or fools or both.
OT, for those of you interested, the Vulcan was strutting its stuff around Farnborough this morning in preparation for the Air show. It’s still an awesome machine.
Good for him! It’s becoming increasingly clear that much of the cant spouted by the AGW lobby is watermelonism, with an agenda of destroying the industrialised west.
I just love that big goofy grin he does when he says something he knows people are going to hate. “I know people keep telling me not to say this kind of thing, and I know I’m not supposed to do the grin, but, well, screw it – who’s President anyway?”.
We’re going to miss him when he’s gone, you know. Not only does he allow us all to pretend everything is his fault, but he even seems to enjoy it.
God bless you, George W. Bush.
I disagree. Bush is a genocidal climate criminal. This is the way forward.
The facade is breaking up. The mask is slipping. The line is breached. Whatever. The Algorians are losing their monopoly on ‘truth’ and facts are leaking past the censors.
I much enjoy Jack Horkheimer’s five minute little tidbits for people without telescopes. (naked eye astronomy) And his theme music by DeBussy. His carnival sideshow style and clarity of speaking makes him one of the pleasant surprises that gets slipped now and then into holes in the schedule on our Madison, Wi PBS station.
He wrapped up the episode last night by saying:
Incidentally, I recommend him to anybody even remotely interested in astronomy. He is kind of campy and has fun. He talks a lot about the planets and the solar system, not just stars. And the cool music. De Bussy’s 1st of 2 Arabesques done with ’60s style synthesizers.
Nick M
Report for re-education immediately! Have you any idea how much methane one of those produces annually!
Nick; same deal in Tennessee.
He then punched Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy while grinning widely, as the rest of those present looked on in shock.
Now that would have been nice.
The State of Wyoming, under the leadership of its popular Democrat governor, is embarking on a program to inject CO2 emissions from industrial plants into deep underground caverns. The cost to do this will be enormous, of course.
Insanity has spread across the land when a natural and tiny component of our atmosphere, a compound that we humans and all other animals produce every time we exhale and that plants need, and for which there is no definitive scientific evidence that it is the least bit harmful, is to be treated as a radioactive waste product.
Mark Wadsworth,
The US is still number one per person. Perhaps Bush is not the moron you suppose. Maybe its the people who are so quick to call him a moron.
Yes indeed Comrade Nick
You should be ashamed of yourself!
Look what they are up to in Argentinia (apart from preparing to invade the Falklands again)
It’s worth a look for the pic alone!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2274995/Cow-farts-collected-in-plastic-tank-for-global-warming-study.html
I saw that. What a fucking job. Best not smoke whilst doing it you’ll end-up impaled with a T-bone steak.
Reminds me of this
‘In case any commenters ask, no, I am not a climate change denier…’
So, exactly what are you proposing as the ideal temperature for the Earth?
Like Egypt at midnight John.
What a preposterous question!
Or was it a query?
RAB. Some statements warrant sarcastic questions. Climate temperatures have not been static since the world was a ball of ice. The whole ‘climate change’ farrago is patently absurd.
Yep agree 😉
The environmentalists have a snapshot of 1956 dearly clasped to their hearts
and believe that with careful socialist management
the world will look like that for evermore!
Yeehaw, Mr. President! And that, Europe, is what being a “cowboy” is all about.
Yeehaw, Mr. President! And that, Europe, is what being a “cowboy” is all about.
I am going to miss that man terribly. And we’ve only a couple of wussies lined up to take his place.
The White House addressed this mistake in the article and apologized:
The only morons are the people that believe CO2 is a pollutant …
Can one be a Climate Change enthusiast? I’m from Canada. and it’s too damned cold up there.
Seriously, I have real trouble believing that a little human produced CO2 can make such a difference in a world with volcanoes and sunspots. Of course, if the GlowBall Vorming crowd didn’t keep lying and then trying to stifle debate, I might take them a bit more seriously.
“Climate Change Denier” — pejorative term used by those who insist that the mathematically-flawed long-discredited hockey stick temperature profile is accurate; that the temperature of the Earth has been constant since — well, since a long, long time — up until GW Bush was elected; that the Romans lied when they grew grapes in England; that those wacky Vikings lied when they called the place Greenland; that the English lied when they claimed the Thames froze in the 17th Century.
Only a person who denies all of the above (and much, much more) is fit to be called a climatologist — and to accuse others of being “climate change deniers”.
A colleague of mine was in Mexico City recently. After walking through the streets for a day, she couldn’t breathe and her feet were black from the soot (she was wearing open-toed shoes). I’ll sign up for the US cleaning the environment the second Mecico City is as clean as Los Angeles.
Any chance that he was referring to hopping aboard a 747 and flying off? Let’s face it, the POTUS travels in an even less environmentally friendly way than Al Gore, which isn’t easy. Not that it could or should be changed, but the irony about all those political leaders coming together on their jets and discussing climate change is pretty rich.
Bush is awesome…. What a glorious way to end a pointless G8 meeting catered to the socialist green lobby!
Man, I am going to miss GWB a lot…. Like previous poster said, his sucessor will be a big wimp in comparion.
