From the NYT:
In a stark shift for the Bush administration, the United States has
sent a climate report to the United Nations detailing specific and
far-reaching effects that it says global warming will inflict on the
American environment.
In the report, the administration for the
first time mostly blames human actions for recent global warming. It
says the main culprit is the burning of fossil fuels that send
heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
But while
the report says the United States will be substantially changed in the
next few decades -- ''very likely'' seeing the disruption of snow-fed
water supplies, more stifling heat waves and the permanent
disappearance of Rocky Mountain meadows and coastal marshes, for
example -- it does not propose any major shift in the administration's
policy on greenhouse gases.
It recommends adapting to inevitable changes. (!)
Didn't anyone in the Bush administration read the story of the ant and the grasshopper? (Short version: The grasshopper doesn't plan ahead for winter, and it dies.)
Wow. It's good Bush has finally come around to the whole climate change thing. And, considering the outcome of the administration's "proactive" response to Iraq, I can understand their hesitation about responding aggressively to the threat of climate change even if doing so might slow global environmental damage. Wouldn't want to get in over their heads. Not again. Could be a trick.
The polar bears...could be...faking...