On This Date in Bush History 12/4: In Denial

2005: The world’s nations are together in Montreal today. A conference to discuss the problem of global warming is well under way. Michael Oppenheimer of Princeton University calls this time “the critical decade” for dealing with climate change, while there still is time to make a difference. “We do have a little time, but not much ... If we don’t get a serious program in place for the long term ... we will simply not make it and we will be crossing limits which will basically produce impacts that are unacceptable”, Oppenheimer says.

Given the importance of the topic, and the gathering of so many nations to discuss it, the Bush administration decides to send no one. Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change is quoted in the Washington Post as saying, “Most people are ready to take the dialogue forward. The only place where that is not the case is the [Bush] administration”.

U.S. companies also send representatives to the gathering, despite President Bush’s apparent desire that everyone stick their heads in the sand and pretend that climate change is not happening. Dennis Canavan of Johnson & Johnson is quoted in the Washington Post, saying: “We feel climate change is very real”. Despite his company having grown by a factor of four since 1990, it has been able to cut its greenhouse emissions by 3.1 percent during this time. Johnson & Johnson: moving forward on dealing with climate change. The Bush administraiont: not so much.

“We want them to know how to teach the science of reading. In order to make sure there’s not this kind of federal—federal cufflink.” George W. Bush, speaking about education, March 30th 2000

Also on this date, Laura Bush makes Christmas gift book recommendations ("Poor George’s Almanac” is not among them). Read more in the 2008 Calendar/Day Planner/Stocking Stuffer: http://www.PoorGeorgesAlmanac.com/onThisDate.htm