How much CO2 has the raging Californian fire emitted to pollute and warm up the earth? How much does Arnold have to pay Gore in his carbon trading scheme?
The president is more environmentally conscious than the press will tell you. Check out his Pacific rim deal
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=080305E
Climate change was not the only topic discussed.
I refuse to yield to the Chicoms so I’m going to barbeque every day for the rest of this year!
At our blog we call it Deleterious Anthropogenic Warming of the Globe. or DAWG.
Other than Samizdata, however, the war is lost. All THE EU countries have placed carbon output over prosperity, and — as mentioned colorfully — both the major party candidates for President in the US “believe.”
State control of all industry will ensue — and people think the deniers are crazy.
jk,
You need to read Vita’s TCS link above. It’s an even bigger gesture towards the UN and the EU.
Midwesterner,
The music you like on Jack Horkheimer’s show is actually part of an album of synthesized Debussy pieces called “Snowflakes are Dancing” by the Japanese synthesizer pioneer Isao Tomita. It came out in 1974 and was a bestseller among all classical albums at the time. He’s produced a string of synthesized classical albums since, each showing his pioneering efforts in giving soul and colorful textures to electronic sounds.
Horkheimer’s Starhustler show has been a staple on the PBS stations that I grew up on and like you I was always fascinated by the musical theme. In addition to the Arabesque suite, Tomita’s take on “Claire de Lune” is quite moving.
Yes, well be that as it may
Whatever happened to Terry Riley
and
Tontos Expanding Headband
I say…
You, and anyone else with the slightest knowledge of physics and/or statistics.
The real-world equivalent is believing that if one of your wheel nuts is loosened by less than a tenth of a millimeter, then your car will suddenly lose a wheel and crash into a ditch.
And that’s a massive exaggeration of the scale.
What? Me worry? About climate change? No way! It’s a damned asteroid what gonna get us first. I double-dog guarantee it!
Hey, have I ever lied to you?
I am not proposing anything. I am just not denying that Man can and has changed the climate.
Sigh
I think the Argentinians may have inadvertently spurred a whole new arena of weapons R&D in the Hamas with that cow concept.
Bush may not have been the penny pincher I would have liked but I think history will remember him kindly for getting the big decision right.
I also think the aptly named Bush Derangement Syndrome says a lot about where our increasingly frivolous civilisation is heading.
Where will the neurotic left get their simplistic world view once he’s gone?
As I am fond of pointing out……
James Lovelock (the father of the British environmental movement) has a simple test to see whether someone is really concerned about CO2 emissions – or is just striking a radical chic pose.
“Are you in favour of atomic power?”
When I see Comrade Speaker Nancy Pelosi (and so on) demanding an end to the regulations that make building new nuclear power stations in the United States – then I will believe that they are concerned about C02.
Until then there refusal to allow new oil drilling is just a mixture of hatred for the United States (as importing oil causes just as much “environmental harm” as drilling for oil or oil shale in the United States) and the power trip they get by being able to say.
“We hold power – we will not even let you have a vote on the matter, we will blame high fuel prices on Bush and the media will act as our echo chamber”.
Where will the neurotic left get their simplistic world view once he’s gone?
When their current bogeyman is no longer viable, they will invent another.
Probably McCain, if he wins the election. I dunno who it will be if Obama wins.
Seriously, I have real trouble believing that a little human produced CO2 can make such a difference in a world with volcanoes and sunspots.
Yes, volcanoes can affect the climate – incidentally the much derided climate models did a good job predicting the effect of the Pinatubo eruption on the climate.
Also, if the Sun increases/decreases its intensity this will affect the climate – but observations show that the Sun’s output has been roughly constant for the last few decades.
And, actually, CO2 absorbs radiation in the infrared part of the spectrum that is emitted by the Earth. More CO2 leads to less IR escaping, and so the Earth warms up.
It’s very basic physics.
What we do about it is complicated politics, and there is much to quibble with in certain programmes of action proposed. We would be far better off if we did do something successful about it, though.
CO2 absorbs IR is fundamental physics, but weather and climate are not. Weather is a chaotic, dynamic, and fundamentally unpredictable system; climate is weather on steroids. Your basic premise seems to be: CO2 absorbs IR; trapped IR increases temperature; humans emit CO2; therefore humans are responsible for global warming and we should do something about it. QED. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. That is linear thinking, and climate is inherently nonlinear.
Even assuming arguendo that the earth is now warming (that is not proven, since historical measurements aren’t very accurate or comprehensive, but since it has happened naturally many times in the past I’m sure it will again sometime), there are many other “greenhouse gasses” besides CO2, and there are many sources of CO2 other than human activity, some of which drarf our puny efforts. The bottom line is that I have zero confidence in the climate-prediction models of these doom-hucksters, and am not prepared to inflict serious damage on our economy on what is at best rank speculation. (It’s also not shown that a warmer Earth would be a bad thing; in fact, I think the opposite is true.) The AGW theory is high-grade hubris. I am uninterested in “quibbling” about specific programs before it is proven that action is actually required, and the programs offered would have more than a de minimis effect.